NEWS

DLTV is pleased to announce two keynote speakers for #DigiCon17.

Tony Brandenburg

Tony  is  an internationally recognized educator who has worked tirelessly for more than thirty five years in education and learning, with a focus on technology.  In 2010, he was made a Fellow of the Australian Council for Computers in Education (ACCE), recognizing his work in the field and is a life member of DLTV. At present, he is a freelance consultant with responsibility for several high profile global programs, focusing on professional learning, teacher standards and system change. He manages the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) global initiatives, the ISTE global outreach program and ISTE’s global education partnership and collaborators’ agenda, he is employed as a consultant to UNESCO and provides consultancy support to number of South East Asian and Middle Eastern Ministries of Education. He also provides advice and consultancy to several global non-for profit organizations. He has managed many large-scale projects including many education and technology projects for the Australian government.

His presentation, in story telling format, will look at the issues he confronts as he represents global organizations on the world stage.  His hope is that by sharing what he has experienced and learnt with UNESO, ISTE and other similar organizations, educators around the world will have a better understanding of what it is to be a truly global educator and, importantly, understand that all teachers have a global responsibility.

Bec Spink

Bec Spink, co-founder of Code the Future, will share her journey as a leader in educational technology and what brought her to start her own not for profit to help children code.

Bec Spink is an Assistant Principal at Aitken Creek Primary School in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia and has a Master of Education specialising in Knowledge Networks and Digital Innovation. In 2013 Bec was awarded the Victorian Department of Education and Training Education Excellence Award for Primary Teacher of the Year for outstanding contributions and dedication towards leading classroom innovation.

Bec is a co-founder of Code the Future (codefuture.org). An award winning not for profit organisation that connects schools and teachers with the technology industry to empower children to solve real world problems through learning to code.
Bec is a contemporary educator, leader and speaker, having presented at conferences and events both nationally and internationally. Bec continuously supports and advocates for the next wave of change in schools.

Follow #DigiCon17 on twitter to hear the announcement of two more keynotes in the coming weeks or check the digicon.vic.edu.au website.

The Australian Council for Computing in Education (ACCE) in conjunction with the Australian Computer Society (ACS) is pleased to announce that Eleni Kyritsis, of Firbank College Melbourne, has been judged as Educator of the Year.

Eleni is an enthusiastic and passionate educator who is currently teaching Year 6 who provides students with engaging and effective opportunities to learn through the authentic incorporation of technology in her classroom.

She was nominated for this award by Digital Learning and Teaching Victoria whose president, Mel Cashen commented:

“Eleni’s belief in the need to create a flexible and connected classroom is lived daily through the use of her personal blog, her Year 6 class blog, Twitter, Google Hangouts and Skype. In addition, she is an active advocate for the use of technology both within her school, and in the global community. She is constantly exploring new ideas that will assist teachers to integrate technology across all facets of the curriculum and to enable their students to share their learning locally and internationally.“

Eleni also leads professional learning days for schools across Victoria, Australia and New Zealand. She has taken on the role of mentor for the Google Certified Innovator program, inspiring and coaching her mentee to develop a project to impact positive change within education, and works at Australian Catholic University as a Tutor to empower pre-service teachers to be active, globally connected teachers when graduated.

“Eleni has presented at a broad variety of conferences as well as presenting and supporting teachers in various schools through both professional learning sessions and her regular planning, organisation and presentations on her monthly TeachTechPlay webshow.” said Martin Levins, President of ACCE, “She regularly writes articles for the Australian Council for Educational Leadership, Education Today, and other technology magazines around Australia.”

The award of Educator of the Year carries a $2 000 prize, kindly sponsored by the Australian Computer Society is to be used to further the awardee’s professional learning.

DLTV is excited to offer a 10% discount to all DLTV members for the National Future Schools conference and expo. To receive the discount code please email office@dltv.vic.edu.au with teh subject heading Future Schools Code.

The National FutureSchools Expo is for ALL Principals, teachers, K-12 executive teams, special needs coordinators, curriculum leaders, early childhood teachers and ICT managers/integrators.

Held at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre over 22- 24 March 2017€“ it is Australia'€™s largest schools focused event. With five masterclasses and conferences covering STEM, leadership, digital technologies, early years and special education, you are encouraged to bring your team/colleagues and maximise your school'€™s professional development investment.

Tomorrow Sport is an interactive Web 2.0 based online competition where small teams of students complete weekly challenges to gain a position on the Leaderboard (much like the AFL Ladder).

With a new look and feel, it’s heading this way in Term 2 and 3 in 2016.

Want to play? It’s free! The challenges are best suited to Years 5 and 6 and we’re heading towards challenges for Years 7 and 8 in 2017.

How do you Play?

• A teacher registers their class in teams (make sure there are no more than 5 students per team)
• Registrations will be checked, approved and a return notification will be sent
• Teams are logged in by the teacher
• The teacher elects a Captain of each team and provides them with login details. Captains will be responsible for downloading challenges and submitting responses
• Each team of students will create their own team name, designing team colours and will be given weekly challenges on the website, all with football related themes
• Each week for 6 weeks of Term 2 and Term 3, there will be a challenge shown on the website
• Teams complete activities that contribute to points
• Teams will compete for the highest placing on a score ladder – the Leaderboard
• Challenges submitted will be given a score out of 5 from their homeroom teacher and from a judging panel from DLTV and the AFL

Start implementing the Digital Technologies curriculum with Tomorrow Sport. Term 2 challenges starting April 11.

DigiCon, the annual DLTV conference has been launched again and this year we are proud to share the new conference website. http://digicon.vic.edu.au/.

The website has all your needs for the conference including the full schedule, presenter bios and presentation abstracts.

The Expressions of Interests for presentations is now open.

Melbourne Architect, Andrew Maynard was interviewed by ABC Radio National about the importance of play.

What role do games such as Lego and Minecraft play in developing creativity in both children and adults? Blueprint for Living examines the research and speaks to one architect who believes play and being playful make for more creative thinking.

Read more about the article here.