Experience the Digital Education Revolution

by Dr. Evan Arthur / June 22, 2009

At present, schools do not have easy-to-use systems to connect learners with resources, tools and each other. In many cases, it is easier for teachers to provide information to students, set tasks and assess performance offline. The reality is that ICT applications do not often connect with each other and teachers and administrators are faced with unpredictable costs if they use technology to the maximum.
The Australian Government is investing $32.5 million over the next two years to supply students and teachers with online curriculum tools and resources that will enhance the capacity of the Digital Education Revolution to deliver world-class learning outcomes. Online curriculum tools and resources will be aligned with national curriculum that will be developed by 2010 and implemented by all states and territories from 2011. More information on the National Curriculum Board and the kindergarten to Year 12 curriculum can be found at www.ncb.org.au.
Online curriculum resources and tools aim to engage students and enable the creation of learning experiences that are meaningful, authentic and allow for the development of deep understanding. Key to providing such resources is their accessibility, discoverability and usability by teachers and students and their affordability by school authorities over time.
NIDAAG (a National Interoperability and Digital Architecture Advisory Group) will be established, and will provide advice on a range of frameworks to support online curriculum resources and digital architectures that aim to facilitate access to, and sharing of, affordable collaborative online curriculum resources and information cross ICT systems. Key issues that will be addressed include:

• how to identify individuals and allocate roles and privileges to them across heterogeneous identity management systems;
• how to persistently identify information;
• how to move data from one system to another; and
• how to ensure applications run in different systems.

A review of existing online curriculum resources and an analysis of gaps and needs in relation to available online curriculum resources is expected to be completed in early 2009. The review will also examine current arrangements for the provision of online resources as well as barriers and enablers to their use by teachers and students.

The importance of copyright

Copyright can be a major impediment to innovation in the use of technology in education. The very nature of online use requires the copying and communication of material all the time. Online, every student and every teacher is potentially a ‘publisher’. It is very difficult for individuals to understand the details of copyright law and what can and cannot be done online, let alone what certain things might cost. One option is to create large bodies of material which are copyright cleared in advance so teachers and students can use and manipulate them without facing uncertain costs and liabilities. As part of the online curriculum and tools initiative, a working group has been established to try to address copyright issues. Early areas of work identified to date are:

• exploring nationally agreed open or free copyright licensing regimes that all education sectors can access;
• minimizing copyright obstacles to implementing the Digital Education Revolution;
• investigating the range of new and emerging technologies being used in schools to identify and raise any legislative issues that may arise in their use; and
• enhancing and developing copyright knowledge in the education sectors including through technological solutions.  

Teaching challenges

Teacher pre-service education coverage of ICT issues is varied. A significant proportion of the teaching workforce is not engaged in integrating ICT into their teaching practice. Aligning the usefulness of technology to the intrinsic work practices of teachers to share and collaborate with each may improve uptake. This may include better tools that facilitate online engagement, particularly Web 2.0 tools.
The Australian Government is committing $11.25 million to ICT-related, school-based teacher professional development in 2009 through the AGQTP (Australian Government Quality Teacher Programme) and has started a process to deliver strategic advice for the ‘Teaching for the Digital Age’ initiative through the establishment of a cross-jurisdictional Teaching for the Digital Age Advisory Group. This advisory group has developed a work plan that will focus on the teacher professional development required to integrate ICT into pedagogical practice to meet students’ needs and harness the resources of the Digital Education Revolution.
To optimize improved education and training outcomes, the Digital Education Revolution is being rolled out in partnership with education authorities in all jurisdictions and educational sectors. This collaborative approach will ensure that Australia has the skills, curriculum materials and supporting systems and infrastructure in place to sustain and utilize the Australian Government’s investment in ICT and broadband capital effectively and innovatively.
—Dr. Evan Arthur is the Group Manager, Digital Education Group, Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. This article is based on his presentation to industry in October at the Australian Computers in Education Conference 2008 in Canberra.
*This story is from the April/May 2009 issue of Australia's Education Technology Solutions.