Immanuel Lutheran College is a K-12 co-educational school located in Buderim, Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1979, Immanuel is the longest established independent school on the Sunshine Coast. Lee Bond, (ILC eLearning Curriculum Coordinator/QSITE Board), spoke to David Bliss, (College Principal), who outlined a long history of accomplishments and exciting developments at ILC.

Immanuel Lutheran College has a history of successful technological innovation which has resulted in a legacy of infrastructure and passionate, skilled staff. We have several staff who are technological innovators, each highly experienced in the implementation of major projects. This has been acknowledged by the receipt of two national awards by ILC staff (Microsoft Innovative Teacher Award, 2005 and the Texas Instruments Professional Development Scholarship, 2004). Several staff have presented papers at state, national and international conferences. These include - ConSTAQ, 2003, 2004, 2005; Australian Computers in Education Conferences, 2006, 2008; Australian Association of Researchers in Education International Conference, 2008; Microsoft Middle East Conference (Dubai) 2006.  

Amidst the celebrations of proudly serving the Sunshine Coast for 30 years, the College has again set a focus on capital renewal of facilities to complement the design and delivery of advanced, technology-rich curriculum.  Immanuel’s commitment to incorporate superior technologies into learning programs for the advancement of student outcomes is widely regarded.  Recently, in recognition of its extensive and innovative programs, particularly in the areas of Mathematics and Science, the College was delighted to be informed that it is one of only three schools in Australia, and the only one in Queensland, to receive a Hewlett-Packard Innovations in Education Program Grant, open to schools across the world, valued at $178 000.

The award includes a class set of HP EliteBook 2730p Tablet Notebooks, supporting hardware and HP training. The grant will be used to strategically roll-out Tablet computers in targeted areas of all Science disciplines, Mathematics, Information Technology and Engineering Technology.  The project is called Tablets – The Smart Medicine for Teaching and Learning, with the grant covering expenditure on HP technology, professional and leadership development.  The Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering subjects mandate an emphasis on extended experimental work, project work and research tasks.  Students are expected to use a variety of technologies to complete these tasks and ILC has been an early adopter of new technologies to facilitate this (for example - electronic data loggers, Logger Pro-motion analysis software and virtual experimentation).  It is difficult to ascertain whether the students or their teachers are more excited.  “This is a wonderful affirmation of the aptitudes of our students and the professional determination of their teachers”. 

Immanuel College serves students of all abilities.  Within this philosophy, it has a proud history of producing students who undertake tertiary study in medicine and engineering, as evidenced by the fact that 27 graduates from the past two years have entered into degrees centred on applied science and engineering, including five into medicine.  Several have been awarded tertiary scholarships and as graduates earned university medals and accelerated workplace entry into careers such as a coronial work, podiatry and aeronautical engineering.  Destination surveys indicate that many of these Old Scholars attribute a large part of their academic and vocational success to their Immanuel education.

Technology in the Tropics: 3 Phase Powered eLearning is a one day mini-conference highlighting current innovations and happenings within eLearning. The day will be of interest to staff from all levels of schooling and all educational roles- including Administrators, Classroom and Specialist Teachers, Teacher Aides, Technology Managers etc....
Conducted by the Queensland Society for Information Technology in Education (QSITE - Far North Chapter), the day will feature keynote speakers, many elective breakout sessions, a trade display, prize draws, morning tea and lunch and a conference pack.
Registration is now open. The venue this year is the Cairns Campus of James Cook University.
We look forward to networking with you on this pupil free day, Monday July 12th 2010.
Further details contact Mark Holland (Chapter Chair- QSITE FNQ) mholl45@eq.edu.au

To Register: http://www.learningplace.com.au/events/showitem.asp?eid=4829

National Technology Leadership Summit: Connecting TPACK and NETS via Research, Policy, and Practice

The TPACK Framework

To help us understand how technology fits within good teaching.

Relating TPACK to the NETS*T

and NET*S - these are what can be the desrciption in the centre.

http://punya.edu.msu.edu/research/tpck

Handbook of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) for educators 

Putting the theory into practice 

At a summit, which brought together representated different professional associations, they looked at linking digital video with pedagogical goalds in different content areas.  

The example shared in the NECC session was with the egg in the bottle experiment - using digital video and graphing as the technology. 

TPACK and Legislation

This framework implies that the regime of testing and structured teaching of content is not an effective provision of learning. Policy needs to expand the notion of what it is important to measure. Associations have different perspectives on issues and it is difficult to get a concise voice to government in order to influence and create policy - they will respond to educational groups unless we have the same vision (and consistent jargon). It is also important to understand how we differ.

I wonder how much of this is true also in an Australian context? I think we are a bit luckier in terms of the connections that we already have between professional associations (eg. through JCQTA) but we could always do more. Also the fact that our government is not as reliatant on national testing as the main measurement of learning (well not YET).

Professional Associations and TPACK

There was an interesting discussion about how to embed the idea of TPACK across different content areas through publications and conferences of content (aka discpline) professional associations. Perhaps there is something that QSITE can take from this with regards to how we collaborate with other professional associations to challenge practice and inspire meaningful ICT infused learning.

Some Reflections

Comparing this session with the last one - I think that while a useful way of thinking about the interactions of pedagogy, technology and content knowledge it's perhaps not as useful as the UBD (Understanding by Design) processes from a planning point of view. The differeniating between the elements of technology, pedagogy and content may mean it is more likely for these areas to be thought of in a separate rather than an embedded way. Although... maybe these element are part of what is considered after already building the goals, understandings and essential questions.