From the 'deserts of Western Australia to everywhere in between', Red Dirt Robotics is shaping the next generation of engineers

Trial and error: it's a simple but frustrating strategy. If you ask Jameson Harvey, however, it's all part of the process. "There's always lots of lots of problem-solving that you have to do when you're working on robots," he laughs.

<https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-08/red-dirt-robotics-regional-remote-engineers-stem/100964122>

CSIRO and Microsoft Australia launch Microsoft FarmBeats to encourage digital agriculture among students

CSIRO and Microsoft Australia have collaborated to launch a STEM education initiative that will see students witness the future of farming, exposing them to concepts like cloud computing and data and artificial intelligence.

<https://itwire.com/it-industry-news/strategy/csiro-and-microsoft-australia-launch-microsoft-farmbeats-to-encourage-digital-agriculture-among-students.html>

All Australian schools to sit NAPLAN online for the first time

More than 1 million students will sit NAPLAN tests this week – and for the first time, all except one must be completed online.

<https://www.smh.com.au/national/all-australian-schools-to-sit-naplan-online-for-the-first-time-20220506-p5aj3i.html>

Digital Technologies Hub

Find resources to help teachers, students and families learn about Digital Technologies.

<https://www.digitaltechnologieshub.edu.au/> 

Industry Insights: lesson plan

This resource is designed to help subject teachers build their students' career development awareness and is aligned to the Australian Curriculum and relates to an Australian Curriculum learning area. To be used in conjunction with the Industry Insight webinar recording in a classroom setting, this suggested activity will help teachers and career practitioners generate classroom discussion and activity and help maximise class time using the most relevant parts of the webinar video. Designed to introduce students to one of the 19 industries (derived from the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC). Students can hear from professionals currently working in the industry who are at various stages of their career.

<https://myfuture.edu.au/assist-others/industry-insights-lesson-plans>

Future schooling – education in the metaverse

‘The metaverse is upon us. Soon it will be as omnipresent as TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook (now Meta).’ So reads the first line of a new Policy Brief exploring the potential of the metaverse to enhance teaching and learning in the future, and why we need to start planning for it now.

<https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/future-schooling-education-in-the-metaverse>

Federal Election 2022: How do we fix Australia’s education system? Join our online roundtable debate

Australia’s global education rankings are sliding, teachers have been accused of not being capable and there are concerns over the lack of funding for public students. A new curriculum has been unveiled to a mixed response, while the row over equity and quality in the sector is still ongoing 10 years after the Gonski report, which was meant to solve the issues, was released.

<https://www.news.com.au/national/federal-election/federal-election-2022-how-do-we-fix-australias-education-system-join-our-online-roundtable-debate/news-story/7d92aab5a297f3c1ea9a6f6897150734>

Student participation in higher maths drops below 10%

New research from the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers shows the percentage of students who take higher maths has fallen below 10% for the first time, with only one-third of those students being female.

<https://www.educationmattersmag.com.au/student-participation-in-higher-maths-drops-below-10/>

Teacher and school leader curriculum survey

Grattan Institute is running a survey on high-quality curriculum resources and teachers’ workloads.

<https://grattan.edu.au/news/teacher-and-school-leader-curriculum-survey/>

State’s best teachers to help shape education plans

Some of the best teachers in NSW have met at Parliament House to share ideas on improving learning outcomes for students, cutting red tape and increasing the time and resources teachers have to deliver the best education for students.

<https://education.nsw.gov.au/news/latest-news/state-s-best-teachers-to-help-shape-education-plans>

Trailblazing principals to help drive excellence

Principals from 10 leading NSW public schools met for the first time yesterday as part of a ground-breaking advisory group to help drive school excellence and improvement across the state.

<https://education.nsw.gov.au/news/latest-news/trailblazing-principals-to-help-drive-excellence>

NSW premier, teachers meet to share ideas

More administrative school staff, less paper work for teachers and sharing resources between public and private schools have been discussed by a group of teachers advising the NSW government.

<https://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/7735309/nsw-premier-teachers-meet-to-share-ideas/>

Bridging Technology and Education with Campus UNESCO

Campus UNESCO is an ongoing program that gives young people aged 14 to 18 the chance to share views with experts from UNESCO and civil society. The topics discussed in each 90-minute session are linked to major UNESCO themes such as education, artificial intelligence, sustainable development, gender equality, and citizenship.

<https://www.huawei.com/en/tech4all/stories/bridging-technology-education-campus-unesco>

Developing Children's Digital Literacy by Storybooks

Abstract: Growing tendency of children in using digital technologies, as well as Coronavirus crisis has forced families to live in new condition and may threaten their children’s health and development. So, there is essential need to investigate different methods of children’s digital literacy training. This paper has used qualitative content analysis to study some Persian and English storybooks based on socio-cultural approach. The process of analysis has been done according to inductive procedure and around different aspects of dealing with digital technologies: (1) the child’s behavior, (2) the child’s personal network, and (3) behaviors of child’s peripheral actors. Findings show that stories describe various behaviors of children in face of technologies: passion and trust in using digital technologies; secret use and vulnerability of them; regret and embarrassment; being tired of technology and tendency to alternatives; thinking, challenge and discussion about online information; collaborating with real and online individuals in using technologies; trust in books versus Internet; and learning digital literacy. Also, the peripheral individuals such as parents, siblings, relatives, peers, educational system, and social actors show different behaviors in relation with children and learning digital technologies.

<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4098527>

Bett Asia 2022 Roadshow

Bangkok, Wednesday 27 April 2022: Bett, the global community for education technology, held the Bett Asia Roadshow at The Athenee Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. After three years, Bett is proud to present the in-person return of Bett Asia. Following the tremendous success of the 2019 show, Bett Asia is now looking forward to its 2022 edition – moving from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok for Bett Asia’s first event in Thailand.

<https://www.bettshow.com/bett-articles/bett-asia-2022-roadshow>

The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens, 2021

March 2022 marks two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we're starting to see a fuller picture of how the last two years have affected everything from the economy and health care to education and mental health. For parents, caregivers, educators, and even policymakers across the country, kids' media use has been a central issue in this conversation.

<https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/the-common-sense-census-media-use-by-tweens-and-teens-2021>

Game-Based Learning Prepares K–12 Students for a Digital Future

Through culturally relevant themes and virtual interactions, students learn to explore the world, their social relationships and how games work.

<https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2022/05/game-based-learning-prepares-k-12-students-digital-future>

Pacific Science Center Receives $1 Million Amazon Future Engineer Grant to Deliver Science and Technology Education to Students from Underserved Communities

Pacific Science Center (PacSci) and Amazon Future Engineer today announced a new collaboration, fueled by a $1 million grant from Amazon, to spark curiosity in tens of thousands of students from underserved and historically underrepresented communities in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields through free interactive science education programs. The effort builds on continued initiatives by each organization to reach more students from Title I schools – those with 40% or more of the student population classified as low-income – and provides a critical next step in PacSci’s ultimate vision: providing every K-8 student in the state with supplemental STEM curriculum at no cost.

<https://www.pacificsciencecenter.org/blog/news/pacsci-receives-amazon-future-engineer-grant/>