Minnis Journals

2019 (8) 21 October

Don't try to predict the future, hack it
Maybe we need to rethink the 'predict and position' future-proofing model.
Educators have always sought to set students up for success by teaching them the skills we think they’ll need. The problem is, none of us know how all the shifts we’re witnessing will settle or what further shifts they’ll trigger. Predicting the future is a hit and miss business. As Dan Gregory and Keiren Flanaghan point out in their book Forever Skills, "There's a reason futurists, social demographers and economists don't offer money back guarantees." Read more

Game on – first primary school esports league
Video games are definitely a thing with pro gamers garnering big money for their skills, it’s only natural that esports would interact with education at some stage and St Hilda’s on the Gold Coast is launching the country’s first primary inter school esports competition.
Daniel Martinez Coordinator of Innovation at the school saw the opportunity to kickstart an official Queensland Schools esports League after learning there was nothing like it on offer for school students across Queensland.
Mr Martinez said he secured instant interest from more than 15 schools around Queensland and had huge student interest and uptake. Read more

Lowanna College bulletproofs its data management
Schools are increasingly dependent on their IT infrastructure to deliver rich engaging lessons, that means a lot of data generated and a lot of data to be accessed and stored, the last thing you need is cloud problems and constant damage control.
Lowanna College educates around 1000 students from Years 7 to 12 and offers a holistic education with a diverse range of teaching methods. Resources and learning environment are about 95% virtualised.
Read more

Lego and Amazon contest – $100k in prizes to share
LEGO and Amazon Alexa have launched a new contest teachers can use as an in-class or afterschool activity using LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3. There are also generous prizes to be won.
The contest, which runs now through to the end of the year, challenges students to create voice-powered experiences. Students, who can work in groups of up to four, can compete by building a EV3 creation that interacts using the Alexa Gadgets Toolkit. Read more

Training for the next generation of techies
CompTIA, the trade association for the global technology industry and its Australia New Zealand (ANZ) Channel Community is launching an initiative to train and certify 3000 students in the fundamentals of technology.
Free courseware materials and certification exam vouchers will be made available to 3000 students age 25 and under in Australia and New Zealand. The goal is to have the students become certified in CompTIA IT Fundamentals, a pre-career professional certification that introduces them to basic technology knowledge and skills to help them decide if a career in tech is right for them.
Read more

New teaching telescope in Canberra
Young astronomers from across the Canberra region now have greater access to high-quality telescopes thanks to the expansion of a unique facility at The Australian National University’s (ANU) Mount Stromlo Observatory.
The McNamara-Saunders Astronomical Teaching Telescope 2 (MSATT 2) is designed for students in Years 9 to 12. Its construction follows the success of MSATT 1, completed in 2017.
Science teacher and MSATT manager Geoff McNamara came up with the idea while looking for ways to encourage his students to explore the mysteries of the universe. Read more

Machine learning catching contract cheating
Three in five university students who engage in contract cheating will be caught by markers using machine learning software, new academic research has found.
The research conducted by Associate Professors Phillip Dawson and Wendy Sutherland-Smith from Deakin University, in collaboration with Principal Product Manager Mark Ricksen from academic integrity solutions provider Turnitin, is the first of its kind into the potential promise of machine learning to address the problem of contract cheating. Contract cheating occurs when students outsource their assessed work to a third-party and submit it as their own. Read more