Publications

IMPACT: Anticipating a new era in secondary education

IMPACT is a preliminary and personal reflection on contemporary learning opportunities.

IMPACT is a preliminary and personal reflection on contemporary learning opportunities.

If there is one lesson we can take away from the Pandemic, it’s the importance of looking ahead. And not just “looking ahead”, but “feeling ahead”, imagining experiences of change before it happens (Cuttica, as cited in McGonigal, 2022).

The evolution of the IMPACT model is rooted in personal reflection from my experiences as a teacher, a technician, and a parent of four teenagers who are currently charting their own futures. It is a model shaped by the practical realities of guiding young minds, both in the classroom and at home. IDEAS is not a fixed framework; it remains open and adaptive, aligning with the holistic care schools provide, ensuring the well-being of students while preparing them for the complexities of life beyond formal education.

#Ideas, #mastery, #personalise, #agile, #change, #thinking, #AI

  • IDEAS focuses on exploration of emerging fields through systems thinking enquiry. Seeking out curious comparisons in various systems to expose clues and hints into new niches and less-explored areas. For example, leverage circular economy principles to create high-value products from waste-as-base materials like fabrics, chopsticks, and plastics as resource pools. Or, gamification of energy and water conservation e.g. gamify a household energy and water use app, rewarding individuals for reducing their environmental footprint as “champions of change,”. Consider grey water harvesting for homes and workplaces by collecting leftover water in drinking glasses, hand washing, and more.
  • MASTERY for future-capable skills (critical thinking, social/emotional intelligence, building resilience, design thinking, human-centred design, adaptability, and proficiency in advanced technologies like AI) to essentially equip student readiness for evolving industries. Strategically incorporating the teaching of mental well-being for balanced and responsible social media use e.g. networking, safety-digital-footprint, personal branding, the prevalence of burnout, and professional growth in a tech-driven world.
  • PERSONALISED mentorship and career guidance tailored to help students shape their professional paths through real-world advice and insights. Building strong professional networks enables collaboration, mentorship, and career truths.
  • AGILE whole-school, cross-disciplinary approaches for students to take genuine ownership of their learning through individual/group quests to assist in engagement and reduced assessment. *If you are a Head of Department, ask other HoDs what context they’re currently covering. You will be surprised how easy your contexts can align and be merged in to combined junior assessments.
  • CHANGE knowledge to equip students to navigate and implement change in dynamic environments by integrating AI responsibly. Teaching practices that evolve through nuanced assessment methods that transparently incorporate AI, ensuring students use technology ethically while upholding academic integrity. Building a sense of purpose and emotional resilience in managing change and technological advancement.
  • THINKING entrepreneurially about interdisciplinarities through a lens of closed-loop and circular economics modelling e.g. starting with waste to up cycle new products, services and systems. Get students to research #yicte, #preciousplastics, #SeljakBrand, #chopvalue (#recyledchopsticks), #fivemileradius. Consider using forecasting techniques inspired by “dreaming” similar to AI’s noise injections to enhance learning (Sejnowski, 2023), to imagine multiple future scenarios.

Technologies in schools have historically been adopted and integrated gradually over time. However, the arrival of AI has disrupted this pattern, presenting both enormous opportunities and significant challenges. As we navigate the AI landscape, it is essential to be swift but judicious in our approach, using discernment in how AI is integrated into education. We need to harness AI’s potential while being mindful of ethical considerations, upholding academic integrity, and preserving the authenticity of the learning process.

According to Sam Altman, we are entering the Intelligence Age, where AI amplifies human potential, accelerating learning and creativity. Through creative teaching practices that employ nuanced assessment design and transparently integrate AI, the students’ toolkit stretches further. Smart integration of AI can speed up processing, new proficiencies, and improved systems thinking to scope out creative ideas.

Like all new technologies, we need to learn how to best utilise its advantages and understand its disadvantages. All technology comes with its pros, affects and cons — whether related to physical components, technical challenges, costs, redundancies, mechanical issues, or utility. AI can assist students in logical reasoning and locating bugs in their projects. Our pedagogical approaches need to shift to leverage AI for speeding up problem-solving and prototyping in design and digital technologies. Self-paced learning for tomorrow’s young entrepreneurs is literally at their fingertips. While social media, MOOCs, LMSs, and the internet have paved the way, AI has significantly ramped up the game. Our current perspectives on AI will affect how well we are prepared.

Schools have long struggled to keep education syllabi and traditional academic structures aligned with rapidly advancing technological industries, but this challenge has become even more urgent with the rise of AI and the shifting demands of the workforce. Rapid technological advancements have outpaced curriculum updates, leaving students unprepared for a dynamic job market.

A major challenge facing education today is the impact of traditional testing and assessment methods, coupled with the growing difficulty in maintaining the authenticity of students’ work. As a result, the QCAA has updated its QCE eligibility requirements, requiring students to complete the Academic Integrity course to uphold academic honesty. In 2024, education stands at a critical juncture, demanding a comprehensive overhaul.

In Mathew Esterman’s book The Next Word: AI and Teachers, the chapter titled “Cheating Well” interrogates how AI tools, like ChatGPT, have redefined traditional notions of academic dishonesty. The focus isn’t merely on condemning the use of AI for cheating, but rather on how educators can guide students to use these technologies ethically and effectively.

Esterman (2024) advocates for more nuanced assessments and teaching methods that integrate AI usage transparently, challenging both students and teachers to explore the productive potential of these tools. He highlights the need for process-based assessments that are inherently resistant to unethical shortcuts, offering practical strategies for fostering originality and deeper understanding in students. Rather than avoiding AI, “cheating well” is about leveraging it within an ethical framework that enhances education.

With over 25 years in secondary education, I’ve witnessed firsthand the shifting landscape of how we prepare students for their futures. In 2024, we find ourselves at a pivotal moment where the focus on test preparation no longer aligns with the modern world’s demands. Today’s careers require critical thinking, social/emotional intelligence, building resilience, design thinking, adaptability, and proficiency in advanced technologies like AI — skills that are difficult to measure through traditional tests. While AI tools have enhanced learning by personalising instruction and improving engagement, the accessibility of AI-generated content also raises new challenges around academic integrity. As educators, we must now balance fostering authentic student understanding with the opportunities and risks AI presents.

This shift necessitates rethinking both assessment methods and what is being assessed, as traditional approaches may no longer capture a student’s full capabilities in an AI-driven landscape. Striking a balance between these opportunities and challenges is essential for leveraging AI’s potential while maintaining the authenticity of the educational experience.

Many young people are bypassing formal academic pathways, instead opting for self-directed learning and leveraging powerful technical systems, including AI, to shape their futures in the algorithm-driven economy (Facer, 2011). They’re building personal brands on social media platforms, collaborating with influencers and industry experts to showcase their skills, products, or services. AI-powered algorithms on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok enable these young entrepreneurs to optimise their content, reach targeted audiences, predict trends, and secure sponsorships, freelance gigs, or launch startups.

Additionally, they are becoming adept at using tools like CapCut for video editing, AI systems like Vizcom.ai for 2D/3D design rendering, and AI-powered tools to find logic errors in code. They also understand SEO data, navigate Google Ads processing, and analyse differences between pixel data and analytics, enabling them to refine their marketing strategies and maximise their online presence. I am observing teenagers building their own AI agents, integrating Python programming, Google Search Console API, Power Automate and GPT4 to run systems that are literally making many pre-AI folk redundant (These approaches to automating and utilising systems is changing each week).

On this, the World Economic Forum estimates that, by 2025, 50% of all employees will need reskilling due to adopting new technology. Five years from now, over two-thirds of skills considered important in today’s job requirements will change. A third of the essential skills in 2025 will consist of technology competencies not yet regarded as crucial to today’s job requirements (cited in Li, 2022).

While platforms like Zoom and Teams have made remote work and homeschooling more preferable, there’s untapped potential in using these tools within the education sector. Beyond remote collaboration, schools can integrate these platforms for virtual mentorship, industry partnerships, and real-time project-based learning, making global connections and breaking down geographical barriers.

While the human aspect of teacher-student interaction is vital for emotional connection, mentorship, and social learning, AI-powered digital tutors offer complementary benefits. They can provide personalized learning pathways, instant feedback, and data-driven insights that enhance student engagement and reduce learning gaps, as Fullan (2013) highlights. The debate centers around integrating AI tools to support, rather than replace, human teachers, allowing educators to focus more on relationship-building and critical thinking while leveraging technology for adaptive learning.

Professor Ruth Bridgstock’s (also see Future Capable) concept of the “key-shaped professional” remains highly relevant, especially as we emphasise niche idea generation and mastery of future-capable skills. This model highlights the importance of students developing deep expertise and passion in a specific area (the stem of the key) while also cultivating broader, transferable skills (the teeth of the key) that enable them to adapt across industries (Bridgstock, 2009). Micro-credentialing, supported by AI-driven platforms that personalise learning paths, plays a crucial role in this approach, offering students certifications in specialised skills that are increasingly valued by industries (Gallagher, 2016).

Dean Ashenden’s concept in Unbeaching the Whale, which critiques the entrenched, immobile structures of formal education, perfectly aligns with the transformative goals of the IMPACT model. Ashenden likens the traditional education system to a beached whale — massive, outdated, and struggling to adapt to a rapidly changing world.

I believe we are witnessing the most significant shake-up needed in our standardised secondary education system. While foundational literacy and numeracy remain essential to empower students to think critically, communicate effectively, and adapt to new challenges. These core competencies, combined with a commitment to lifelong learning, ethical decision-making, and inclusive collaboration, are key for students to genuinely contribute, challenge the status quo, and progress in society. But, can we accelerate this learning through niche micro-certifications and self-directed, future-ready skills, all while navigating a rapidly evolving technological landscape? Alongside the ongoing affects of COVID, the growing influence of cyber media, and the psychological and physical challenges stemming from the rising cost of living, education mandates, and increased anxieties.

REFERENCES

Ashenden, D. (2022). Unbeaching the whale: Reforming the Australian education system. Monash University Publishing.

Billett, S. (2011). Workplace learning: Where it is, what it is and what it could be. Human Resource Development International, 14(1), 101–116.

Bridgstock, R. (2009). The graduate attributes we’ve overlooked: Enhancing graduate employability through career management skills. Higher Education Research & Development, 28(1), 31–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360802444347

Collins, A., & Halverson, R. (2018). Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology: The Digital Revolution and Schooling in America. Teachers College Press.

Dede, C. (2014). The Role of Digital Technologies in Deeper Learning. Jobs for the Future.

Esterman, M., & Jackson, N. (2024). The next word: AI and teachers. Publisher unkown.

Facer, K. (2011). Learning Futures: Education, Technology and Social Change. Routledge.

Fullan, M. (2013). Stratosphere: Integrating technology, pedagogy, and change knowledge. Pearson.

Gallagher, S. R. (2016). The Future of University Credentials: New Developments at the Intersection of Higher Education and Hiring. Harvard Education Press.

Li, L. Reskilling and Upskilling the Future-ready Workforce for Industry 4.0 and Beyond. Inf Syst Front (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-022-10308-y

Sanders, E. B. N., & Stappers, P. J. (2008). Co-creation and the new landscapes of design. CoDesign, 4(1), 5–18.

Schwab, K. (2017). The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Crown Business.

Reflections—The State of Digital Design: Celebrating 33 Years of the World Wide Web

The World Wide Web (WWW) has been a transformative force for 33 years, driving innovation and connecting the world in unprecedented ways. However, despite its rapid evolution and technological advances, the WWW still grapples with significant design challenges. Many digital services and products remain unintuitive and unreliable, leading to issues with accessibility, safety, and inclusion (particularly for older adults and individuals with impairments). Innovators and futurists see this as an opportunity to address fundamental human needs through thoughtful redesigns to future-proof the ubiquitous technology.

We all know that the Internet has become an indispensable part of modern life, with its impact only amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic. Technologies like Zoom and FaceTime became essential tools for maintaining connection, demonstrating how resilient digital systems can be under pressure. However, continuous efforts are required to address security vulnerabilities, standardise protocols, enhance accessibility, and improve performance to create a safer, more reliable, and inclusive web. More

Testing QCAA’s ISMGs using #JavaScript for #Adobe #Acrobat #digital #ismgs

In today’s fast-paced educational landscape, teachers are juggling increasing workloads, leaving little time for in-depth student engagement. A solution that streamlines the marking process can significantly improve efficiency, accuracy, and data management, freeing up valuable time for teachers to focus on what truly matters—student development. This innovative system offers a powerful way to simplify assessments while ensuring seamless data integration, benefiting both teachers and school leaders alike.

Value Propositions:

  1. Time-Saving Efficiency: Drastically reduce the time spent on marking, allowing teachers to dedicate more attention to personalized teaching and lesson preparation.
  2. Enhanced Accuracy: Eliminate accidental teacher error with automated marking systems that ensure consistent and precise feedback for all students.
  3. Seamless Data Integration: Automatically sync assessment results with school databases, saving time and minimizing duplication of effort when entering student performance data.
  4. Improved Quality of Feedback: By automating repetitive tasks, teachers can focus on providing more meaningful and targeted feedback to students, enriching the learning experience.
  5. Scalable Solution: Designed to meet the needs of schools of all sizes, this system can easily scale to accommodate larger student populations and a variety of assessment types.
  6. User-Friendly Interface: Intuitive and easy to use, this system requires minimal training, allowing teachers to adopt it quickly without disrupting their existing workflows.
  7. Long-Term Cost Savings: By streamlining the marking process, schools can see long-term reductions in teacher burnout and turnover, leading to lower costs in staff management and retention.

Example of how to automate a senior #ISMGs marking process. 

Reflective commentary from 2009 “The networked student and the learning landscape”

Connectivism and networked learning have emerged as new learning paradigms that reflect the ability of today’s learner to access endless sources of information, build relationships with others, and collaborate and develop knowledge, all often done outside the formal education environment, on a scale not seen before (Siemens, 2005; Blackall, 2007; as cited in Kligyte, 2009, p. 540).

What can games teach us about educational practice?

Video games have been the topic of debate for years. From their association with behavioural addiction to their influence on social engagement, the popularity of gaming among young people is to say the least, contentious. However, removing ourselves from the pros and cons of actual gaming, it can be productive to explore how some of the non-digital techniques—for example, storytelling and character development—are employed by developers to engage players, both young and old. Perhaps an understanding the efficacies of these techniques can be used in the classroom, to better engage students and inspire learning? By analysing the extraordinary immersive appeal of games we can potentially expand on our pedagogical views for how to creatively engage students in thinking and learning.

When push comes to pull: cultivating entrepreneurial learning

Last month, the Foundation for Young Australians (FYA) released The New Work Smarts report that revealed growing concerns about young Australians not being adequately prepared for their futures.

While it is impossible to forecast where tomorrow’s technology and its concomitant skills demand will lead the next generation, we do know that globalisation, flexibility, automation and robotics will have more influence over determining how jobs are performed, and what jobs are required into the future  (FYA, 2017).

Optimistic superseders

If Australia is serious about kick-starting its lagging productivity growth and exports, and weaning itself off the mining boom, it must ignite and amplify a genuine interest and optimism in a new generation of design thinkers by not eradicating our children’s natural predisposition to experiment and create (Brown, 2009). We also need to train the best and brightest teachers to nurture a new generation of start-up entrepreneurs and innovators with much better access to specialist education and funding.

Young designers: future creators

Think back to the time when you were a child immersed in imaginary play; your open mind brilliantly poised and receptive to possibilities and endless adventures: a world more colourful than anything packaged or purchased. Your intrinsic creativity was limited only by your imagination. What you were doing was designing.

Games Programming – Sample assessment instrument and student response

This sample has been compiled by the QSA to help teachers plan and develop assessment instruments for individual school settings. The QSA acknowledges the contribution of Brisbane Girls Grammar School in the preparation of these documents. The samples presented are a series of extracts from a student response. The sample demonstrates the Standard A descriptors from the Knowledge and communication and Implementation and evaluation dimensions.

Training tomorrow’s technologist

The need for today’s students to be innovative, self-managing and change-ready to contend with the complexities and challenges of the future continues to gain attention from researchers, education authorities and industry leaders (MCEETYA, 2008; Seely Brown, 2011). While technology teaching in schools varies depending on the learning context, resourcing, and leadership, the ultimate goal should be to train our students for a world that we cannot even envisage. Fostering scholarship for tomorrow’s innovative and creative technologist requires a threefold quest: staying responsive to emerging technologies, understanding how to apply technology in educational contexts, and tailoring learning to suit our students’ personal expectations. more

Engineering digital careers for tomorrow’s cloud architecture (Republished) 

Transforming pedagogy to attune to today’s learners is complex and fraught with glitches. How do we nurture digital creativity and inventiveness if only basic operations of standard software are modelled and accepted? Digital media offers far more opportunities for new forms of creativity than producing a PowerPoint. The challenge is real and disconcerting in consideration of the research surrounding future careers based on 21st century skills. Industry leaders of global change and innovation play a key role in revamping our educational institutions processes and agendas.

Engineering digital careers for tomorrow’s world in the cloud

Academic pursuit through the study of technologies has an image problem and bears battle scars from the splendid mythology of its past. While young learners are happy to navigate in a buzz of digital confusion, will they be acquainted enough to be innovative with technology systems of the future?

Assistance with Floodlines learning notes for State Library of Queensland

Brendon assisted SLQ as part of the Learning Associates 2012 Program. Floodlines learning notes align with the Australian Curriculum in History, English, Science and Mathematics. These can be used to enhance students’ learning experiences pre-visit, whilst visiting Floodlines, and post-visit.

Games-based learning: creative steps to a digital future

Game-based learning continues to gain pace as a methodology for engaging young learners in today’s connected age. Integrating games programming into teaching and learning is consistent with current educational theorists and research emphasising the potential of digital games as a teaching and learning tool in today’s educational systems (Gee, 2003; Halverson, 2005; Horizon Report, 2011; Shaffer, 2006).

Digital education evolution (republished)

ICT devices provide many opportunities to enhance teaching and learning while also engaging and harnessing students’ creative talents and power. Students can seek additional support in learning through email, online forums, online classrooms, by watching vodcasts and listening to podcasts.

Designing and developing digital games: secondary education learning context

Senior secondary students studying the Queensland Studies Authority (QSA) elective, Information Technology Systems, have the option to choose games programming as an elective context for their project-based learning. Initially, the students research and analyse current literature and collaboratively evaluate a broad range of existing international educational games (also known as learning objects)

Barriers and facilitators to the adoption of tools for online pedagogy

As institutions and staff adopt new technologies to support online learning, a number of factors impacting the implementation and sustainability of these tools come into play. These include staff perceptions, cost effectiveness, type of support provided by the information and communication technology systems management and the institution’s strategic initiatives for supporting the implementation of these tools.

The networked student and the learning landscape

Networked learning supported by information and communication technology (ICT) is changing the learning landscape for governments, business, schools and tertiary institutions worldwide. ICT in today’s very social online environment is providing unprecedented opportunities for inquiry, contribution, collaboration and support.

Digital Education Evolution | pp 62

The October issue of Independence, the biannual publication of the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia, examined the integration of 1:1 computing in six best practice Australian schools including Brisbane Girls Grammar School.

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