Student-Directed Learning 2008

Stimulating learning skills and ways of thinking for work, study and life in the 21st century is the aim of the new TQA course Student Directed Inquiry.

Thirty students have begun this course which involves students completing projects and research in their areas of interest. Learning is personalised and flexible to meet the learning needs and interests of each student.


This PowerPoint explains the purpose and thinking behind the course and you can read about the curriculum planning process here.

At HC we call the course Interactive Media and we have a journal that is documenting our journey in this exciting pre-tertiary course. This is not an easy journey for students or teachers because the course challenges everyone to learn reflectively, collaboratively and rigorously.

Teachers are working in teams to bring a wider range of expertise to individual students and project teams than would normally be found in the traditional classroom.

The course is also structured differently: 30 minute presentations are being held in a lecture theatre and these are recorded for later online access... Attendance is more about participation than just physical presence... Students can work from home and everything is co-ordinated online.

Comments received from students in the first two weeks:

"I do more work in this subject than any other."

"Having recorded presentations online is great - all subjects should do it."

"Saw a presentation on secondlife, was feeling pretty stoked to have a go as it looked awesome..."

"Viewed a presentation slide on ethics, it was a fairly thought provoking show and it had wicked pictures to keep us amused and enthused..."

"Being able to view class presentations online if you miss them is great – more subjects should do it!"

"Ethics presentation was good – I took heaps of notes."

"Working from home I'm better equipped… for the stuff I want to do, with Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Flash CS3."

Games Programmer Visits Games & Gaming SIG

Melbourne Games Programmer Sam Sauvage had plenty of expert advice for would-be games developers today.

Sam, from IR Gurus Australia’s leading multi-platform game development studio, visited the Games & Gaming SIG - and stayed on for the Games Programming C class.

Sam talked about career pathways for game developers such as:

• University Maths and Computing - particularly C++ and maths of polygons
• Academy of Interactive Entertainment - a one year course (Melbourne) almost guaranteeing employment in the industry - probably at IR Gurus
• Getting together a young multi-skilled team of passionate gamers

All options led to jobs in a very hardworking industry which Sam describes as becoming a lot like the film industry where teams of 50-100 people covering a wide range of skills work on multi-million dollar projects with tight deadlines.

Sam described the difference between developing games for PCs and consoles and talked about the huge demand for games programmers working on PlayStation 3 titles. He showed some sites related to games developed by IR Gurus and the games industry in general:

• AFL Premiership 2006
  
• Heroes of the Pacific
  
• Heatseeker
  
• Game Developers of Australia
  
• Krome Studios
  
• Assembly - for Demo writers
  

Game demos and modding were also good areas for students to get involved in because you learn basic skills and terminology for the industry.

Sam stayed and chatted with the Games Programming class and looked at some of the flash and GameMaker work being done. He hopes to come back - possibly to work with students on projects.

Thanks Sam - your time was greatly appreciated!

Keeping Up With Global Change

For the last three years HC teachers have been researching and discussing what it means to prepare students to live and work in the 21st century. The following recently produced video clips summarise some of those changes quite well.

The changing way we use technology.

The change from a network of machines to communities of people...

(Click once to activate window and then once to play.)

The changes due to globalisation.

(from a USA point of view)

This video was watched an estimated 2 million times in the last four weeks - many viewers were educators from around the globe.

The Changed Global Demography

Watch video

One of the most dynamic presentations on global statistics that you are likely to see. (Google has recently bought the software Trendalyzer used in this presentation.)

Year 11/12 teachers around the State - in both Government and non-Government schools - are currently examining the impact of these changes on the curriculum.