Prospective students visit campus

Several hundred grade 10 students from many high schools visited the campus over the last few days to hear about courses being offered in the new Tasmanian Polytechnic and Tasmanian Academy in 2009 at the Mt Nelson campus.

Here is some of what they did...

More photo's can be seen here.

Robotic Interlude

A number of students have taken a break this week from their normal work to build and program robots. The college has purchased two LEGO Mindstorms NXT kits for use VET IT, Interactive Media and Computer Science students - mostly in 2009.

Several students - and teachers - have been building with Lego for the first time in many years... lots of fun!

A Professional Edge

Hobart College Media Production students are about to begin professional broadcasting from Edge Radio studio on the School of Rock. The video clip below shows the students in a training session at the studio. Although it was their first time live on air all performances were very impressive.

The College is very pleased to have a partnership with Edge Radio and their Education Officer Vanessa Armstrong who will work with HC Radio students for 12 weeks this year. A number of sessions will also include HC Video and Journalism students.

Tune in to Honni, Isobel, Amelia, Hannah, Eve, Tom, Rob and Joel and support our school's radio show. Hobart College School of Rock hour on EDGE Radio begins Wednesday 23rd April.

Tune in to 99.3 from 4 - 5pm - or listen live on the net.

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."

YouTube - OurTube

Our videos have been viewed 2,700 times since we set up a YouTube channel 4 months ago. This success has prompted us to customise the channel to include the new college logo in the background and some Playlists.

The 2006 Videos playlist features videos and photo-stories from last year's LOG DVD. Some playlists include videos from the internet that teachers have highlighted for particular topics.

We will soon be adding final student project work from 2007 in a range of subjects. You can check the link from our homepage or if you have a YouTube account you can subscribe to automatically receive new videos.

The college online photo album has also been reorganised - into sets that can be viewed as slideshows.

IT Has Changed

We have changed our courses in Information Technology. In response to a dramatic change in the way people are using digital technologies and media some new courses have been added and existing ones have been rewritten.

One aspect of this change has been referred to as Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.D referring to the significantly different ways that we now use the internet.

This presentation asks students if they are aware of these changes and finishes with a list of our new courses for 2008.

Last week some HC students began the interior design of some virtual office space in a sky scraper in Web 3.D

New Worlds Open Up in Interactive Media Course

The college will offer a new course in Interactive Media for 2008 designed for year 12/13 students with skills in multimedia, graphic design, video, game design and writing.

The course will help students develop production skills in project teams and builds on the work done this year in game design and programming, machinima and video - such as this work by Shannon designing virtual worlds using the Neverwinter Nights Toolset.



Students will be assessed at 5C, 4C and/or in VET Multimedia modules according to their personalised learning plan. See here for course details.