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.

Maths At Play

The Maths At Work class built and flew their own tetrahedral kites as part of their Extended Learning Line day this week. Pictured you can see Jess, James, Naomi and Daniel with the smaller and larger kite segments. The larger kite had no trouble taking off and it flew for quite some time before the students had to take shelter from rain and then snow!

First tentative steps...

Today I was invited by Westley who leads the Australian Skoolaborate Project to join him for my first look at the fantastic work students have done in a virtual world.

I arrived in the obligatory white t-shirt and denim jeans sporting large friendly eyes and an over-tanned body that is common to all new arrivals. Before I had time for a wardrobe change and some plastic surgery Westley appeared and took me to the foyer of an impressive multi-story building. Click on the (slightly skew) panorama below. Apparently this building was created by 16 year old Natalie from the USA.

Panorama: Click and drag mouse left/right to have a look around - mouse scroll to zoom.

Hobart College has joined this project to collaborate on 3D design projects, talk about world issues and have adventures in virtual space with students from New Zealand, Japan and other Australian States. Some students from a couple of local high schools will also be joining us soon. The empty yellow frames are where we can put some student artwork - I'll try to find some tomorrow.

Westley then took me up to the 4th floor and showed me a very large empty room with magnificent ocean views - this he told me is to be a room for the Tasmanian teachers in this project! (Our students will be building their own area later - when they have learned how to build...) I placed two large pink flamingos in the room that I found in my inventory - we can decide on our Tasmanian decor later :-)



This project presents us with so many possibilities... some research indicates that 80% of active internet users will be visiting online virtual worlds by 2011 - now is the time to learn what that might mean - for education and for society.

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Thursday Update
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Here are some pictures and video of the first meeting of the collaborating schools. Some of the Tasmanian teachers met later that evening - and bumped into MLC year 11 student Emily who was busy perfecting her scripting skills.

Extended Learning Across the Planet

This Friday was the first "Extended Line Day" for line 5 classes - we are having one per week starting August 10th. Some classes are taking the opportunity for long trips off campus, others are combining to do some different project work, while others are using the extra time to study topics in more depth. A number of guest speakers and presenters were invited to college and there were many "gourmet" lunches.

The panorama below is from Kay Filgate's mathematics class who spent the afternoon roaming the planet studying Earth Geometry, lattitudes/longitudes and the Seven Wonders of the World using Google Earth.

Click in picture then drag mouse left/right to pan around the room. Use mouse scroll to zoom.