From the Desk of DLTV’s President
Ben Gallagher

This term is racing by …firstly apologies we are a little late with this edition of the newsletter, we have had a few minor staffing and technical issues, but these are now all fully resolved.

As you know we have been running a survey in relation to schools Professional Learning needs. It’s not surprising that our results are showing that there is now less interest in webinars and an increased appetite to return to face to face. This has also been reflected in our attendance at our webinars. Recently we attended two principal network conferences (Manningham and Riversdale) and in discussions with principals and APs many advised us that they wanted more in school workshops. We ran our first face to face workshop last week and it was very well supported. 

Our thoughts are to decrease our number of webinars and put more energy into face-to-face workshops. We are also currently investigating a hybrid model, so if there are regional people or lockdowns re-occur, we can still deliver PL. Any input would be gratefully received, please fill in the survey and to help encourage you to respond to this it and shape our program, one lucky respondent will win a $100 JB Hi Fi gift card. Please feel free to distribute the link to the survey widely click here to access. We have kept it short as we know you’re busy.

Don’t forget we are also looking for schools who are exemplars in the DigiTech space, if you think this is you, please email our manager, Kev at kev@dltv.vic.edu.au or go to the questionnaire and complete the section there.

You may have heard that earlier in May we hosted our Annual General Meeting. The evening began with an exciting presentation from DLTV life member Paula Chrisophersen, who shared with us some of the key past curriculum developments and future directions for teaching computational thinking, systems thinking and design thinking. Following this presentation, Jo Blanin and Clare Andrewartha shared two innovative projects that DLTV ran in 2020. Their presentation highlighted our new award for Women in Digital Technologies, awarded very fittingly on International Women's Day. They also provided an overview of the suggestion Innovations in Digital Technologies grants that DLTV awarded over two rounds in 2020. We will shortly be reaching out to all our successful grants recipients to see how things are progressing. As we get information back, we will include some articles about these in our up-and-coming newsletters during terms three and four. It is most exciting to have also attracted some new members to the Committee of Management, bringing fresh ideas and a wealth of different experiences. We also decided as an organisation to now have a second Vice President, with Clare Andrewartha being elected to this new role.

For people interested in all things DigiTech, no matter what subject you teach, the review Consultation for the F-10 Australian Curriculum has now begun.

There are significant changes to the DigiTech Curriculum. We are keen to gather feedback from our readers over the next month or so and are in the process of organising how we might do this best. See below for details on some webinars being on the changes.

During lockdown don't forget we have some excellent resources to inspire you. Go to our YouTube Channel or try our resources page on our website https://dltv.vic.edu.au/Our_Resources

Finally, we will shortly be reaching out to all our successful grants recipients to see how things are progressing. As we get information back, we will include some articles about these in our up-and-coming newsletters during terms three and four.

I hope the term is going well for you and your school and as always reach out if we can support you in any way.

Cheers,

Ben

Online Learning Support

We just wanted to reach out to you during a challenging week for Victorian educators. After speaking with many of our wonderful teachers and school leaders over the weekend, we want to ensure that you have the support you need to be able to keep doing an excellent job of looking after our children and young adults during a difficult transition back to remote teaching. As you plan for remote teaching please feel free to access our remote teaching resources:

• Free online webinars on the DLTV website: https://dltv.vic.edu.au/recordings
• Our crowd-sourced online teaching and learning materials (put together by our members): https://tinyurl.com/victeachers

As always if there is anything the Committee of Management can do to support you at this time please let us know and we will endeavour to find ways to help you and your school community. Our role is to support you in your roles. Finally, thank you for all you do to help keep Victorian students safe, happy and learning.

Best wishes

Digital Learning and Teaching Victoria's Committee of Management