Workshops: Creating Connections
Connecting Learners through Online Excursions and Live Collaborations
Workshop Presentation Melissa Ellis, Rikki Commens, David Foley, Patricia Lemos
Since 2016 Southern Cross School of Distance Education (SCSoDE), in collaboration with Distance and Rural Technologies (DART), have been creating innovative cross-curricular online excursions. These enable our students, who are prevented from attending a conventional excursion due to a number of isolating circumstances, to be immersed in different worlds and explore relevant curriculum outcomes in a more authentic way. Our presentation will showcase three cross-curricular online excursions and associated learning materials created by SCSoDE:Lake Mungo Snowy Hydro Scheme Save our Catchment. The presentation will also explore the pre-production stages of a fourth online excursion--Norfolk Island--to highlight the process involved in planning and creating these immersive resources. A key focus of this showcase is our trial exploration of 360 video resource development allowing the capability for distance education students to explore local environments via online reality. A demonstration of our current development of 360 videos resources of Lighthouse Beach Ballina, Yarrangobilly Caves and the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme Power Station Tumut 1. The presentation will further explore our theme of connecting students with experts in the field via Live Collaborations--a project run by David Foley at DART. Bringing together a number of experts/people of interest across a live Youtube feed to students in their homes and schools across NSW, Australia and the world. This will illustrate the capability of SCSoDE and DART to collaborate not only with each other but also with other schools both locally and internationally.
Fostering Meaningful Connections in a Digital Classroom
Workshop Presentation James Dickman, Pippa Jokhan
Technology certainly allows us to reach to the ends of the earth, but how can we make these connections meaningful? As distance education teachers it can be difficult to build rapport with students and bring personality to your teaching. When creating an online course, it can be difficult to source video content that covers exactly what you want to teach. SDEHS have spent the last 18 months in developing the skills to allow teachers to create their own video content for their lessons. This workshop will explore tips and strategies that we have found effective in creating engaging and meaningful videos that can be embedded in elearning content. Participants will come away with creative ideas and practical steps on how to go about bringing the curriculum to life using a range of techniques such as green screen, learning boards, demonstrations, filming experiments and even live excursions.
