Past Events held by TASITE events 2016 28 June 2016	TASITE AGM and Strategic Planning
24 June 2016	Young ICT Explorers - project submissions close
8 and 9 June 2016	Teacher PD: Teachers, technology and the law
6 June (NorthWest), 7 June (North), 8 June (South)	Digital Technologies Leadership Forum with Tim Bell
6 June (NorthWest), 7 June (North), 8 June (South)	Digital Technologies Workshops with Tim Bell
June through August 2016	Digital Technologies curriculum professional learning
10 June, 2016 - 28 June, 2016	2016 ACCE US Study Tour (inc ISTE conference)
31 May 2016	Young ICT Explorers - registration closes
26 May 2016	Google Educator Certification Bootcamp - Deloraine
25 and 16 May 2016	Teacher PD: Digital rights and digital wrongs
26 May 2016	ACS event - IT in the Pub
10 and 11  May 2016	Teacher PD: Tour of the eSafety website
31 March 2016	ACS EdXN: INNOVATING INNOVATIONS: Creating the Next Generations of Empowerment
30 March 2016	Google Educator Certification Bootcamp - Hobart
14-25 March 2016	Bebras computational thinking competition.
15 March 2016	TASICT event  - Harper Reed (student presentation and evening session)
16, 23 and 30 January 2016	Robotics Workshops
Events 2015
07 Dec 2015 - 25 Jan 2016	Google Code-in
07-13 December 2015	Hour of Code 2015 - be part of the biggest event in education history
02 December 2015	Year 11/12 Curriculum information session
27 November 2015	Hour of Code intro session
during 2016	Embedded Systems Learning Program for Digital Technologies
25 Nov, 01 December, 03 December 2015	Google/Utas CS4HS Robotics Workshop (Hobart, Launceston, Cradle Coast)
04 November - 09 December https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HT6PBB3	Minecraft at the Battery Shed (Launceston)
15 October 2015	Google Computational Thinking course
7-8 September 2015	Bebras computational thinking challenge (September)
26 June 2016 (Registration closes) 22 August 2015 (judging)	Young ICT Explorers competition
17 August 2015	STE(A)M Conference Hobart
June, August 2015 tba	CodeClub teacher training
April 2015	MOOC - Think. Create. Code. Learn to code through the creation of artistic images and animation
1 May 2015	MOOC - Digital Technologies for Secondary Teachers (Years 7 and 8)
7-8 July 2015	Slide2Learn conference for users of iOS devices
13 April 2015	MOOC - Robotic Vision
16-27 March 2015	Bebras computational thinking challenge (March)
14 March 2015	DLTV Conference Geelong - SC101 Digitech by the Bay. Engaging Learners through Innovative Teaching
10 March 2015	ACS - EdXN: Risk Management for Big Data Projects
6 March 2015	International Womens Day Cocktail Event.
24 February 2015	Edumate demonstration
20 February  2015	Survey - Year 11 and 12 curriculum  (via NEAT)
15 February 2015	MOOC - Introduction to Robotics
February 2015	Apple Distinguished Educator Awards open for applications
Events 2014
8-14 December 2014	Hour of Code - every student should have some experience of writing a simple computer program.
TBA 2015	MOOC - Digital Technologies for Secondary teachers
December 2014	MOOC - Digital Technologies for Primary teachers
Wed 26 November 2014	Hour of  Code - teacher sessions.
Thu/Fri 13 and 14 Nov 2014	iOS-8 Developer Workshops  (ACS and Secret Lab collaboration)
Thu 30 Oct 2014	EdXN - Disruptive Technologies and Change
Fri 17 Oct 2014	Burger Thing: Introduction to iOS Development
Mon 01 Sep 2014 (recorded webinar)	ACCELN  Webinar - Seymour Papert, father of educational technology
Mon 25 Aug 2014 (recorded webinar)	ACCELN Webinar - Google Classroom
Mon 18 Aug 2014 (recorded webinar)	ACCELN Webinar -Wearable Devices
Mon 01 - 15 September 2014	Bebras - Computational Thinking puzzle competition, Years 3-12
Thur 21 August 2014	NEAT session - using social and mobile media to engage with school communities
Mon 04 August - Sunday 7 September	NCSS Programming Challenge
Mon 28 July - 22 Sept 2014	Learning to Teach Online - MOOC from UNSW (via Coursera)
recorded webinar	ACCELN Webinar - Resources for Digital Technologies from DLTV
recorded webinar	ACCELN Webinar - Computational Thinking
recorded webinar	ACCELN Webinar - Peer-based learning tools
recorded webinar	ACCELN Webinar - the NMC Horizon Report.
30 June - 11 Aug 2014	Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills - MOOC from University of Melbourne. (in Coursera)
1 July (South) and 3 July (North)  2014	The Australian Curriculum A Day with Dr Tim Bell and Dr Katrina Falkner - For Primary Schools (organised by the Catholic Education Office)
Tue 24 June 2014	CSIRO  "ICT In Schools partnership program" Tasmania Technology Forum
Mon 23 June 2014	TASITE AGM
Tue 20 May 2014	ACS event -  "The Role Of Technology in Tasmania's Future" a blueprint for Tasmania!
Mon 19 May 2014	Google Experience Day
Wed 02 July 2014	Digital Technologies And The Australian Curriculum: A Day With Dr Tim Bell and Dr Katrina Falkner (organised by the Catholic Education Office)
Thu 08 May 2014	ACS TAS Forum - "The Square Kilometre Array"
From March  2014, online	Free online course - Digital Technologies: Implementing the Australian Curriculum Learning Area
18 March 2014	Australian Curriculum - Digital Technologies Workshop (NOTE: this session is organised by AIST)
20 February 2014	Robotics in Education Workshop followed by Extreme EV3 Hack Party
Events 2013	Google Educator Workshops - Hobart., Deloraine
9-15 December 2013	Hour of Code (Computer Science Education Week)
Thu 28 November 2013	EV3 Robotics Workshops  Cradle Coast  (sponsored by Google Australia)
Tue 26 November 2013	EV3 Robotics Workshops  Launceston   (sponsored by Google Australia)
Tue 26 November 2013	Improve Formative Assessment Tool (Launceston)
Mon 25 November 2013	Improve Formative Assessment Tool (Burnie)
Wed 20 November 2013	EV3 Robotics Workshops  Hobart   (sponsored by Google Australia)
Mon 26 October 2013	ACCELN Webinar - "ACCE Study Tours - Learning Unleashes your mind"
Thursday 31 October, 2013	Raspberry Pi  Professional Learning Day
Mon 17 October, 2013	ACCELN Webinar - "Space Radio Pioneer"
Mon 10 October 2013	ACCELN Webinar - "Unleash Kids"
Mon 3 October 2013	ACCELN
Mon 16 September 2013	ACCELN Webinar - "Standing Together"
Mon 9 September 2013	ACCELN Webinar -"Dig Your Own Learning"
Mon 2 September  2013	ACCELN Webinar - "Students as Digital Leaders"
Tue 27th August, 2013	Raspberry Pi Workshop (Hobart)
Wed 21st August, 2013	Raspberry Pi Workshop (Devonport)
Wed 14th August, 2013	Raspberry Pi Workshop (Launceston)
Monday July 22 2013	Australian Curriculum Technologies professional learniing day
Friday 14 June 2013	3D Printer Demonstration - Wynyard
Thursday 13 June 2013	Webinar - teaching the 5 Ps of Digital Ethics
Thursday 23May  2013	Google in Education Workshop hosted by The Hutchins School and The Collegiate Institute. NOTE: this is not a TASITE event but is of relevance to members.
Friday 17 May 2013	3D Printer Demonstration - Hobart
Tuesday 30 April 2013	Scratch Workshop
Wednesday April 17 2013	ACARA Technologies Curriculum - consultation and feedback for Digital Technologies strand and subject F-10
Monday April 16 2013	Primary teachers and Australian Curriculum Digital Technologies: ACCE_LN Google Hangout
Thursday March 14 2013	TASITE AGM
Tues March 12 2013	Apple Learning Tour

Events 2012

Thursday 18 October 2012	BYOD strategies
Thurs 11 October 2012	TeachMeet - free software
Thursday May 3- Sat May 5 2012	iPad/Iphone programming course (provided by ACS Tasmania and SecretLab) NOTE - one school student has been funded by TASITE to attend this course
Thursday 17 May 2012	TASITE AGM 2012 (5:30pm)
Thursday 17 May 2012	TeachMeet session (6:00pm)

Events 2011

Wednesday May 18	TASITE Annual General Meeting
July 15-17	AADES conference
Wednesday  Aug  17	eBooks for Teaching and Learning: A shared perspective.
Wednesday Oct 5	Scootle (Hobart)
Wednesday Oct 12	Scootle  (Launceston)
Wednesday  Oct 12	Scootle  (Smithton)
Tuesday Oct 18	Scootle  (King Island)
Wednesday Oct 26	Scootle  (Burnie)
Thursday Oct 27	Scootle  (Devonport)
Thursday 24th November	Calculus in Primary Schools (Launceston)

Events 2010 

Thursday Feb 18	Stop Motion Animation
Thursday Feb 25	Video for Beginners
Thursday Mar 4	Mobile Devices to Connect the Classroom to Home
Wednesday Mar 10	Google SketchUp for beginners – Maths focus
Wednesday Mar 17	Google SketchUp for beginners – Designing in 3D
Thursday Apr 15 and Apr 22	Scratch
Wednesday May 5	Google Docs& other collaboration tools
Thursday May 20 and May 27	GameMaker
Wednesday 28 April	Annual General Meeting  [invitation] [nomination form]
Monday 19th April 2010 (Launceston) Thursday 13th May  (Hobart)	eExaminations
Thursday 20th May (Launceston)	World Education Forum Tasmania NOTE: this is not a TASITE event but may be of interest to members
10/11/12 May (Hobart)	iPhone programming course  (ACS event, discount for TASITE members)
16 July	ICT Education Walk: Sponsor-ed websites - Ogilivie High School's experiences
Wed 11 August  2010	Comparisons, Confluence and Clouds: the ACCE Study Tour and ISTE 2010 Conference
Wed 25 August  2010	Introducing ThinkQuest

Digital Technologies Leadership Forum with Professsor Katrina Falkner and Dr Rebecca Vivian

Venue, Date and Time Hobart  October 17th from 2:00 - 3:30 pm Launceston October 18th from 2:00 - 3:30 pm Burnie   October 19th from 2:00 - 3:30 pm Queenstown  October 20th 2:00 - 3:30 pm Cost: $25 Professor Katrina Falkner and Dr Rebecca Vivian have been invited to work with teachers during their visits to Tasmania in Hobart, Launceston, Burnie and (possibly) Queenstown. Professor Katrina Falkner and Dr Rebecca Vivian are based at the University of Adelaide in the Computer Science Education Research Group. They are best known as the creators of the CSER MOOC. Their education research interests include increasing student engagement, designing introductory programming courses, communication skills development and the use of collaborative learning strategies. Both Katrina and Rebecca  are interested in exploring new ways of improving student engagement and motivation, and apply these ideas within their CSER  MOOC for teachers.

During their visits to Tasmania Katrina and Rebecca have put time aside to work with leadership from the education sectors who would like to hear about and discuss the developments both in Australia and in New Zealand for the promotion and support of Technologies in the Australian curriculum.

There are meetings proposed in all regions during October.
Register at http://stem.pl.tas.edu.au/leadership-forum.html

 CSER MOOC - meet with Professsor Katrina Falkner and Dr Rebecca Vivian

Venue, Date and Time Hobart CSIRO Marine Laboratories  October 17th from 4 pm - 7.30 pm Launceston QV Museum Inveresk October 18th from 4.00 pm - 7.30 pm Burnie Makers Workshop  October 19th from 4.00 pm - 7.30 pm Queenstown TBA October 20th 4 pm - 7.30 pm Cost: $25 Professor Katrina Falkner and Dr Rebecca Vivian from the University of Adelaide are the creators and coordinators of the set of MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) offered by CSER with funding from Google. These courses cover an introduction to concepts and example activities that help teach Computer Science and Computational Thinking at primary and secondary levels. While explicitly connected with the Australian Curriculum, these courses are open to anyone who wishes to learn more about how they could teach Computational Thinking at these levels. Katrina and Rebecca will discuss topics related to the MOOC and the Digital Technologies curriculum. Register here.

ACCE2016 Conference

Venue: Brisbane Qld Date: 29 September - 2 October, 2016 Cost: $695 for ACCE member organisation members (inc TASITE), $845 otherwise The ACCE2016 conference theme for 2016 is ‘if’. This will have a variety of meanings for different people but the core focus is on imagined Futures. To quote Anthony Speranza’s prize winning paragraph: “What IF schools were not encumbered by traditional norms and structures, and technology, social capital and pedagogies were used to their true realisation or potential?” A great theme for a stimulating conference.  ACCE 2016 is a wonderful opportunity for delegates all around Australia to expand their learning and reconnect with the vision of education, personalise existing and new connections, talk to leading experts in the field, be actively involved in shaping the future of education with new ideas, and be the first to see the latest trends.

Full information at http://www.aomevents.com/ACCE2016

Google Apps for Education Summit

Venue: St Mary's College, 164 Harrington St, Hobart
Date: 26-17 September 2016
Cost: $369 earlybird, $419 standard

Two Full Days of Learning!

This two-day high-intensity event focuses on deploying, integrating, and using Google Apps for Education (and other Google tools) to promote student learning in K-12 and higher education.
The Global Leaders in Google for Education Training

The program features Google for Education Innovative Educators, Google for Education Certified Trainers, practicing administrators, and other solution providers.

More information and registration at https://tasmania.gafesummit.com/2016

TASITE AGM and Strategic Planning session

Venue: Hutchins School, Churchill Ave, Sandy Bay
Date: 28 June 2016
Time: 5:00  pm

The Annual General Meeting of Tasmanian Society for Information Technology in Education will be held on Tuesday 28 June at The Hutchins School, Churchill Avenue Sandy Bay at 5:00pm.

 Positions of President, Secretary, Treasurer and General Committee membership will be open for nomination and will be determined by vote if necessary. Nomination form is available on the website http://tasite.tas.edu.au/

 The AGM will be followed by a Strategic Planning meeting to develop a set of directions to allow TASITE to better address the needs of computing education within the state and to identify the best ways in which TASITE can support members. We welcome attendance from schools where Digital Technologies is being developed as a subject, and anyone with particular support needs in this area.

RSVP by Fri 24  June to info@tasite.tas.edu.au  

Digital Technologies Leadership Forums with Tim Bell

Venue: Burnie, Launceston, Hobart 
Date: 6 June 2016 (NW), 7 June (North), 8 June (South)
Time:  2:00 -3:30 pm
Cost:  $25 per person

Professor Tim Bell has been invited to work with teachers during his visits to Tasmania in Hobart, Launceston and Burnie.

Tim Bell is a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. His main current research interest is computer science education; in the past he has been also worked on computers and music, and data compression.

During his visit to Tasmania Tim has put time aside to work with leadership from the education sectors who would like to hear about and discuss the developments both in Australia and in New Zealand for the promotion and support of Technologies in the Australian curriculum.

There are meetings proposed for in all regions as above.

Register at http://stem.pl.tas.edu.au/leadership-forum.html .

Digital Technologies Workshops with Tim Bell

Venue: NW: Makers Workshop Burnie. North : Queen Victoria Museum at Inveresk. South: CSIRO Laboratories, Castray Esplanade Hobart. 
Date: 6 June 2016 (NW), 7 June (North), 8 June (South)
Time:  4:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Cost:  $25 per person

This workshop supports teachers implementing the Digital Technologies subject of the Australian Curriculum .

Tim will present practical and effective ways to teach some core topics and provide evidence for assessment. Suitable for teachers of Years all year levels.

Tim’s approach has been internationally recognised and aligned with the AC Digital Technologies.

This session has been organised by the Tasmanian Catholic Education Office in collaboration with Independent Schools Tasmania and the Department of Education Tasmania, with support from Google and Digital Careers.
Professor Tim Bell: University of Canterbury in Christchurch
Tim Bell is a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. His main current research interest is computer science education; in the past he has been also worked on computers and music, and data compression.

His "Computer Science Unplugged'' project is widely used internationally, and its books and videos have been translated into about 18 languages. He has received many awards for his work in education, including the ETH (Zurich) ABZ International honorary medal for fundamental contributions in Computer Science education in 2013, and the IITP (NZ) Excellence in IT Education award and the President's Award for Contribution to the IT Profession in 2014. Recently he has been actively involved in the design and deployment of new computer science curriculum in New Zealand high schools.

Registration at http://stem.pl.tas.edu.au/tim-bell.html

Digital Technologies curriculum professional learning 

Venue: Hobart, Launceston
Date: Dates in June to August 2016 as per individual sessions
Time: these are full day sessions (2 days for all but the P-2 session)
Cost: $160
NOTE - these are designed for DoE teachers but other schools may be able to attend - contact the coordinator.
The Digital Technologies professional learning opportunities are aimed at schools that are moving to implementation of the Australian Curriculum Digital Technologies and wish to begin building staff capacity for the Prep to Year 2 band.

This program will assist schools to build capacity to implement AC Digital Technologies. It will introduce resources, approaches and support processes.

• Australian Curriculum Digital Technologies Years P -2 
• Australian Curriculum Digital Technologies Years 3-4
• Australian Curriculum Digital Technologies Years 5-6
• Australian Curriculum Digital Technologies Years 7-8
• Australian Curriculum Digital Technologies Years 9-10

Teacher PD: Teachers, technology and the law

Venue: online. Register at https://esafety.gov.au/education-resources/outreach/virtual-classrooms
Date and time 8 June 2016 4:00- 4:40 pm, 9 June 2016 8:00 - 8:40 pm
Cost: free

This is an online professional learning session offered by the Office of the Children's eSafety Commissioner'

The presentation will:

• discuss the implications of workplaces extending beyond physical boundaries due to technology
• highlight the Federal and State criminal laws that may be used to charge cyberbullying offences.
• examine ways to mitigate and protect yourself against cyberbullying risk
• share key learnings from recent court cases involving teachers and Fair Work Australia social media rulings
• highlight other laws relating to technology.

The presentation will feature an opportunity to ask questions of the presenter.

Please note that the information provided in this session is general in nature and not intended to constitute legal advice. We recommend you seek independent legal advice on particular issues.

2016 ACCE US Study Tour

NOTE - this tour is not proceeding for 2016 due to low numbers.

Venue: New York, the Bay area, Colorado New York, the Bay area, Colorado
Date: 10 June, 2016 - 28 June, 2016
Time: NA
Cost: $9000 AUD depending on exchange rate

Can the 2016 tour be better than the earlier ones? It all depends on the people who come. Last year's people were truly amazing, eclectic, fun and interesting (in a good way).
http://www.bebras.edu.au/
Depending on Foreign Exchange, the 2016 tour will work out at approximately AUD9000 ex Sydney, which covers:

• all airfares ex Sydney,
• accommodation in the US for the tour dates (twin share),
• transfers,
• ISTE membership,
• registration to the ISTE conference in Denver and
• some meals.

Can you afford not to miss it? More information and expressions of interest can be found at  http://acce.edu.au/acce-2016-study-tour-usa-and-iste

Teacher PD: Digital rights and digital wrongs

Venue: online. Register at https://esafety.gov.au/education-resources/outreach/virtual-classrooms
Date and time: 25 May 2016 8:00 -8:40 pm, 26 May 2016 4:00 - 4:40 pm
Cost: free

This is an online professional learning session offered by the Office of the Children's eSafety Commissioner.

Featuring interactive questions, the presentation will:

• update teachers on the trending devices, apps and services used by students
• highlight key insights from ACMA research into the online behaviour of Australian teenagers
• explore digital citizenship and overview the key concepts of protection, privacy, permanence, perspective an plagiarism       
• reinforce the importance of teachers modelling good behaviour online
• introduce an action checklist that students could use to support a positive online experience.

Teacher PD: Tour of the eSafety website

Venue: online. Register at https://esafety.gov.au/education-resources/outreach/virtual-classrooms
Date and time: 10 May 2016 8:00 -8:40 pm, 11 May 2016 4:00 - 4:40 pm
Cost: free

This is an online professional learning session offered by the Office of the Children's eSafety Commissioner.

The presentation will assist teachers to understand

• Tthe functions of the Office
• how cyberbullying complaints will be determined and handled
• the powers of the Office
• how the Office will work with schools
• the new website and resources for schools

The presentation will feature an opportunity to ask questions of the presenter.

CSER MOOCs 2016

Venue: online
Date: if you wish to enrol with a cohort, dates are as below, but the courses remain open for anyone who wishes to self-pace.
Time: any   
Cost: free

The CSER Digital Technologies MOOCs (Massively Open Online Courses) are free online courses, designed to support Australian teachers with implementing the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies. F-6 MOOC: Cohort dates (if you’d like to go through with others) are 1st May – 31st August 2016; 1st October 2016 – 31st January 2017. Otherwise, self-paced – commence and complete any time. F-6 Advanced MOOC: TBA release for 2016. Years 7 & 8 MOOC: Currently self-paced – commence and complete any time.

What courses are available?

F-6 Fundamentals: This course is designed to introduce the fundamental concepts of the Australian curriculum – starting with Algorithms and Data Representation and moving toward an introduction to Visual Programming. No prior knowledge necessary. Perfect for all teachers of all year levels – to understand where students are starting from. We introduce activities and examples that relate to familiar classroom activities. (Available)

Years 7-8 Next Steps: This course addresses the content descriptors for Years 7 & 8, although could be adapted by teachers to suit other year levels. In this course we take a project-based approach to implementing classroom projects. We have designed the course around a series of themes, where you get to choose a pathway based on your interest/needs. These include: Makerspaces, Game Creation, Data and Visualisation, Making Apps and Robotics. (Available)

F-6 Advanced: This course extends on the first F-6 Fundamentals, where we first touched on “visual programming”. In this course we focus on how programming can be integrated into other subject areas, such as English, Science and Mathematics- where students become creators! The perfect way to introduce meaningful coding projects. (Coming soon)

Years 9 & 10: We (CSER) are currently working on the details and funding for developing this course.

Young ICT Explorers competition

Venue: See http://www.youngictexplorers.net.au/
Date: registrations open 01 February 2016,  registrations close 31 May 2016,  report submission 24 June 2016
Time: NA
Cost: free

Young ICT Explorers is a non-profit competition, which has been created by SAP to encourage school students to create their best Information and Communication Technology (ICT) related projects. There are Primary and Secondary sections, resulting in selection of State and National winners. The competition’s alignment with the school curriculum enables students to apply what they learn in their ICT/Digital Technologies classroom to develop a technology related project of their choice.

At the judging event, students have the opportunity to present their project to a judging panel of academia, industry partners and ICT professionals. Each project is assessed on the criteria of creativity, uniqueness, quality, level of difficulty and project documentation.

One easy way to see the nature of the entries is to look at past winners: for example http://www.youngictexplorers.net.au/past-winners/winners-2015/

ACS EdXN: INNOVATING INNOVATIONS: Creating the Next Generations of Empowerment

Venue: Level 2, City Mill, 11 Morrison Street Hobart
Date: 31 March 2016
Time: 5.30PM for 6.00PM
Cost: Free for ACS members, $10 non members

The future is filled with unlimited possibility. Imagine 7+ billion connected minds, as we explore the convergence of computing, networked sensors, and artificial intelligence to solve the biggest challenges facing humankind. From synthetic biology to 3D printing, the future will be barely recognizable today.

Success in shaping our future is uncertain. A post-internet, post-mobile world will disrupt the world’s economies and our social construct. As the return on investment in capital and technology is greater than in people, jobless economic growth may increasingly become a reality. Governance models will be challenged as the difference between global and local blur.

Innovation has been and will continue to be our greatest tool in our journey ahead. Yet, the extent and pace of technology-enabled change will require something greater. Innovating innovation will be essential and require a provocative vision for what is possible, strategies that utilize design thinking practices, agile development, and other tools not yet before us, and shared execution.

Chris Vein will provide a framework to understand and participate in the creation of a future of possibility.

More information at https://acs.org.au/networking-and-events/events/upcoming-events/event-details?eveID=50349340554605
NOTE: this event is organised by Australian Computer Society Tasmania Branch.

"TasICT Generations" event - Harper Reedhttp://stem.pl.tas.edu.au/leadership-forum.html

Venue: Hotel Grand Chancellor Hobart
Date:  March 15, 2016
Time: 1:00- 2:00pm (students) ,  6:00- 11:30pm (adults)
Cost:  $140 (adults), student session TBA

NOTE: These two events (student presentation and evening session) are organised by TASICT, the Tasmanian ICT industry organisation

Harper Reed is a US-based technology engineer, innovator and entrepreneur. He has been called a “tech pioneer” and a “digital wizard”. He is fascinated by how technology continues to shape, transform and empower human behaviour. He is currently the Head of Commerce at Braintree, a PayPal Company.

In 2012, Harper was responsible for delivering Barack Obama’s online campaign and get-out-the-vote programme. As Chief Technology Officer at Obama’s campaign HQ in Chicago, Harper was the man responsible for engineering perhaps the most sophisticated political campaign of all time.

From 2005 to 2009, Harper Reed was the CTO of Chicago-based clothing companyThreadless, one of the first successful crowdsourcing companies, and helped increase revenue tenfold during that period.

From 2009 to 2012 he consulted for companies like Rackspace, an innovative cloud-based website host, and Sandbox Industries, a forward-thinking venture capital company which funds hundreds of tech projects in their early stages and then launches the best few. Harper has also developed a number of community based apps in Chicago.

Harper is a brilliant speaker on how technology can enhance business performance, foster organisational creativity and build strong teams. He also speaks eloquently on the state of data security on the internet and the demographics and constituencies of politics.

Harper is providing an afternoon student presentation and a much more substantial evening session.

Student Presentation: flyer
Main event:  register at https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/tasict-harper-reed-dinner-tickets-21448877169

Bebras computational thinking competition (March 2016 round)

Venue: online http://www.bebras.edu.au/
Date:  March 14-25, 2016
Time: NA
Cost:  free

Bebras is an international student competition whose goal is to promote computational thinking for teachers and students (ages 8-17 / school years 3-12). Bebras is aligned with and supports information and communication technology curricula across Australia.

Bebras Australia is run by NICTA under the Digital Careers program, funded by the Australian Government as represented by the Department of Communications. It’s a great way to get students interested and participating in information and communication technology (ICT) which could lead to an interest in pursuing a career in the exciting ICT industry!

NOTE - solutions to the 2016 Bebras competition are now available.

Google Educator Certification Bootcamp - Hobart and Deloraine

Venue:
    Hobart - Tasmanian Catholic Education Office - Seminar Room 1
    Deloraine - Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Primary School, Deloraine.
Date:
    Hobart: March 30, 2016
    Deloraine: 26 May, 2016
Time: 9:00am - 3:00 pm. 
Cost: $120 per teacher - limit of 25 teachers at each session. Participants should bring their own lunch, coffee and tea will be provided.

These workshops have been organised by Peter Lelong at the Catholic Education Office in collaboration with Google, and made available to Tasmanian teachers in any sector.

The Google Educator Certification Bootcamp serves two purposes: to raise awareness about how Google tools can be used in education to; ignite inquiry, promote collaboration, and allow for authentic publishing and sharing, (with students and among colleagues), and to focus on the certifications available for teachers and will prepare participants to pass the certification exams and submit their certification application. Become Google Certified to be recognised for your mastery.

Each session includes an interactive overview, top tips from the Google Educator Training Center, hands-on activities, and inspiring ideas for how to use Google for teaching, learning, and professional collaboration. The activities are flexible, designed to help new users quickly understand the “core magic” of each app - and to challenge veteran users by revealing features and innovative uses they never imagined. The experience is grounded in Google culture, complete with high-energy fast-paced demonstrations and challenging activities that can truly be called “hard fun.” There is no better preparation for teaching and learning with Google Apps - or for passing the Google Certification exams.

Important Notes: Certification is not included in the bootcamp (passing tests, submitting an application, and approval from Google are required following the event). Taking tests and applying for certification is not necessary for participating in the bootcamp.

For more information - Peter Lelong peter.lelong@catholic.tas.edu.au
Registration - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HT6PBB3

Robotics workshops

Venue: Launceston
Date: 16 January, then repeated on 23 and 30 January
Time:  any time
Cost: $85
Learn more about Robotics, how to program, take NXT's to a new level. Ages 10-16. Registrations close 30 Nov. To book and for further details: www.metalmindsrobotics.wordpress.com Cost $85
Repeated on 23 and 30 January, Limit of 10 per workshop. metalmindsrobotics@gmail.com
Kate: 0415 866 058
NOTE - this is a commercial course, included for information only.

Google Code-in

Venue: online at https://developers.google.com/open-source/gcVenue: online at https://developers.google.com/open-source/gc
Date: 07 Dec 2015 - 25 Jan 2016
Time:  any time
Cost: Free
Date: 07 Dec 2015 - 25 Jan 2016
Time:  any time
Cost: Free

Pre-university students ages 13 to 17 are invited to take part in Google Code-in, a contest introduces young minds to the world of open source. With a wide variety of bite-sized tasks, it’s easy for beginners to jump in and get started no matter what skills you have. Mentors from participating organizations are available to lend a helping hand as you learn what it’s like to work on an open source project.

Over the last 5 years: 2,233 students. 87 countries. 12, 495 open source tasks completed.
Contest runs: December 7, 2015 to January 25, 2016

Hour of Code 2015 - the largest event in education history, ever.

Venue: online https://hourofcode.com/au
Date: 07 -13 December 2015 (Computer Science Education Week), or any time
Time:  any time
Cost: Free


What is the Hour of Code?

A one-hour activity. Students of all ages (4 to 104) can choose from a variety of self-guided tutorials, for kindergarten
and up. Tutorials work on any modern browser, tablet, smartphone, or even with no computer at all.

Code.org’s own tutorials feature Disney’s Frozen, Scrat from Ice Age, Angry Birds, and Plants vs. Zombies. New tutorials are coming to kick off the 2015 Hour of Code!

A spark to keep learning computer science.
Once students see what they create right before their eyes, they’re empowered to keep going.
No experience needed from teachers and students.

A global movement with more than100 million learners in 180 countries.
Anyone, anywhere can organize an Hour of Code event. Tutorials are available in 40 languages.

Why computer science?
Every 21st-century student should have the opportunity to take part in creating technology that’s changing our world. The basics help nurture creativity and problem-solving skills, and prepare students for any future career. But most schools still don’t teach computer science.

Hour of Code activities are also a great way to productively engage students during the minor disruption of school routine due to end-of-year activities.

Over 300 partners have come together to support this grassroots campaign, including DonorsChoose.org, The College Board, Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, The Walt Disney Company, Target, Teach for America, Khan Academy and more

.

Year 11/12 Secondary Curriculum Information Session

Venue: Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania
Date: 02 December 2015
Time: 4:30 - 6:00
Cost: Free

An information session on Year 11/12 Curriculum will be held on Wednesday 2 December at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania from 4.30 - 5.30. The session is being organised by the Network of Education Associations of Tasmania (NEAT).

Participants will have the chance to ask questions and discuss issues with the leaders of the cross-sectoral Curriculum Framework Advisory Group.

From 5.30 - 6.00 there will be an opportunity for representatives from different professional associations to share plans and priorities. This will be followed by the NEAT AGM.
 
Please RSVP charles.morgan@education.tas.gov.au

Embedded Systems Learning Program for Digital Technologies

Venue: in your classroom (secondary schools - Year 8 or above)
Date: during 2016 
Time:  any time
Cost: Free


What is the program about?

The “Embedded Systems Learning Program for Digital Technologies” offered by the Smart Services and Systems (SS&S) research group within the School of Engineering and ICT at the University of Tasmania provides a great opportunity to learn about real-world embedded system environment by installing, designing, and managing several modules in Arduino.

The program provides both theoretical and practical approach for students to learn the basic principle of embedded systems, including architecture, design, and network.

What is the benefit of this program?

Benefit for school:
• Improvement of student achievement
• Opportunities to improve students’ learning in Digital Technologies
• Increase the depth and range of learning
• Supports the General Capabilities in the Digital Technology Curriculum

Benefit for students:
• Learn the importance of self-directed learning and its benefit
• Able to discover new passion and interest in Digital Technologies
• Ability to manage their own success.

The attached flyer describes the schools involved so far and the process for expressing interest in 2016. More information can be obatined from Byeong.Kang@utas.edu.au .

Supported by	Organised by

Hour of Code intro session

Venue: Online
Date: 27 Nov 2015
Time:  4:30 pm AEDT
Cost: Free

The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics. Running an Hour of Code event is an opportunity to join a global movement of millions of students in 180+ countries.

The Faculty of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Adelaide would like to invite you to a free online information session to introduce you to Hour of Code. During a one hour session, we will give you a taste of the Hour of Code, show you how an event can be set-up in your school or organisations and answer questions. We will be featuring advice from teachers and people who have ran the Hour of Code in previous years.

Register at: http://bit.do/HoCInfo
Recording is available after the event at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-DkuCIh3Dg

 

Google/Utas CS4HS Robotics Workshop (Hobart, Launceston, Cradle Coast)

Venue: HOBART Utas Centenary Building Room 272
Date: 25 Nov 2015
Time:  2:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Cost: Free

Venue: LAUNCESTON Utas School of Computing and Information Systems Building, Room V195
Date: 01 December 25 Nov 2015
Time:  2:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Cost: Free

Venue: CRADLE COAST Utas Room B1.25
Date: 03 Dec 2015
Time:  2:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Cost: Free

Are you planning to teach coding relevant to the newly endorsed Digital Technology curriculum? Are you looking for an easy to learn, fun and engaging experience for your students? If you are this is the course for you!

We will introduce Graphical RobotC, a graphical version of the world's second most popular computer language C, with its extremely ingenious dual user interface making it suitable for students ranging from middle primary school to upper high school levels. In addition, programs can run in both the virtual world and physical world! This combination is more engaging and caters to participants with different interests and strengths, with virtual world aiming at students’ learning efficiency and the real world targeting at learners’ hand eye coordination through robot building with LEGO Mindstorm EV3, 3D visualization and dimensional skills and appreciation of physical constraints of a robot operating in the real world.

These workshops are prepared for any teachers from Primary Year 4 to Year 10 with little or no programming experience who would like to learn the fundamentals of Graphical RobotC programming. It also provides various other teaching resources associated with STEM teaching concepts. However, teachers with programming and robotics experience will find the class valuable for its hands-on programming focus with explorations on the potential of integrating the virtual world with their current robotics teaching.

There is opportunity for interested schools to participate in a robotics teaching research project in which participating schools will be provided with limited Graphical RobotC and Virtual World software licences and LEGO Mindstorm EV3 kits. Some conditions apply.

The workshops are organized by Ying Chen of School of Engineering and CIS (http://www.utas.edu.au/computing-information-systems/home), with assistance from Dr. Graeme Faulkner, a retired academic with years of experience in computing and engineering. He has been a mentor to local, State, Australian and World winning RoboCup teams from Tasmania.

These professional learning workshops are open to Tasmanian Primary and Secondary School Teachers. Attendance at the workshop is totally free. There is no preparation required of all participants, except your pre-workshop registration, your presence and your passion towards enriching students’ learning experience.

This workshop will be conducted in the three campuses of the University of Tasmania with the actual workshop times in each venue and the maximum number of participants limited due to the software license constraints and venue sizes.



Workshop Schedule

2:00 pm	Welcome and networking
2:15 pm	Login for web resources and workshop briefings
2:30 pm	Hands-on session with programming in the virtual world
4:00 pm	Mini coffee break and networking
4: 20 pm	More hands-on session with programming in the virtual world
5:20 pm	NXT, VEXIQ, Hour of Code, Little Bits
5: 40 pm	Wrap up and feedback

Please note that there are limited spaces and enrolment is approved on the basis of available vacancies in the 3 venues. Please register using the attached Registration Form.

These workshops are sponsored by Google Australia (https://www.google.com.au/) through their CS4HS program.

  

Google Computational Thinking for Educators course

Venue: online at https://computationalthinkingcourse.withgoogle.com/course
Date: Open from 14 October 2015
Time: n/a
Cost: Free

In this course, you will gain a greater understanding of computational thinking and how to integrate it into your curriculum. The course is divided into five units, each focusing on a particular aspect of computational thinking:

• Introducing Computational Thinking
• Exploring Algorithms
• Finding Patterns
• Developing Algorithms
• Applying Computational Thinking

The Computational Thinking for Educators course runs with support from Google teaching assistants, content experts, and other students responding to questions in the G+ Community from October 15 through December 20, 2015 and can be completed at your own pace during this time. The course consists of text lessons, supplemental videos, activities, and a hands-on final project.

Here are a few key dates to keep in mind:

• October 15: All course materials and final project materials are available.
• December 20 at 11:59 PT: Submission deadline for course final project
• December 21st, 2015: Starting December 21st, you can continue to view and utilize course materials, but certificates for completing the course will no longer be available. The G+ Community will continue to be a place to collaborate.

Minecraft at the Battery Shed (Launceston)

Venue: The Battery Shed, Queen Victoria Museum, 2 Invermay Road, Inveresk, TAS, 7248
Date: 4th of November to the 9th of December
Time: Every Wednesday, 4pm to 6pm
Cost: $120 For All Six Workshops ($132 inc. GST)

NOTE: this event is run by a private organisation.but may be of interest to students

Minecraft Club @ The Battery Shed!

Over the next two months, there will be a weekly Minecraft Club at the Battery Shed (near the Queen Victoria Museum). The club is aimed at kids between the ages of 10 and 14 who are interested in technology in general, or Minecraft in particular!

The workshops cost $120 (ex. GST) which covers the cost of all six workshops in the series.

During the six week program Donelle Batty (a Tasmanian high school teacher who specialises in the use of technology in schools) and Nathaniel Bott (a Launceston College student who has developed a reputation as a local leader in the use of Minecraft in education) will be running an intensive program during which participants will be collaborating to build a vibrant, living world in Minecraft, which engages with an educational concept that the participants will choose as a group during the first session.

At the end of the series, there will be an opportunity for parents and friends to learn about what the participants created and the children will be given a copy of the world that was created during the course to take home and use on their own computers.
http://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/minecraft-club-at-the-battery-shed-tickets-19199492198

Young ICT Explorers

Venue: online, with final judging at Utas Hobart
Date: competitition opens 02 February, Registration closes 26 June, Submission deadline 21 July, Judging 22 August 2015
Time: n/a
Cost: Free

Young ICT Explorers (YICTE) Competition is coming to Hobart this year with the judging event to be held on 22 August 2015 at The University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay. Young ICT Explorers is a free competition designed to encourage school students to create their best Information and Communication Technology (ICT) related projects.

At the judging event, students present their project to a judging panel of academia, industry partners and ICT professionals. Each project is assessed on the criteria of creativity, uniqueness, quality, level of difficulty and project documentation.

The competition targets Years 3-12 students and has 5 divisions: Year 3-4, Year 5-6, Year 7-8, Year 9-10 and Year 11-12. 

Key dates:

• Registration Deadline: 26th June, 2015 - Teachers need to register their anticipated school’s teams by the end of the day on this date.
• Submission Deadline: 21st July 2015 for Tasmania - this is the final day for the submission of all project details such as team member names, project documentation and other relevant information. Project documentation must first be saved into a zip folder before uploading can occur.
• Judging Event: (invitation only): 22 August 2015 for Tasmania. After submissions close, an assessment panel will review all the project documentation submitted and invite the best projects to our judging event. Entrants are able to continue developing and fine tuning their projects right up until the competition day.

Please note: You can complete the submission prMOOC - Digital Techttp://makerspace.tas.edu.auhnologies for Secondary teachersocess at any stage from the 2nd February until the submission deadline, but you will need to have registered by the 26th June to be able to complete the submission process.

For more information : www.youngictexplorers.net.au

For vision of YICTE 2014 event: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig6lTr0iNj4

STE(A)M Conference Hobart

Venue: Bahai Centre for Learning, Hobart
Date: Monday 17 August 2015
Time: 9:00- 4:00
Cost: $45

The inaugural STE(A)M Conference is an exciting initiative designed to spark curiosity and ignite enthusiasm in all Tasmanian teachers, from Primary to Senior Secondary.

From the inspiring Keynote to the collaborative and interactive workshops throughout the day, participants will have the opportunity to engage with educational experts from the five STE(A)M areas: Science, Technology, Engineering, (the Arts) Mathematics.

We look forward to meeting you on the day.
Information and registration at  http://makerspace.tas.edu.au/

CodeClub Australia training for Primary teachers

Venue: tba
Date: June and August 2015, tba
Time: tba
Cost: free

Code Club Australia announces in partnership with Tasmanian Minister for IT and Innovation, Hon Michael Ferguson, the launch of Code Club Tasmania Teacher Training Programme.

What is available:
Face to face training and support for learning the pedagogy around delivering Code Club curriculum in today's classroom.
We will cover the quick start guide, and a whistle stop tour term by term, getting you familiar and competent to teach your students the fundamentals of computer programming.

What is offered:
Training is available to Primary Educators across TAS, both public and private. Seating guaranteed to one educator from each school, and priority given to "ambassador educators" who are bringing Code Club to their school for the first time.


Register interest here:
See CodeClub FAQ here: www.codeclubau.org/faq
Contact hello@codeclubau.org with specific inquiries

MOOC - Think. Create. Code.

Venue: online - see http://blogs.adelaide.edu.au/cser/2015/03/06/enrol-for-the-cser-edx-mooc-think-create-code/
Date: April 2015
Time: flexible
Cost: Free

This course is about learning to code through the creation of artistic images and animations, resulting in your own online gallery.
 
Our world is becoming increasingly digitised. For many of us, barely a day goes past without recording a video, taking and editing photos, and sharing digital content across multiple applications. But how well do we understand the technology we're using, and how is digital information created and manipulated?
 
With many careers today involving some form of computation, there is a growing urgency for individuals to move beyond digital literacy, to understand how digital technologies work, and to develop literacy in code. This course will help you acquire it.
 
In this course, you will not only learn the inner workings of your digital world, but also create and manipulate images with code, creating new artworks and interactive animations. Your images and animations will be displayed in an online Art Gallery, forming part of a vibrant learning community.

You will also develop effective computational thinking skills and concepts transferable to other coding environments and programming languages.

MOOC - Digital Technologies for Secondary teachers  (CSER Digital Technologies - Next Steps, Years 7 & 8)

Venue: online - see https://csdigitaltech.appspot.com/cser_nextsteps/preview
Date: 1 May 2015
Time: flexible
Cost: Free

The Computer Science Education Research Group, CSER, at the University of Adelaide, have developed a number of open, online courses designed to assist teachers in addressing the new Digital Technologies learning area. They were supported in this process by Google and Digital Careers.

This course will takes the next steps within the Australian Digital Technologies learning area! Building upon the CSER Foundations-6 MOOC, this course is specifically designed for teachers of years 7 & 8, and addresses the learning objectives of the Australian Digital Technologies curriculum (7-8). Come learn about how digital technology can be integrated into your classroom, exploring example lesson plans, and helping form a community designed to share resources and support.

Slide2Learn

Venue: St Virgil's College, Austins Ferry. - see http://slide2learn.net
Date: Tues 7 - Wed 8 July 2015
Time: tba
Cost: tba

This year's Slide2Learn conference, Australia's longest running iOS in education training event, will be held in Hobart during the mid-year school holidays: Tuesday 7 - Wednesday 8 July, at St Virgil's College, Austins Ferry.

Registrations will be opening soon at http://slide2learn.net . You can register your interest, to receive priority notification of details and registration opening, by completing this form.

This is an exciting opportunity for Tasmanian educators, so please pass the message on to your educator friends, colleagues and schools who use mobile devices, especially iPads.

Robotic Vision

Venue: online from QUT, see course information
Date: 13 April 2015 for 7 weeks
Time:
Cost: free https://www.qut.edu.au/study/short-courses-and-professional-development/short-courses/robotic-vision

Robotic Vision introduces you to the field of computer vision and the mathematics and algorithms that underpin it. You'll learn how to interpret images to determine the colour, size, shape and position of objects in the scene. We'll work with you to build an intelligent vision system that can recognise objects of different colours and shapes.

This course is open to anyone who is interested in robotics and vision systems.

Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge

Venue: online at http://www.bebras.edu.au/ Date:  7-8 September 2015 and 16-27 March 2015 Time: Bebras takes students about an hour of class time Cost: free! Bebras is an international challenge that is fun for students of all ages. Over 2000 Tasmanian students participated in 2014. There are 5 categories with different levels of difficulties •    Years 3+4 •    Years 5+6 •    Years 7+8 •    Years 9+10 •    Years 11+12.

Bebras is undertaken online at school, and can be completed in about an hour. 

Students can participate individually or in small groups (up to 4). Collaboration and sharing during the challenge are encouraged!

No prior computing/programming/ICT knowledge is required.

Bebras is great fun and addresses some of the aspects of the Digital Technologies curriculum.

SC101 Digitech by the Bay. Engaging Learners through Innovative Teaching

This event is a collaboration between Digital Learning and Teaching Victoria and Centre for Learning research and Innovation,The Geelong College'.

Venue: The Geelong College, Talbot Street,  Newtown, Geelong VIC
Date: Saturday, 14 March 2015
Time: 8:30am to 3:30pm
Cost: $160 (varies)

https://dltv.vic.edu.au/events/sc101-digitech-bay-engaging-learners-through-innovative-teaching

Keynote Stephen Collis  Innovating Learning to Engage Every Child [Northern Beaches Christian College]. How can we personalise learning so that all learners thrive? Since 2005, Steve Collis and colleagues at Northern Beaches Christian School in Sydney have explored a range of innovations to address this question. The innovations have involved physical space, technology, Project-Based Learning, and more, but the glue holding everything together has remained relationship and collaboration.

Session Options
Coding the Classroom - Jack Lawicki [Educational Consultant].
Computational Thinking - Michael Ha [Penleigh& Essendon Grammar School].
The Genius Hour & Learning Transformation - Eleni Kyritsis [Firbank Grammar School].
The Connected Classroom - Mel Cashen [Princes Hill PS].
Interactive Fiction - Adrian Camm [The Geelong College].
Microsoft and Digitech - Rowena Ulbrick [Microsoft Master Trainer].

These options will be followed by a closing plenary of all presenters, followed by opportunities to continue the conversations.

Spend a great day hearing from inspiring teachers, building your networks. Come away with ideas and resources to transform your classroom!
Flyer at https://dltv.vic.edu.au/sites/dltv.vic.edu.au/files/content-files/dltv_-_digitech_by_the_bay_-_flyer_2014.pdf

ACS EdXN: Risk Management for Big Data Projects

Venue: Hadley's Orient Hotel, "The Stables"  34 Murray Street Hobart Date: Tuesday 10 March Time: 6:00 pm Cost: Free for  ACS Members, $20 non-members

 

More details and registration at https://acs.org.au/branches/tasmania/events/upcoming-events/event-details?eveID=60316589907865

Big data is exciting.  It's "data that's too big, too fast or too hard for existing tools to process".  Opportunities have been perceived across the length and breadth of business and government.  Leading commentators have heralded a revolution: "Let the data speak!", they say.

Opportunities do exist.  However, experience has taught us to recognise that where there are opportunities, there are threats as well.  If the data is 'big, fast and hard', and if 'big data analytics' are brilliant but untested, then organisations – and their executives and Directors – need to weigh up the pros and cons before they commit too heavily to applying the new techniques.

Attend this seminar to discover the background to big data and big data analytics, and how to apply the IS profession's accumulated understanding of data quality and decision quality in the new context.  You will also hear about the risks inherent in the new movement, and learn about risk management processes that enable organisations to distinguish opportunities from threats. Let the data speak, but listen.

International Women’s Day Cocktail Event

Venue: Wellington Room, Wrest Point Hotel. Date:  Friday 6 March Time: 5:30  for 6:00 pm Cost: $15 ACS Members, $25 non-members International Women’s Day Cocktail Event: Leading Ahead - Connect, Disrupt and MAKE IT HAPPEN!

More details and registration at  https://acs.org.au/branches/tasmania/events/upcoming-events/event-details?eveID=10319014110117

ACS are excited to invite both men and women of IT to celebrate International Women’s Day in style in 2015.

This is your chance to meet individuals with a wide range of experience in your state to discuss ideas, and look to the future to which Tasmania's uniqueness can lead. There is an immense amount of career diversity available in Tasmania for those with an IT background or for those looking to diversify into a new career in IT - come and meet the people with these careers!

Each year International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated the first week of March. The first International Women's Day was held in 1911. Thousands of events occur to mark the economic, political and social achievements of women. Organisations, governments, charities, educational institutions, women's groups, corporations and the media celebrate the day.  Our event is one such celebration - and you can find out too what ACS has learnt about the careers of its female members.

NOTE: The site indicates a cost, but students can be issued with a code and will get in free (and will be only offered non-alcoholic mocktails). Details later from ACS Tasmania

Edumate demonstration

Venue: The Friends’ School – 23 Commercial Road, North Hobart
Date: Tuesday 24 February 2015
Time: 1:00 for a 1:30 start
Cost: Free

Duncan Gillsespie, Director of ICT at The Friends' School, has arranged a demonstration of the portal/LMS Edumate www.edumate.com.au/. The Friends' School is particularly interested in Edumate as they have an outcomes based approach to assessment and thought it would be worth opening the demonstration up to others.

To register to attend, please visit  http://bit.ly/16Cztkr

Year 11 and 12 Curriculum Survey

The December 2014 curriculum forums Strengthening Senior Secondary Education in Tasmania stimulated lively debate and thoughtful professional discussions on possible future directions for Years 11 and 12 curriculum in Tasmania. 

This survey is specifically targeted at teachers in Tasmania in Years 11 and 12 and is a further stage in the curriculum consultation process. Its purpose is to harvest individual responses from teachers working in the three senior secondary education sectors in Tasmania – Government, Catholic and Independent. The survey will inform future consultation and planning about Years 11 and 12 curriculum provision in Tasmania. The survey should take approximately 30 minutes to complete and all responses are anonymous. 

NEAT encourages members to participate in this survey, which will have a significant impact on Years 11 and 12 Curriculum Provision in the future. Although the survey is targeted at teachers in Years 11 and 12, it has relevance for teachers at all levels of schooling.
 
The survey closes Friday, Feburary 20. Access the survey at https://edu.formstack.com/forms/surveyfeb2015

MOOC - Introduction to Robotics

Venue: online from QUT, see course information
Date: 15 February 2015 for 7 weeks
Time:
Cost: free

https://www.qut.edu.au/study/short-courses-and-professional-development/short-courses/introduction-to-robotics

This course is an introduction to the exciting world of robotics and the mathematics and algorithms that underpin it. You'll develop an understanding of the representation of pose and motion, kinematics, dynamics and control. You'll also be introduced to the variety of robots and the diversity of tasks to which this knowledge and skills can be applied, the role of robots in society, and associated ethical issues.This course is open to anyone who is interested in robotics and vision systems.

Apple Distinguished Educators Awards

Dr Jason Zagami, President Australian Council for Computers in Education (ACCE) advises that  2015 Applications for the Apple Distinguished Educators Program are now open
https://ade.apple.com/community/worldwide-program-news/blog/2015/02/03/class-of-2015

MOOC - Digital Technologies for Primary teachers

Venue: online - see https://csdigitaltech.appspot.com/cser_foundations6/preview
Date: beginning Dec 2014
Time: flexible
Cost: Free

The Computer Science Education Research Group, CSER, at the University of Adelaide, have developed a number of open, online courses designed to assist teachers in addressing the new Digital Technologies learning area. They were supported in this process by Google and Digital Careers.

This MOOC is aimed at Foundation - Year 6 teachers.
The structure is:

• Unit 1 - Pre-MOOC Preparation
• Unit 2 - Introducing Digital Technologies
• Unit 3 - Data - Patterns & Play
• Unit 4 - Data - Representation
• Unit 5 - Digital Systems
• Unit 6 - Information Systems
• Unit 7 - Algorithms and Programming
• Unit 8 - Visual Programming
• Lesson Plan Portfolio
• Unit 9 - Additional Resources

See https://csdigitaltech.appspot.com/cser_foundations6/announcements for more information and  registration

iOS-8 Developer Workshop (ACS / Secret Lab Collaboration)

Venue: Waji Board Room | Level 2 | City Mill 11 Morrison Street Hobart
Date: Thu/Fri Nov 13 and 14, 2014
Time: 10am to 5pm each day
Cost: Regular Price $1000, ACS Member price $800, or join ACS and pay a total of $1152 inc ACS Membership.

Two days of developer training for existing developers who have no, or little, experience with Objective-C and Cocoa Touch: learn how to build iOS 8 apps for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

Every programmer needs a great platform to write their amazing apps on, and iOS 8 is the next evolution of the world's most advanced mobile app platform. Almost three quarters of iPhone users are already running it. How are you going to be positioned to compete in the fast-paced App Store?

Come join us in Hobart for two action-packed days of training and tuition, where you'll learn all you need to create amazing apps for iOS. You'll learn:

• How to design an app that your users will love
• The ins-and-outs of Objective-C, the programming language used in iOS
• How to use the all-new Xcode 5 developer environment to its full potential
• How to take advantage of the incredible new developer features introduced in iOS 8

You'll get the most out of this course if you've developed software before, but you don't have to have written apps for iOS yet. If you have, that's great too - iOS 8 brings so much new stuff to the table that you'll be learning heaps, no matter your background.

By the end of the course, you'll be fully trained in developing advanced applications using iOS 8 technologies, and be ready to apply them to whatever problem you're trying to solve. You'll also receive an exclusive digital copy of  the Secret Lab iOS training material, so you can continue your learning from the comfort of your own sofa.

Syllabus Summary:

• Overview of programming with Objective-C 2.0
• Programming with Swift, Apple's new language, including recent advances new to iOS 8
• Common design patterns in Cocoa Touch, the framework you'll use to write apps
• Exploring Xcode, the iOS IDE
• Using the iOS Simulator
• Developing a data-driven iOS app
• Techniques for designing a great user experience
• Multi-tasking and multi-threading with Grand Central Dispatch and blocks
• Integrating Twitter into your apps
• Using Core Animation to build fluid, dynamic interfaces
• Playing media with AV Foundation

The Trainers

Training is conducted by iOS developers from Secret Lab Pty. Ltd.
Register and more info.

Australian Computer Society EdXN - Disruptive Technologies and Change

Venue: The Old Woolstore Apartment Hotel 1 Macquarie St, Hobart
Date: Thu 30 October 2014
Time: 6:00 pm
Cost: ACS Members: $20.00, Non Members: $30.00.  Counts as 2 CP hours for ACS members, SFIA level 5

Disruptive Technologies bring significant benefits however; there are undesirable consequences as workforces shrink or are displaced. This study explores the impact on individuals, communities and societies in the business context.
 
Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) are delivering order of magnitude improvements at significantly reduced cost. The ability to create, capture, communicate and process digital information is increasing at exponential rates. By the end of 2013, the 'digital universe' of all digital data created will reach nearly 50 percent more than 2012 volumes and almost a quadrupling of 2010 volumes (IDC 2013). Consequently, deployment of these technologies is causing significant economic, business and social change.

In turn, these technological advances, driven by the economic imperative to improve productivity are dramatically changing business practices.
This is not necessarily a new phenomenon however, the sheer number, scale and rapidity of these advances is challenging fundamental assumptions we make about the way we live, work and play. The term ‘Disruptive Technology’ has been coined to describe these phenomena and include amongst others: Cloud Computing; Mobile Platforms; The Internet of Things; Big Data and 3D Printing.
 
These advances bring significant benefits however; these changes can also bring about undesirable consequences as workforces shrink or are displaced and as work activities are redesigned, relocated or eliminated.

This study explores the impact these advances will have on individuals, communities and societies in the business context. Its aim is to provide leaders with insights into how to best manage the transition into a ‘post-disruption’ environment.

Register and further information

Burger Thing - intro to iOS Development

Venue: pOp Cafe Hobart, 178 Collins St, Hobart,Tasmania.  Google map and directions
Date: Fri 17 October 2014
Time: 9:30- 3:30
Cost: $35  per head - register here

There’s never been a better time to learn how to make apps for iOS. With the release of the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and with the power of iOS 8 fuelling your creations, making apps has never been easier or more rewarding.

SecretLab and ACS have teamed up with the folks at pOp Cafe to create an exciting workshop, in which you’ll build an app from scratch that lets you design and order your own custom-made pOp burgers, fresh from the kitchen!

You’ll learn:

• How to create a complete iOS app with real-world utility
• How to design apps that users want to use
• How to communicate with servers over the network
• Come join us for a day of coding, fun, food and learning!

This course assumes that you know how to program, but don’t necessarily know anything about how to program for iOS devices.

You’ll need:

• A Mac laptop, running OS X 10.9.4 or later
• A copy of Xcode 6.0 or later installed - download it for free from http://developer.apple.com

All of this for just $35 per person - and that includes a coffee to get you going and the burger you design.

Space is limited and we expect this one to sell out - so get your tickets quickly!

ACCELN Webinar - Seymour Papert, father of educational computing

Venue: http://acceln.wikispaces.com/ or direct to the Google Hangout https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9lfP1CBxbU
Date: 01 September 2014
Time: 8:30pm
This week we will celebrate the work by the father of education technology Semour Papert. It is an open microphone so we will be inviting our audience to celebrate and join in our exploration, discussion and online problem solving. Along the way, we may come to better understand his revolutionary ideas, computational thinking and legacy. Seymour Papert's legacy.

ACCELN is a weekly series of 30 min live education broadcasts from Australia. hosted by Amanda Rablin and Roland Gesthuizen. The shows are recorded live each Monday evening (8:30pm EAT Brisbane/Melbourne/Sydney time, 8:00pm Adelaide, and 6:30pm Perth time)) and feature an international panel of guests. The archive for each show can be viewed at http://acceln.wikispaces.com/ 



The ACCELN is aligned with the Australian Council for Computers in Education (ACCE). The link to each show will be posted on the ACCELN wiki and if you register as a listener, we will send you an alert when each show goes live. The presenters love hearing your feedback about the show or ideas about a future show. Please drop them a line or share a SpeakPipe voicemail message.

ACCELN Webinar - Google Classroom

Venue: http://acceln.wikispaces.com/ for recording
Date: 25 August 2014
Time: 8:30pm
This week +Chris Betcher will be giving us a tour of Google Classroom and we discuss its potential for GAFE schools.

ACCELN is a weekly series of 30 min live education broadcasts from Australia. hosted by Amanda Rablin and Roland Gesthuizen. The shows are recorded live each Monday evening (8:30pm EAT Brisbane/Melbourne/Sydney time, 8:00pm Adelaide, and 6:30pm Perth time)) and feature an international panel of guests. The archive for each show can be viewed at http://acceln.wikispaces.com/ 



The ACCELN is aligned with the Australian Council for Computers in Education (ACCE). The link to each show will be posted on the ACCELN wiki and if you register as a listener, we will send you an alert when each show goes live. The presenters love hearing your feedback about the show or ideas about a future show. Please drop them a line or share a SpeakPipe voicemail message.

ACCELN Webinar - Wearable Technologies

Venue: http://acceln.wikispaces.com/ for recording
Date: 01 September 2014
Time: 8:30pm
This week we will explore wearable technology and its potential impact on our teaching and learning. Bring along your VR Helmets or assorted Borg implants.

ACCELN is a weekly series of 30 min live education broadcasts from Australia. hosted by Amanda Rablin and Roland Gesthuizen. The shows are recorded live each Monday evening (8:30pm EAT Brisbane/Melbourne/Sydney time, 8:00pm Adelaide, and 6:30pm Perth time)) and feature an international panel of guests. The archive for each show can be viewed at http://acceln.wikispaces.com/ 



The ACCELN is aligned with the Australian Council for Computers in Education (ACCE). The link to each show will be posted on the ACCELN wiki and if you register as a listener, we will send you an alert when each show goes live. The presenters love hearing your feedback about the show or ideas about a future show. Please drop them a line or share a SpeakPipe voicemail message.

Bebras Computational Thinking for Years 3-12

Venue: online www.bebras.edu.au
Date: Mon 01 - 15 September 2014
Looking for an easy and fun way to introduce the computational thinking aspect of the new Digital Technologies curriculum?

You and your students are invited to participate in the Bebras - Computational Thinking Challenge. It is a free, school based, online competition, done under teacher supervision within an hour (45-60 minutes).

Students can participate individually or in small groups (up to 4), and collaboration and sharing during the challenge is encouraged. No prior computing or ICT knowledge is required . Teachers can select when they want to hold the competition within the first two weeks of September.
 
This Challenge is open to students from Grade 3 – right through to Year 12.
 
The Bebras contest was created in Lithuania in 2004 and has already spread all around the world. Bebras is an international initiative to promote informatics among school students of all ages. The online challenge asks small, interesting questions that can be answered with no prior knowledge about informatics or computer science but are related to informatics concepts and require thinking about information, computation, data processing and so on.
 
For more information about Bebras and the link to some sample tasks visit www.bebras.edu.au .

NEAT session - using social and mobile media to engage with school communities

Venue: The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, Marieville Esplanade, Sandy Bay.
Date: Thursday 21 August
Time: 4:15- 5:30
Cost: Free to individual and school professional association members (ie TASITE). $10.00 to non-members of a NEAT professional association.

This session will provide practical examples of the use of social and mobile media by educators to engage with school communities.

It will include an overview of ways the Department of Education is using these media for marketing and communication, and provide advice on how organisations can implement and sustain an effective online presence to meet the needs of different audiences.

The session will leave time for questions and discussion.

The Department currently uses Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Flickr to engage with different audiences. There are 130 Department Facebook pages with 44,000 subscribers. More information in the flier.

RSVP to NEAT President Charles Morgan at Charles.morgan@education.tas.gov.au or 0408 197 467

NCSS Challenge

Venue:  online https://groklearning.com/challenge/
Date: Mon 04 August - Sunday 7 September
What's the NCSS Challenge?

"The Challenge is a programming competition for secondary school students. It’s been running in Australia for the last 9 years, and this year it’s open to everyone.

The Challenge is unlike any other programming competition. We’ll teach you how to program as we go along, rather than expecting you to be an expert already. If you’re a seasoned coder, we have something for you too – the problems range from relatively simple to mind-bendingly hard.

For 5 weeks starting on Monday 4th August, 2014 and running until Sunday 7th September, 2014, we will release a set of notes containing the information you will need to complete the week's programming challenges"

The NCSS Challenge teaches students to code in Python 3.3. Python is an easy to learn scripting language used for many different purposes such as web applications and scientific research. Companies like Google, Facebook and Reddit all use Python in their infrastructure and web services.
https://groklearning.com/challenge/

Learning to Teach Online -MOOC from University of NSW. (in Coursera)

Venue: online https://class.coursera.org/ltto-001
Date: Mon 28 July - 22 Sept 2014

The Learning to Teach Online (LTTO) MOOC is based upon the multi award winning open educational resource of the same name, developed by Simon McIntyre and Karin Watson. They have built upon these resources in this MOOC, supporting them with a course structure that puts them into a supportive framework for you all to help you find and connect with each other to share your own experiences in the Discussion Forums.

The MOOC is designed to help existing educators establish or improve their own online or blended teaching practices, and is suitable for all teachers in higher education, elementary, college, vocational or private education. There is no requirement for you to possess prior knowledge of online teaching practices or related technologies, as the course is aimed at beginners or those wishing to expand their knowledge. As part of the course, you will have the opportunity to develop your understanding of effective online teaching practices and their relationship to the use of different technologies. You will also be encouraged to progressively design and reflect upon your own online learning activity, assessment or resource for use in your own class if you choose to undertake the course Assignments.
https://class.coursera.org/ltto-001 

ACCELN Webinar - Resources for Digital Technologies from DLTV

Venue: https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/ctnitp7bmji2767kmml4jun93oc
Examining the digital learning posters and animations launched at the DLTV2014 conference and mentioned at our last hangout and funded by the Australian Council for Computers in Education (ACCE). Joined by Jeremy Kablstein and Mark Ricardson from the DLTV Office who helped to develop this resource.

ACCELN is a weekly series of 30 min live education broadcasts from Australia. hosted by Amanda Rablin and Roland Gesthuizen. The shows are recorded live each Monday evening (6:30pm Perth, 8:30pm Brisbane, 9:30 pm Melbourne, Sydney (+10 GMT) and feature an international panel of guests. The archive for each show can be viewed below. We will be making these popular vodcasts available in 2013 on iTunes as a downloadable resource.

The ACCELN is aligned with the Australian Council for Computers in Education (ACCE). The link to each show will be posted on the ACCELN wiki and if you register as a listener, we will send you an alert when each show goes live. The presenters love hearing your feedback about the show or ideas about a future show. Please drop them a line or share a SpeakPipe voicemail message.

ACCELN Webinar - Computational Thinking

Venue: online https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B2GNZLfmjA for recording.

Nicky Ringland and friends from Grok Learning  discuss all things computational thinking as we count down to the launch of this year's NCSS Challenge.

ACCELN is a weekly series of 30 min live education broadcasts from Australia. hosted by Amanda Rablin and Roland Gesthuizen. The shows are recorded live each Monday evening (6:30pm Perth, 8:30pm Brisbane, 9:30 pm Melbourne, Sydney (+10 GMT) and feature an international panel of guests. The archive for each show can be viewed below. We will be making these popular vodcasts available in 2013 on iTunes as a downloadable resource.

The ACCELN is aligned with the Australian Council for Computers in Education (ACCE). The link to each show will be posted on the ACCELN wiki and if you register as a listener, we will send you an alert when each show goes live. The presenters love hearing your feedback about the show or ideas about a future show. Please drop them a line or share a SpeakPipe voicemail message.

ACCELN Webinar- peer-based learning tools

Venue: online https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxAH_UGXQgw for recording

Daniel Ingvarson and Jill Abbott examine digital literacy around search, peer review and collaboration. They talk through ways to assist in scaffolding teachers and students to engage and be able to review progress in these areas, and explore a new tool under development. 

ACCELN is a weekly series of 30 min live education broadcasts from Australia. hosted by Amanda Rablin and Roland Gesthuizen. The shows are recorded live each Monday evening (6:30pm Perth, 8:30pm Brisbane, 9:30 pm Melbourne, Sydney (+10 GMT) and feature an international panel of guests. The archive for each show can be viewed below. We will be making these popular vodcasts available in 2013 on iTunes as a downloadable resource.

The ACCELN is aligned with the Australian Council for Computers in Education (ACCE). The link to each show will be posted on the ACCELN wiki and if you register as a listener, we will send you an alert when each show goes live. The presenters love hearing your feedback about the show or ideas about a future show. Please drop them a line or share a SpeakPipe voicemail message.

ACCELN Webinar- the NMC Horizon Report

Venue: online https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghDWHqXKR2I for recording.

Jason Zagami our regular panel member and ACCE President explores the K-12 Horizon report for 2014.

ACCELN is a weekly series of 30 min live education broadcasts from Australia. hosted by Amanda Rablin and Roland Gesthuizen. The shows are recorded live each Monday evening (6:30pm Perth, 8:30pm Brisbane, 9:30 pm Melbourne, Sydney (+10 GMT) and feature an international panel of guests. The archive for each show can be viewed below. We will be making these popular vodcasts available in 2013 on iTunes as a downloadable resource.

The ACCELN is aligned with the Australian Council for Computers in Education (ACCE). The link to each show will be posted on the ACCELN wiki and if you register as a listener, we will send you an alert when each show goes live. The presenters love hearing your feedback about the show or ideas about a future show. Please drop them a line or share a SpeakPipe voicemail message.

Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills - MOOC from University of Melbourne. (in Coursera)

Venue: online https://www.coursera.org/course/atc21s
Date: 30 June - 11 Aug 2014

This free online course covers the following;

• The influence of technology on the workplace and its potential impact on education
• 21st century skills defined and a framework of these skills
• Assessment methodology for 21st century skills
• Developmental approach to assessment and learning
• An emphasis on collaborative problem solving (CPS)
• Assessment tasks for assessing CPS
• Developing skills in peer and self-assessment for CPS
• Scoring and interpreting student performance when acting as a member of a group
• Linking assessment and teaching in a developmental approach
• The ATC21S project and its products
• Interpreting reports and linking to teaching
• Design principles for assessing collaborative problem solving
• Access to the ATC21S materials

https://www.coursera.org/course/atc21s

The Australian Curriculum A Day with Dr Tim Bell and Dr Katrina Falkner - For Primary Schools (organised by the Catholic Education Office)

South
Venue: St Therese’s Catholic School, 24 Hopkins Street, Moonah

Date: Tuesday 1st July 2014

Time: 9.30am – 2.30pm
North
Venue: Our Lady of Mercy Catholic School,22 West Goderich Street, Deloraine

Date: Thursday 3rd July 2014

Time: 10.00am – 3.00pm
Cost: $18.00 (excluding GST)
Dr Tim Bell and Dr Katrina Falkner have been invited to Tasmania to work with teachers on the introduction of Digital Technologies into the curriculum. This is a wonderful opportunity for teachers to gain confidence and understanding in the soon to be endorsed curriculum.

In this workshop, Dr Tim Bell and Dr Katrina Falkner will take participants through some of the activities that have proved popular in schools, and will also share experiences from New Zealand and other countries adopting computer science as a topic in schools.

This will be a practical day where participants will be able to explore a number of fun and engaging ways developed to assist in introducing Digital Technologies to students.

RSVP: Please complete the registration form and return to Georgina Ciafardini no later than Wednesday 18th June 2014. Correspondence will be sent to you confirming your registration.
Flyer for this event.
View: View the video of the work being done in New Zealand at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOYy4kyLEHs

CSIRO ICT in Schools – a partnership program

Venue: CSIRO Auditorium, Castray Esplanade, Battery Point
Date: Tuesday June 24
Time: 4 – 6 pm

CSIRO Education’s successful Scientists and Mathematicians in Schools program is expanding to include a new element: ICT in Schools – a partnership program.  ICT in Schools provides an opportunity for teachers to form partnerships with ICT professionals and bring real world ICT to the classroom.
Please join us as we launch ICT in Schools – a partnership program and showcase ICT and digital technology in Tasmania.

Guest Speakers:
•    Ray Leonard -  Australian Computer Society
•    Prof Paulo de Souza - CSIRO Computational Informatics
•    Dr Carolyn King - Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, UTAS
Exhibitors:
•    Human Interface Technology Laboratory Australia (HIT Lab)
•    Secret Lab mobile app development studio
•    UTAS School of Engineering and ICT
•    ICT in Schools – a partnership program

RSVP Friday June 20 to Jennifer, phone 6226 0911 or email sis.tas@csiro.au
Refreshments provided

CSIRO Education gratefully acknowledges the participation of the Australian Computer Society and the support of the Tasmanian Society for Information Technology in Education in organising this event.

ICT in Schools, part of Scientists and Mathematicians in Schools, is supported by the Australian Government.

Privacy notice: photos may be taken at this event for the purpose of promoting ICT in Schools.  If you would prefer not to have your photograph taken, please let the photographer know at the time.

Jennifer Hemer, Project Officer | Scientists and Mathematicians in Schools, CSIRO

Flyer for this event.

TASITE AGM 2014 - Guest speakers:  using mobile apps for communicating with your school community, and CSIRO ICT Professionals in Schools

Venue: Hodgkin Hall. The Friends' School High School campus, Commercial Road North Hobart.
Date: 23 June 2014
Time: 5:30- 7:30
 
Notice is hereby given of the Annual General Meeting of TASITE for 2014. The AGM will be followed by a Guest Speaker . Nominations for positions of Executive Members and Committee can be submitted via the nomination form.

The meeting will be followed at 6 pm by presentations and discussion on the use of school apps for parent communication. Ever wondered how to tell parents and carers all they need to know about  newsletters, events and cancellations, school news, school or grade notices, school meeting information, timetables, sick note forms, canteen orders, and school publications? A school mobile app may be a great solution.

Jo Berriman of Montrose Bay High School will present a session on one school's journey in implementing and using a mobile app. MBHS has been using a mobile app for some time to manage communication with parents and community, and Jo has offered to share their experience.

Roger Stack from DOE will outline some of the options available to schools in the way of "off the shelf" customisable mobile apps for parent communication.

Additionally we are fortunate to have as a guest Joel Cowey, ICT Partnerships and Projects Coordinator with CSIRO. Joel will outline the opportunities for schools to partner with local ICT companies, as a lead-in to the launch event on the next evening.

Please RSVP by email to Secretary TASITE  info@tasite.tas.edu.au by Friday 20 June 2014.

ACS event -  "The Role Of Technology in Tasmania's Future" a blueprint for Tasmania!

Venue: Old Woolstore Apartment Hotel Hobart
Date: 20th May 2014 
Time:  6:00PM - 7.30PM

Join ACS National President Brenda Aynsley along with ACS National Secretariat representatives Including CEO Alan Patterson for the public release of the ACS-TAS White Paper and ACS National Skills White Paper.
 
Special Guest:  Hon. Michael Ferguson MP, Minister for Health, Minister for Innovation Science & Technology

 The Tasmanian Branch Executive Committee of the ACS (ACS-TAS) has prepared this paper to consolidate the advice it offers to relevant stakeholders of the Tasmanian ICT sector. It has been designed to provide advice to those formulating ICT policy and to encourage informed discussion of important policy issues facing the State.

"Now more than ever, Tasmania needs to focus on the importance of ICT to our economy and how it will affect us in ways we may not even yet comprehend. The ACS believes that now is the time for both the Government and the Tasmanian people to take the opportunity to look closely at the State’s current ICT policies.
The ACS recognises that much has been achieved over the last few years with regard to ICT and the economy, but we believe that some fundamental changes need to be made in strategic thinking as a matter of urgency. It is imperative that it is recognised that ICT is not an isolated entity, but instead is embedded across all facets of the economy and the community as a whole.

Areas of focus:

• High level of digital literacy across the entire community.
• Develop ICT skills capability through Government & NGO supported programs.
• A single unified ICT strategy for Tasmania.
• Foster stronger links between ICT industry, research and development, academia and traditional industries such as agriculture, aquaculture, forestry and tourism.
• Capitalise on specific opportunities and the competitive advantage our geographic location and lifestyle factors affords us.
• Emphasis the already excellent Education and Research institutions e.g. UTAS, CSIRO, Menzies, IMAS, into a broader economic and social focus.
• Greater focus placed on the use of international standards for governance and skills mapping, based on ISO38500 and SFIA in ICT.

In order to achieve these goals Tasmania needs a greater vision; a holistic strategy developed with advice from an expert panel and founded on empirical evidence and data. By focusing on digital literacy, the links between ICT, government, research and development, community, academia, and industries, as well as the advantages that Tasmania’s location and lifestyle bring, we can develop the necessary strategies for driving the Tasmanian economy into the future."

Be part of the most detailed and constructive discussion on the relationship of ICT and the Tasmanian Economy.
Register for this event.

Google Experience Day

Venue: Claremont College
Date: Monday 19 May 2014
Time: 4:30-5:30 (public forum)
RSVP:  Claremont College  6249 6868

Claremont College is inviting Southern secondary college students, teachers, learning area managers, APs  and careers advisors to an insightful and one-off opportunity which is one of only 5 such experiences provided by Google for Australian schools. 
 
Google software engineers will talk to students and teachers about life as a Google engineer and about how studying computer science and other digital technologies and STEM subjects will impact on future career options and pathways.

Students and teachers of: Computer Science 3, Information Systems and Digital Technologies 3, Computer Graphics and Design 2/3, Electronics 2/3 and Computing 2
Curriculum APs, ASTs of ICT, Maths and Science and Careers Advisors are welcome to attend.

11.30 – 12.30  Panel Session and Q&A with Google software engineers (schools only)
4.30 – 5.30      Public Session

BACKGROUND
Google invited teachers from all over Australia to come together at the first ever Digital Technologies Curriculum Summit last November, to discuss the best ways to bring computer science and computational thinking into Australian classrooms.  From this group, Google recognised five STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics)and computer science educators who are making an outstanding contribution to teaching in Australia, rewarding them and their schools with a Google Experience Day. Claremont College’s Rob Torok was one of those five educators. Part of this recognition included this Google Experience Day.

ACS TAS Forum - "The Square Kilometre Array"

Venue: Old Woolstore Hotel, Hobart
Date: Thursday 8th May 2014
Time: 5.30PM - 7.30PM
Cost: free.
This is an ACS Education Across the Nation event. Registration is essential. This event counts as 5 CP hours for ACS members.

Ingesting data at 3,600 GBytes/s, storing 10,000s of 200TB files using a 64PFlop supercomputer (64PFlop may be on the low side) and trying to understand the evolution of galaxies; might sound a little ludicrous but it’s what Kevin Vinsen does for a living.
 
In this Education across the Nation presentation Kevin will describe the scale of The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Science Data Processing (SDP) problem and how an international team of Astronomy, High Performance Computing, and Software Engineering specialists are trying to have a design completed by the end of 2015.
Some of the problems facing the team are purely technical, but bringing 21 organisations together from a dozen countries to design something of this size, scale and complexity presents its own set of challenges when it comes to Software Engineering, Modelling, Communications and team dynamics.

Kevin will also talk about his other passion - theSkyNet POGS and how machine learning will help with the huge datasets.

About Kevin Vinsen

Research Associate Professor Kevin Vinsen joined the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in late 2009. ICRAR is a joint venture between Curtin University and The University of Western Australia, with funding from the State Government of Western Australia.

Kevin’s focus is for the issues caused by the huge data sets that modern radio and optical astronomy generates. As a member of ICRAR’s Data Intensive Research Group, Kevin is working with colleagues from around the world to design the science data pipe for the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope – which, when constructed, will be the biggest telescope on the planet.
 
Kevin’s main research interests are high speed data ingest, developing methods for the automated classification of galaxies using multi-wavelength data, machine learning algorithms and modelling complex systems.
 
When he’s not dealing with super computers Kevin works on on a citizen science project called the PS1 Optical Galaxy Survey (POGS), a part of the SkyNet initiative. Using the collective processing power of home computers POGS is helping astronomers and astrophysicists to calculate the spectral energy distributions from optical infra-red and ultraviolet images to produce the first public catalog of its kind. This will require 10’s of millions of CPU hours to calculate and 100’s of TBytes of storage.
 
Kevin considers himself one of the luckiest geeks on the planet. He is paid to do what he loves - astronomy and computing with some of the biggest baddest computers on the planet. No wonder he is always smiling.

Flyer for this event.
Register with ACS for this event.

Digital Technologies And The Australian Curriculum: A Day With Dr Tim Bell and Dr Katrina Falkner (organised by the Catholic Education Office)

Venue: The Grange, Campbell Town
Date: Wednesday 2nd July 2014
Time: 9.30am – 2.30pm
Cost: $22.00 (excluding GST)

Dr Tim Bell and Dr Katrina Falkner have been invited to Tasmania to work with teachers on the introduction of Digital Technologies into the curriculum. This is a wonderful opportunity for teachers to gain confidence and understanding in the soon to be endorsed curriculum.

In this workshop, Dr Tim Bell and Dr Katrina Falkner will take participants through some of the activities that have proved popular in schools, and will also share experiences from New Zealand and other countries adopting computer science as a topic in schools.

This will be a practical day where participants will be able to explore a number of fun and engaging ways developed to assist in introducing Digital Technologies to students.
Targeted Principals, ICT Coordinators and Curriculum Leaders in Participants: Secondary Schools and Colleges are invited and encouraged  to attend.

RSVP: Places are strictly limited. Please complete the registration form and return to Georgina Ciafardini no later than Wednesday 18th June 2014. Correspondence will be sent to you confirming your registration.
Review: Computer Science Highlighted for Secondary students at http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/csfieldguide/

Dr Tim Bell:
Dr Tim Bell has over 20 years experience working with primary and secondary school students. He has developed the “Computer Science Unplugged” program for primary schools, and “Computer Science Highlighted” for secondary schools. Both address many computational thinking topics without using computers at all.

Tim is a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Canterbury. His main current research interest is computer science education. His “Computer Science Unplugged” program for students of all ages is widely used internationally, and its books and DVDs have been translated into about 18 languages. Recently he has been actively involved in supporting the adoption of the new Computer Science standards in New Zealand schools. Tim has received a number of awards for his work in Computer Science education, including the ETH (Zurich) ABZ International honorary medal in 2013. Tim is also a qualified musician, and performs regularly on instruments that have black-and-white keyboards.

Dr Katrina Falkner:
Dr Katrina Falkner is an Associate Professor and Head of School in the School of Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering, Computer, and Mathematical Sciences at  the University of Adelaide in South Australia. Katrina leads the Computer Science Education Research Group.

The CSER group, in collaboration with Google Australia, has recently launched an open, free online course, the CSER Digital Technologies MOOC, designed to assist primary school teachers in addressing the new content and concepts included within the Digital Technologies subject. Katrina will talk about her work with teachers in Australia who are enrolled or wish to enrol in the MOOC and how it supports the new Digital Technologies curriculum.

Download flyer for this event

Digital Technologies: Implementing the Australian Curriculum Learning Area  - free online course aimed at Primary teachers

Venue: online as a MOOC at https://csdigitaltech.appspot.com
Date:  24th March (commences)
Time: flexible
Cost: free
Intended Audience: Primary teachers and others interested in implementing the Australian Curriculum Digital Technologies curriculum.

This course will explain the fundamentals of digital technology and computational thinking specifically addressing learning objectives of the Australian Digital Technologies curriculum (Foundation-6). Come learn about how digital technology can be integrated into your classroom, exploring example lesson plans, and helping form a community designed to share resources and support.   The course is provided by Computer Science Education Research Group, School of Computer Science , University of Adelaide  and supported by Google.

•     Unit 1 - Welcome and Introduction
•     Unit 2 - Data - Patterns& Play
•     Unit 3 - Data - Representation
•     Unit 4 - Digital Systems
•     Unit 5 - Information Systems
•     Unit 6 - Algorithms and Programming
•     Unit 7 - Visual Programming
•     Lesson Plan Portfolio
•     Unit 8 - Resources

Register directly with CSER at https://csdigitaltech.appspot.com/register

 Australian Curriculum - Digital Technologies Workshop (NOTE: this session is organised by AIST)

Venue:The Grange, Campbell Town
Date: Tuesday 18th March (RSVP: Friday 7th March)
Time: 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Cost: AIST members: $75 , non-members (inc Catholic schools) $115 (not including GST)
Intended Audience: P-10 Curriculum Leaders and Leading Teachers

This Professional Learning Workshop Day will provide Prep to Year 10 curriculum leaders and leading teachers with an introduction to the Australian Curriculum.
This session will allow participants to:

• be aware of the implementation timeline for the Technologies Learning area,
• demonstrate understanding of the technologies learning area/subjects,
• gain strategies in interpreting the Digital Technologies Curriculum.

The presenter, Paul Herring is currently the Curriculum Leader IT at St Peters Lutheran College, Brisbane.
Please see flyer for information, or for further information email rhawkins@independentschools.tas.edu.au

Contact: Sharen King, Independent Schools Tasmania
p: 6224 0125   e: sking@independentschools.tas.edu.au   w: www.independentschools.tas.edu.au
.

Robotics in Education Workshop

Venue: New Town High (6 Midwood St, New Town)
Date: Thursday 20 Feb 2014
Time: 3:30pm for a 4:00pm start to 6:00pm.
Cost: No charge

Chris Rogers was awarded the Carnegie Professor of the Year in Massachusetts in 1998 and is currently the director of the Center for Engineering Education Outreach (http://www.ceeo.tufts.edu). His teaching work extends to the elementary school, where he talks with over 1000 teachers around the world every year on ways of bringing engineering into the younger grades. He has worked with LEGO to develop ROBOLAB, a robotic approach to learning science and mathematics. ROBOLAB has gone into over 50,000 schools worldwide, has been translated into 15 languages, and was one of the major inspirations for the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Software (NXT-G). He has been invited to speak on engineering education in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the UK, and in the US. He regularly works in various classrooms, although he has been banned from recess for making too much noise.
This session has been organised independently by Rob Torok Email: rob.torok@gmail.com Website: http://robtorok.blogspot.com/

Chris Rogers' web site: http://www.tufts.edu/~crogers/

To register for this event, visit: http://goo.gl/FtgjBE

Extreme EV3 Hack Party

Following the main workshop on 20 Feb, Chris will host an Extreme EV3 Hack Party for advanced roboticists.
The plan is to eat pizza and play with some advanced EV3/NXT topics. Eg. some or all of the following might be on offer...

•  The beta-release of the LabVIEW LEGO MINDSTORMS module
•  EV3 Linux hacking
•  Integrating Arduino with the EV3
•  BrickPi (interface NXT motors/sensors with a RaspberryPi)

If you're planning to attend, please fill out this form and indicate the topic or topics that interest you.

The Extreme EV3 Hack Party is open to all - including students and former students - so please spread the word! This session has been organised independently by Rob Torok Email: rob.torok@gmail.com Website: http://robtorok.blogspot.com/

To register for this event: http://goo.gl/erG4IK

Hour of Code

Date: Week of 9-15 December
Venue: Your school!  See http://code.org/hourofcode and http://csedweek.org/ for resources.

Hour of Code - A tutorial featuring technology leaders.

Code.org, the non-profit dedicated to promoting computer science education,  announced a US-wide campaign calling on every K-12 student in America to join an "Hour of Code." The initiative asks schools, teachers and parents across the country to help introduce more than 10 million students of all ages to computer programming during Computer Science Education Week, December 9-15, 2013. The organization also announced the support of multiple organizations and individuals, including Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Reid Hoffman and Jack Dorsey.

We believe that Australian schools should consider participating and making use of the resources.

The Hour of Code campaign aims to demystify computer science for students across the country by taking them through introductory tutorials that can be completed online, on a smartphone, or even unplugged. Code.org will offer online tutorials authored by numerous educational groups and is challenging teachers, parents and even employers to encourage students of all ages to engage during Computer Science Education Week.

Code.org’s own tutorial has been created in collaboration with engineers from Microsoft, Google, Twitter and Facebook. Designed as a game that teaches basic coding principles, it will feature guest lectures by technologists including Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg and artwork from popular games such as Rovio's "Angry Birds" and PopCap Games’ "Plants vs. Zombies."

ESA Improve

Date:	Time:	Venue:
Mon 25 November	3:30- 5:00	Burnie High School, Fidler St, Cooee
Tue 26 November	3:30- 5:00	Prospect High School, Ralph St, Prospect

Looking for another way to help students improve in numeracy, literacy and science, with minimal teacher effort?

TASITE is pleased to offer a free professional learning session on the free online tool improve.

Improve is a free online tool to support formative assessment in literacy, numeracy and science, (with other curriculum areas to come). TASITE is offering a free session for teachers and leaders helping you to make use of   Improve to provide self-managed formative feedback processes for individual, groups and classes of students.

This online tool, developed for Australian K-10 teachers by Education Services Australia, allows teachers to construct, use and share online formative assessment “tests” that students can then do at any time, anywhere online. The tests are instantly marked and the student receives feedback. At the same time an inbuilt assessment engine analyses the student’s performance and directs them to online learning objects targeted to their needs. The online learning objects include the Scootle resources.

Improve has a bank of test items sourced from several locations, including past NAPLAN items. Teachers can also create their own test items.

The session will look at how to use Improve at teacher and school level, how it fits with other school assessment tools, and its potential to support improved student outcomes. It should be of interest to curriculum coordinators, Science, Literacy/English and Numeracy/Mathematics leaders and teachers.

Flyer for the session.

RSVP: 21 November to info@tasite.tas.edu.au

EV3 Robotics Workshops - using the new LEGO Mindstorm EV3 kits 

Suitable for teachers interested in Digital Technologies in Years 4-10. Organised by School of Computing and Information Systems, University of Tasmania and sponsored by Google Australia .

Hobart (20 participants max)
Date: 20 November 2013
Time: 2pm – 6pm
Venue: The Centenary Building, Room 272

Launceston (16 particants max)
Date: 26 November 2013
Time: 2pm – 6pm
Venue: School of Computing and Information Systems Building, Room V195

Cradle Coast (20 participants max)
Date: 28 November 2013
Time: 2pm – 6pm
Venue: Room B1.25

This CS4HS (Computer Science for High School) workshop introduces the new LEGO Mindstorm EV3 kits. It will provide Teachers an opportunity for hands-on experiences with robotic building and programming at EV3 beginner level, allowing participants working in pairs the opportunity to assess the feasibility of integrating these resources into their classroom teaching plans.

The CS4HS workshop is sponsored by Google Australia (https://www.google.com.au/). It is a professional learning workshop that is open to Tasmanian Primary and Secondary School Teachers. Attendance at the workshop is free. More information and registration details are available in the flyer (MS Word  160KB,  PDF 185KB).

Raspberry Pi  Professional Learning Day - Full Day Workshop for Digital Technologies.

Date: 31st October 
Time: 9:00-3:15
Venue: Room 326, Hytten Hall, University of Tasmania Sandy Bay campus.
Cost:  $50

Most school computers are locked down to prevent disruption. The Raspberry Pi is earning a reputation for flexibility and adaptability – the ideal platform for creative learning in the new subject of Digital Technologies, coming soon from ACARA.

Course content:

9:00am	Welcome
9:10am	View, Learn, Extend - Work with, and through, examples of lesson and unit plans using the  Raspberry Pi
12:15pm	Lunch
12:45pm	Synthesize, Critique, CelebrateWork in small groups to create new lesson and unit plans using the Raspberry Pi for students in particular years. These will be shared between all workshop participants.
3:15 pm	Workshop closes

This professional learning workshop will be run by Mark Morffew (Taroona High) and Andrew Fluck (UTAS).
Flyer and Registration form

Raspberry Pi Workshop (Hobart Launceston Devonport)

Date: 14th August (Launceston)   |  21st August  (Devonport )   |  27th (Hobart) August 2013
Time: 4:00-5:30pm
Venue: Prospect High, Devonport High and Taroona High Schools
Cost:  $20

The Raspberry Pi is a $36 computer currently transforming practice in schools around the world. Google donated 15 thousand of these to UK schools. This workshop will provide an opportunity for Tasmanian teachers to work with the Raspberry Pi and see how it supports learning in the Digital Technologies subject.

See Flyer for details.

Australian Curriculum Technologies professional learning day

Date:  22nd July 2013
Time:  9:30 -3:15
Venue: The Tramsheds, Inveresk, Launceston
Cost:  nil

DRAFT PROGRAM

The Draft Australian Curriculum: Technologies - ACARA Kate Baulch

• Rationale and aims, overview and structure
• General Capabilities (with a focus on Literacy, Numeracy and ICT) in Technologies
• Australian Curriculum in a Tasmanian Context
• Timeline

Forum with schools involved in Deep Engagement in Technologies
Achievement Standards and Assessment

Subject Groups:
Draft Australian Curriculum: Technologies content descriptions and task design

• Digital Technologies
• Food and Fibre Production - School Farms and Agriculture/Horticulture
• Foods, including Food Technologies
• Materials and technologies specialisations:
• • Textiles
  • Wood, Metals, Plastics and Composites
  • Engineering principles and system

Surveying future professional learning needs – facilitated by Professional Associations
Technologies Opportunities in the Australian Curriculum – Kate Baulch ACARA

More information

Register at:  http://tased-infostream-general.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/pd-draft-australian-curriculum.html

3D Printer Demonstration - Wynyard

Date: 14th June 2013
Time: 3.30- 5.00pm
Venue: Wynyard High School

Presented by:  Anthony Crawford (DATTA Tas)

An exciting opportunity for Design and Technology Teachers and Teacher Aides to come along to see a demonstration of a 3D Printer in action
and to find out how these machines can be utilised in a number of Design and Technology subjects.

RSVP: Please email Peter Massey peter.massey@education.tas.gov.au to confirm your attendance and numbers to help us with catering. .

Teaching the 5 P's of Digital Ethics -webinar

Date: 13 June 2013
Time: 8pm AEST
Venue - online webinar https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2007026&password=M.35E50DE4B2F7C5D1167B27DF4A1983
Cost: free

Join us for the next "Thursday with ICTEV" webinar Teaching the 5 P's of Digital Ethics

Are you look for help supporting your students to be safe and effective digital citizens? The next installment in our "Thursday with ICTEV" webinar series will
feature the Australian Communications and Media Authority's senior cybersafety advisor, Greg Gebhart for a discussion on the importance and impact of safe and effective policies and practices for our students.

Teaching the Five Ps of Digital Ethics introduces educators to the rights and obligations that come with being a responsible digital citizen as part of a cybersafety program . The session will focus on the skills and habits that educators can teach their students to help them critically analyse their actions, both online and offline, and the subsequent consequences.

If you've never participated in a web conference before, visit:
http://support.blackboardcollaborate.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=8336&task=knowledge&questionID=1473
to check that you have the technichal requirements for participation.
To join the session, please click on this link:
https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2007026&password=M.35E50DE4B2F7C5D1167B27DF4A1983
within 30 minutes of the 8:00pm start time on Thursday 13th of June.

Unfortunately this webinar cannot be recorded so please join us on the night for Greg's engaging and thought provoking discussion and activities.

Google in Education Workshop - workshop hosted by The Hutchins School and The Collegiate Institute

Date: May 23, 2013
Time: 8.30am – 5.00pm 
Venue: The Hutchins School Global Classroom 71 Nelson Rd., Sandy Bay, Hobart
Format: BYOD
This workshop will focus on the use of technology to support teaching and learning. The sessions will be intended for an audience of educators with varying technology skill levels. The content will focus on the use of free Google tools in education, including: Google Search, Google Docs, Google Sites, and Google+. Additional Google tools, including Blogger, Google Maps, YouTube and others will also be included. Inspiring instructional ideas conclude the day before a final reflection activity. This special workshop, hosted by The Hutchins School and The Collegiate Institute will offer something for teachers as both beginners and intermediate users... and there is no better preparation for the next Google Apps for Education Summit in Australia for participants intending to seek the Certified Trainer status.

Workshop Information and Workshop Registration Form.
   
Contact
The Hutchins School
P: 03 62214225 E: jill.abell@hutchins.tas.edu.au

3D Printer Demonstration - Hobart

Date: 17th May 2013
Time: 3.45- 5.30pm
Venue: Rose Bay High School – Design and Technology Workshop
Cost: $5.00 per head (covers nibbles and contribution towards Anthony’s travel costs from Launceston)
Presented by:  Anthony Crawford (DATTA Tas)

An exciting opportunity for Design and Technology Teachers and Teacher Aides to come along to see a demonstration of a 3D Printer in action
and to find out how these machines can be utilised in a number of Design and Technology subjects.

RSVP: Please email Stuart Hadrill stuart.hadrill@education.tas.gov.au to confirm your attendance and numbers to help us with catering.

Scratch Workshop

Date: April 30 2013
Time: 10.00-12.00pm
Venue: Dominic College, 204 Tolosa Street, Glenorchy
Cost: Non-Members $50 TASITE Members $25
Presenter: Selina Kinne

Suited to both Primary and Secondary Teachers. No previous experience necessary. This will be a hands-on session!

Scratch is free software that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art - and share your creations on the web. As they create Scratch projects, students learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design. These are all key aspects of the new Digital Technologies learning area in the Australian Curriculum.

Scratch is designed with learning and education in mind. As young people create and share projects in Scratch, they develop important design and problem-solving skills, learning how to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.

Scratch is intended especially for 8- to 16-year-olds, but younger children can work on Scratch projects with a little bit of help.

Please send email to Selina Kinne skinne@dominic.tas.edu.au to get a registration form, by Monday 29 April, 2013.

ACARA Technologies Curriculum - consultation and feedback for Digital Technologies strand and subject F-10

Date: April 17, 2013
Time: 4:00 pm – 5.00pm 
Venue: South:    The Hutchins School, Nelson Rd., Sandy Bay, Hobart
             North:    University of Tasmania, Newnham Campus
             NorthWest:   Devonport High School (tbc) Best St Devonport

Some online interaction between these sites may be possible depending on timing and technology availability.

Background:

The final draft curriculum for the Australian Curriculum subject Technologies is open for consultation from 19 February to 10 May 2013.

  

This consultation period also provides an opportunity to give feedback on the overarching aspects of the Technologies learning area (including the learning area Rationale, Aims and Organisation of the Technologies learning area). ACARA encourages participation from all stakeholders with an interest in technologies.

 

Following consultation, the draft Australian Curriculum: Technologies Foundation to Year 10 will be revised. A draft will be available for public viewing from September while the curriculum is finalised for ACARA Board approval. Subject to Ministerial approval the final Technologies curriculum will be published on the Australian Curriculum website in late 2013.

Session:

This session is to gather feedback from TASITE members and others, to represent the views of educators who have interest and experience in teaching within the broad area described as "Digital Technologies".  Participants will be expected to have read the sections of the draft curriculum relevant to their interest and experience. The responses will be collated and submitted as TASITE's response to the consultation process.

The structure of the responses expected by ACARA is given in the consultation survey.

RSVP info@tasite.tas.edu.au

ACARA Technologies: ACCE_LN Google Hangout mainly for Primary Teachers

Date: Monday 15 April 2013
Time: 9:00pm AEST
Venue: online - Google Hangout - see event info or watch recorded session.

Join us for a discussion about the Draft National Curriculum Digital Technologies where the focus will be on the challenges and opportunities faced by primary school educators. We will be joined by our regular panal and some guests who have been working closely with the review of this important document.

TASITE  AGM 2013

Notice is hereby given of the Annual General Meeting of TASITE for 2013

Date: Thursday, 14 March
Time: 5.:00 - 5:30pm
Venue: Rivulet Room, C3 Convention Centre, 64 Anglesea Street, South Hobart

Nominations for positions of Executive Members and Committee can be submitted via the Nomination Form.

Please RSVP by email to:Selina Kinne, Secretary TASITE info@tasite.tas.edu.au by Tuesday 12 March, 2013

The AGM will be followed by a presentation at 5.30pm by Michelle Williams on 'Changing school culture about ICT'.

Michelle is currently Director at Digital Learning Futures and is self-employed as a consultant. She is involved in ICT and curriculum consultancy in multiple countries, with a Queensland, Australia base. Much of her work focusses on educational reform, pedagogy and assessment. She has experience in improving teacher learning through action learning and mentoring projects.



Michelle has also undertaken research through ICT projects adding to her knowledge base. She also undertakes a considerable amount of work in project management and event management including major conferences.



Michelle is Past President of ACCE and Professional Association advocate at QSITE, ACCE and ISTE. She has been a consultant with Education Queensland and International representative on the ISTE Board.

Refreshments will be provided! Please invite your colleagues!

ACCELN Webinars

This is a weekly series of 30 min live education broadcasts from Australia. hosted by Amanda Rablin and Roland Gesthuizen. The shows are recorded live each Monday evening (6:30pm Perth, 8:30pm Brisbane, 9:30 pm Melbourne, Sydney (+10 GMT) and feature an international panel of guests. The archive for each show can be viewed below. We will be making these popular vodcasts available in 2013 on iTunes as a downloadable resource.

The ACCELN is aligned with the Australian Council for Computers in Education (ACCE). The link to each show will be posted on the ACCELN wiki and if you register as a listener, we will send you an alert when each show goes live. The presneters love hearing your feedback about the show or ideas about a future show. Please drop them a line or share a SpeakPipe voicemail message.

BYOD (Bring your own devices) strategies

Date: Thursday, 18 October 2012
Time: 1.30 pm - 4.30 p
Venue: Taroona High School, Meath Ave, Taroona
Cost: $10 members, $20 non-members (includes afternoon tea)
Registration for this event closes MONDAY Oct 15 - please RSVP to Mark.Morffew@education.tas.gov.au

This TasITE session will focus on Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programs where, instead of a school supplying laptops or tablets, students are asked to bring along and use their personally owned technology to support their learning.

Session will include:

• Tour of classes to see a BYOD program in action
• Presentations on why you might want to consider BYOD in your school, introducing and managing a BYOD program, how BYOD impacts teaching and learning, a classroom teacher perspective, getting parents on board, cybersafety implications, introducing BYOD in a primary school and providing technical support.
• Discussion/question time

Teachmeet - free software -A fun night of sharing and networking

Date: Thursday, 11 October 2012
Time: 5 pm - 6.30 pm
Venue: Meeting Room,  St Aloysius Catholic College, 12 Nautilus Grove, Huntingfield

The HOT TOPIC is: Free Software for the classroom

Can you share something about free software used in your classroom in just 3 mins?

TeachMeets involve teachers sharing quick, easy to create presentations which are sure to inspire other colleagues. There are no demanding preparation requirements or judgmental attitudes. Good sharing and great learning benefits our students - anyone can do it!

Here are some ideas:

• a general topic about free software
• an activity you do in the classroom with free software
• something that has made a difference to your students
• a great App you are using
• How are you managing free software in the school?

See the web site for examples of TeachMeets: www.tasite.tas.edu.au

If you would like to participate in the TeachMeet please register by emailing your name, school, contact details, topic to share and system/hardware requirements for your presentation

Please email skinne@dominic.tas.edu.au to RSVP or if you have any queries.

Bring your friends & colleagues for an afternoon of fun!

TASITE AGM 2012

Notice is hereby given of the Annual General Meeting of TASITE for 2012

Date: Thursday, 17 May 2012
Time: 5.30pm
Venue: Rivulet Room, C3 Convention Centre, 64 Anglesea Street, South Hobart

Nominations for positions of Executive Members and Committee can be submitted via the form .

Please RSVP by email toSelina Kinne, Secretary TASITE  info@tasite.tas.edu.au by Tuesday 15 May, 2012.

TeachMeet

The AGM will be followed by a TeachMeet.

Date: Thursday, 17 May 2012
Date: 6:00pm
Venue: Rivulet Room, C3 Convention Centre, 64 Anglesea Street, South Hobart
A fun night of sharing and networking starting at 6pm
Can you share something about technology and education in just 3 mins?

TeachMeets involve teachers sharing quick, easy to create presentations which are sure to inspire other colleagues. There are no demanding preparation requirements or judgmental attitudes.  Good sharing and great learning benefits our students – anyone can do it!  Here are some ideas:

• a general topic
• an activity you do in the classroom
• something that has made a difference to your students
• a favourite tool

If you would like to participate in the TeachMeet please register .

If you 'd like to know more about TeachMeets this video of a Melbourne TeachMeet might help.

Please bring your presentation on a USB drive to use on a laptop. No access to the internet available.
Bring your friends & colleagues for an evening of great food, drinks and fun!

 iOS5 Programming course for iPad and iPhone apps (with one student funded by TASITE to attend!)

Date: Thurs 03 to Sat 05 May (NOTE NEW DATES) Time: 10:30AM - 4.30PM Venue: API Centre 69 Liverpool Street Hobart

TASITE is pleased to offer full payment for one student in a Tasmanian school/college to attend the iPad/iPhone apps programming course run by SecretLab and Australian Computer Society (Tasmania) in Hobart on 03-05 May. This course would normally cost well over $1000! See ACS website for course information..

The successful applicant for this course is Owen Andrews, a student at Taroona High School. Owen was selected from a field of excellent applicants. His application showed that he has successfully furthered his own education, has appropriate background and experience in programming-type activity, but most importantly he has already been using his skill to assist others including younger students in other schools. We wish him great success with this course.

By the end of the course, Owen and other participants will be fully trained in developing advanced applications using iOS 5 technologies, and be ready to apply them to whatever problem they are trying to solve. They will also receive an exclusive copy of the Secret Lab iOS Field Manual, so they  can continue their learning.

What students will learn:

• Programming with Objective-C 2.0, including recent advances new to iOS 5
• Common design patterns in Cocoa Touch, the framework they will use to write apps
• Exploring Xcode, the iOS IDE
• Using the iOS Simulator
• Developing a data-driven iOS app
• Techniques for designing a great user experience
• Visual design in iOS for programmers
• Advanced uses of the iOS SDK
• Multi-tasking and multi-threading with Grand Central Dispatch and blocks
• Building Newsstand apps
• Integrating Twitter into apps
• Using Game Center to write real-time and turn-based games
• Using Core Animation to build fluid, dynamic interfaces
• Playing media with AV Foundation
• Using iCloud to save and push data to devices

The course still has some places open if any teachers or students are interested.

Australasian Association of Distance Education Schools (AADES) conference on elearning

The biennial AADES National Conference will be held in Hobart on July 15 - 17, 2011. The conference title is Crossing Borders, Shifting Boundaries: designing, delivering and leading effective elearning.

Outstanding speakers from the United States, Finland, Australia and New Zealand will deliver keynote addresses at the conference. The three-day program will also feature presentations by researchers, teacher educators, teachers, students and industry specialists, along with pre-conference and post-conference activities.
http://www.aadesconference2011.net.au/

eBooks for Teaching and Learning: A shared perspective.

A Professional Learning opportunity on behalf of Independent Schools Tasmania and TASITE.

Hear how Jill Abell, Director of Information Services at The Hutchins School is managing the transition to eBooks. Jill will share her experience, the process and strategies used to support the implementation of eBooks for both teachers and students.

Date:Wednesday 17 August 2011
Time: 5:30-6:30pm
Venue: The Hutchins School
RSVP: IST member schools to rhawkins@independentschools.tas.edu.au  , TASITE members / potential members to info@tasite.tas.edu.au

The publishing industry has undergone a major transformation from print to digital.

This  phenomenal transition has revolutionised the format of the traditional book and as a consequence will have a profoundimpact on the way teachers teach and students learn.

eBooks have become the single bestselling category in American publishing for the first time, according to new data released recently. The latest report from the Association of American Publishers, compiling sales data from US publishing houses, shows that total ebook sales in February were $90.3m (£55.2m). This makes digital books the largest single format in the US for the first time ever, the AAP said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/apr/15/ebook-sales-milestone

Librarians are leading the way. Hear how Jill Abell, Director of Information Services at The Hutchins School is managing the transition to eBooks. Jill will share her experience, the process and strategies used to support the implementation of eBooks for both teachers and students.

A Professional Learning opportunity on behalf of Independent Schools Tasmania and TASITE. Supported and hosted at The Hutchins School

Scootle for teachers, home educators and parents

(a session run jointly by the Tasmanian eSchool and TASITE)

Find out how students can access and use digital content from a national collection, aligned to the Australian Curriculum, to help enhance their learning.

This free session is aimed at members of THEAC, and teachers in both the government and non-government sectors. (Other parents are welcome but will not be able to use Scootle directly.)

Hobart
Date: Wednesday 5 October 2011
Time: 3:00- 4:00
Venue: Tasmanian eSchool Southern Campus, 223 Clarence St Howrah.

Launceston
Date: Wednesday 12 October 2011
Time: 3:00- 4:00
Venue: Tasmanian eSchool Northern Campus, 15A Mitchell Street Mayfield.

Smithton
Date: Wednesday October 12th 2011
Time: 3.45 to 4.45pm.
Venue: Smithton High School

King Island
Date: Tuesday October 18th 2011
Time: 3.45 to 4.45pm.
Venue: King Island District High

Burnie
Date: Wednesday October 26th 2011
Time: 3.45 to 4.45pm.
Venue: Burnie High


Devonport
Date: Thursday October 27th 2011
Time: 3.45 to 4.45pm.
Venue: Devonport High

Registration is essential: please email info@tasite.tas.edu.au by Friday 30 September.

Calculus in Primary

A UTAS project has shown primary school students can use ICT to score well on university integral calculus exam questions. This session will describe how it was done, discuss the implications for the future and give participants hands-on experiences of the software involved

Date: Thursday 24th November 2011
Time: 4-5:30pm
Venue: Mayfield Primary School, Hargrave Crescent, Mayfield, Launceston

Lauren Shepherd from Mayfield Primary will share her experiences as the local facilitator.
Background reading is available at: http://www.editlib.org/f/36810  or http://www.education.tas.gov.au/dept/news/education-news/mayfield-primary-tops-the-nation-in-integral-calculus

Registration:

Your RSVP to Andrew.Fluck@utas.edu.au<mailto:Andrew.Fluck@utas.edu.au> would be appreciated.

Teachers and Principals in Primary schools, parents and others interested in ICT are most welcome.

2010

Stop Motion Animation

Single session. Suitable for grades 4 to adult. Participants do not require any previous experience.

Learn how to create simple stop motion animations using plasticine, paper cutouts, toys and more.  The software is free and easy to use, and it can lead to much greater student engagement in learning.

Besides being very creative and loads of fun, by designing animations around a theme or with a message, this activity can be used to support a range of Tasmanian Curriculum Learning Outcomes across all levels.

• Date: Thu Feb 18
• Time: 4.00 - 5.30pm
• Venue: Taroona High School
• Cost: Non Members $50, Members $25
• Presenter: Margaret Meijers
  

  Book for this event

Video for Beginners

Single session. Suited to all grades. Participants do not require any previous experience

Do you struggle to manage video in the classroom?  Do you need help to understand all the different video formats? This session will look at working with basic video from the popular Flip and similar USB based cameras. The workshop will cover downloading, basic editing, video formats, compressing video and loading video onto class SharePoint workspaces.

• Date: Thu Feb 25
• Time: 4.00 - 5.30pm
• Venue: Taroona High School
• Cost: Non Members $50, Members $25
• Presenter: Margaret Meijers
  

  Book for this event

Mobile Devices to Connect the Classroom to Home

Single session. Suited to all grades. Participants do not require any previous experience

Why not take advantage of the technology that most students have in their pockets?  Student mobile phones can be used for learning, while incurring no phone charges. There is enormous value in students creating their own learning content, that can then be taken home and shared immediately with family and friends via a mobile device.  This session will look at creating content for mobile devices, file formats and conversion tools, how to transfer video from PC to mobile phones and how to share with friends.  All software required is free.

• Date: Thu Mar 4
• Time: 4.00 - 5.30pm
• Venue: Taroona High School
• Cost: Non Members $50, Members $25
• Presenter: Margaret Meijers
  

  Book for this event

Google SketchUp for Beginners - Maths Focus

Single session. Suited to grade 4 upward. Participants do not require any previous experience

Google SketchUp is free 3D modelling software.  It has a range of curriculum applications, but is particularly relevant for Maths at both primary and secondary level.  In this workshop participants will learn some of the basic functions of SketchUp, and how to use it for pattern, space and measurement applications.  We will be particularly focussing on basic geometry, creating tesselations and Escher designs.

• Date: Wed Mar 10
• Time: 4.00 - 5.30pm
• Venue: Taroona High School
• Cost: Non Members $50, Members $25
• Presenter: Margaret Meijers
  

  Book for this event

Google SketchUp for Beginners - General Focus

Single session. Suited to grade 4 upward across all learning areas. Participants do not require any previous experience.

Google SketchUp is free 3D modelling software.  Using it students can express their ideas by creating their own 3D models of buildings, parks, playgrounds, furniture, spaceships, household items etc.    In this workshop participants will learn how to construct 3D models using SketchUp, and its application in the classroom.

• Date: Wed Mar 17
• Time: 4.00 - 5.30pm
• Venue: Taroona High School
• Cost: Non Members $50, Members $25
• Presenter: Margaret Meijers
  

  Book for this event

Google Docs& Other Collaboration Tools

Single session.  Suited to grade 5 upward, across all learning areas.  Participants do not require any previous experience.

Google has developed a range of free tools that have strong applications in learning.  A common problem in schools, where students are working on collaborative projects, is finding a suitable place where all participants have access to work on a document together.  Through its suite of collaborative tools Google has overcome most of these issues and students can all work on and have access to the same document.

In this workshop participants will learn how to create word processed documents and spreadsheets online  and share them with others, so they can be accessed anytime from anywhere by the people that you choose.

• Date: Wed May 5
• Time: 4.00 - 5.30pm
• Venue: Taroona High School
• Cost: Non Members $50, Members $25
• Presenter: Margaret Meijers
  

  Book for this event

Scratch

2 Sessions - participants should attend both sessions.
Suited to grades 5-8, with an emphasis on learning in Maths, Science and ICT. No previous experience necessary.

Scratch is free software that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web. Scratch is designed to help students develop the skills they will need for 21st century learning. As they create Scratch projects, students learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design.

• Dates: Thur Apr 15,  Thur Apr 22
• Time: 4.00 - 5.30pm
• Venue: Taroona High School
• Cost: Non Members $80, Members $40
• Presenter: Margaret Meijers
  

  Book for this event

Game Maker

2 Sessions - participants should attend both sessions.
Suited to for grades 5-10.  Participants do not require any previous experience.

In this workshop we will be looking at how students can learn to make their own computer games and thus address a wide range of curriculum outcomes, including literacy, numeracy and thinking skills, in all learning areas. We will be using Game Maker, which is free software that enables students to easily design and create their own computer games. Using Game Maker's drag and drop interface you can quickly program your own game without writing a line of code.

• Date:Thur May 20, Thurs May 27
• Time: 4.00 - 5.30pm
• Venue: Taroona High School
• Cost: Non Members $80, Members $40
• Presenter: Margaret Meijers
  

  Book for this event

TASITE Annual General Meeting

Guest Speaker: Lyn Dunn

Lyn is Principal of Distance Education and a 2008 Hardie Fellowship recipient. This Fellowship enabled her to study Technology, Innovation and Education through a Masters degree at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

She will lead a presentation and discussion about her key learnings and the way they have translated into the project management of Flexible Learning Tasmania within which the Tasmanian Virtual School will be established in 2011. This will result in the merging of Distance Education Tasmania, Online Learning Network and CELO online to continue existing services and provide new ones that expand flexible learning options statewide.

Please RSVP to info@tasite.tas.edu.au by Monday 26 April, for catering purposes.

• Date: Wednesday 28 April 2010
• Time: 5:00 pm for AGM, 5:30 pm for guest speaker
• Venue: Bellerive Yacht Club

Consider nominating for the TASITE committee:
There are many reasons why you might want to be a part of the TASITE committee.
•    As well as taking an active interest in the way ICT in Education develops across the State, you can also have involvement in national issues through our membership of ACCE (Australian Council for Computers in Education).
•    The Australian Curriculum includes an ICT competency area. This is being developed over the next months and professional associations have an involvement in this process. You may wish to become involved in helping develop this competency area or the support materials and processes that accompany it.
•    This year TASITE will be rebuilding our web presence and introducing some online technologies to support some special-interest groups within the organisation. This will be a good opportunity to gain hands-on knowledge of these web technologies and how to manage them.

The committee has executive positions of President, Treasurer, Secretary and general committee members. Please give some thought to becoming a TASITE committee member! Requests for info or to nominate please email info@tasite.tas.edu.au

eExaminations

Examinations are often a part of formal student assessment.

But learning is going online, at school, in Years 11 & 12 and at tertiary levels. Therefore Norway is moving to computer-based examinations (the Knowledge Promotion) in schools; eAssessment standards have been adopted across sectors in England; and the University of Tasmania has been using eExams since 2007.

This session is for educators to share perspectives, see a short demonstration eExamination, and discuss where students in Tasmania might use them.

More details: www.eExams.org

Launceston

• Date: Monday 19th April 2010, 4:15pm to 6pm
• Venue: Room B213, University of Tasmania, Newnham Campus, Newnham Drive,  Launceston

Hobart

• Date: Thursday 13th May 4:15pm to 6pm
• Venue: Hytten Hall room HH326, Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania,French Street, Sandy Bay

RSVP to Andrew.Fluck@utas.edu.au

ICT Education Walk - Sponsor-ed websites - Ogilivie High School's experiences

The first of our Education Walks for the term is hosted by Ogilivie High School at 4 pm on Wednesday 14th July. Joe Meale is sharing ideas and experiences on Ogilvie's use of the "sponsor-ed" school website service.

Sponsor-ed (http://www.sponsor-ed.com.au/) is an innovative web based fundraising concept that allows schools to earn income from ethical sponsorship of their website. The website is provided by sponsor-ed at no cost to the school. Over 330 schools are on the program with up to 50 climbing onboard each month. There are sponsor-ed websites in 4 states
(Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania & South Australia).

• Date: Ogilivie High School
• Venue: Ogilivie High School
• Time: 4pm
• Cost: nil

Anyone is welcome to this event. Contact info@tasite.tas.edu.au to register.

Want to host an ICT Education Walk at your school?

If your school is doing something unusual or interesting in the use of ICT,
we'd love you to offer to share your experiences with others. Contact
info@tasite.tas.edu.au to find out more.

Comparisons, Confluence and Clouds:  the ACCE Study Tour and ISTE 2010 Conference

Duncan Gillespie will lead an exploration of themes emerging from participation in the Australian Council for Computing in Education Study Tour.
The tour consisted of

• visiting schools and jurisdictions in Vancouver, Seattle and San Francisco
• meetings at Microsoft, Google, HP and Intel Headquarters and attending and 
• presenting at the International Society for Technology in Education 2010 Conference and Exposition.

A laptop that can connect to a wireless network will enable full participation in the session.

• Date: Wed 11 August  2010
• Venue: The Friends School
• Time: 4:00 – 5:00 pm
• Cost: No charge – this is a TASITE sponsored networking event

RSVP: by Monday 9 August by email to info@tasite.tas.edu.au for catering. Light afternoon tea will be provided

Introducing ThinkQuest

.On behalf of the Network of Educational Associations of Tasmania (NEAT), TASITE is pleased to offer this workshop, which will introduce the wonderful world of ThinkQuest.

The ThinkQuest competition has been running for over ten years and is highly respected internationally for its promotion of project based learning for teams of students supported by a mentor. In recent years, TASITE’s national body (ACCE) has run an Australian version of the competition. The 2010 competition is open and entries close in October.

The ThinkQuest learning platform is where teachers and students create learning projects.  Create your own projects or join in existing projects with other schools locally, nationally or internationally.

Find out about the competitions, the past winners and the free learning platform to engage students in project based learning

Workshop presenters      
Julie Fielding,   Janine Bowes,
           
 ThinkQuest is sponsored by Oracle Education Foundation
www.thinkquest.org 

• Date: Wed 25 August  2010
• Venue: Princes St Primary School, Randall St, Sandy Bay
• Time:    4:00 – 5:30 pm
• COST: free to members of NEAT affiliated Professional Associations http://www.neat.tas.edu.au/,  $25 to others (a tax invoice will be issued)   

RSVP: by Monday 23 August info@tasite.tas.edu.au