Online courses
A MOOC is a “massive open online course” which is web-based and usually facilitated by a university. They commonly have the option of open and free registration. Learners control where, what, how and with whom they learn. Content is usually delivered via videos, printed notes, webinars and within platforms such as Google Community.
The Computer Science Education Research Group (CSER) at the University of Adelaide has developed a number of open online courses designed to assist teachers in addressing the new Digital Technologies learning area. 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. The courses include:
- F-6: Fundamentals
- F-6: Extended
- CSER Digital Technologies – Next Steps, years 7 and 8
Communities
If you know of a relevant digital technologies community or blog that is not listed, please contact us at [email protected] with the relevant information and we will create a listing.
Like the Digital Technologies Facebook page.
Digital Learning and Teaching Victoria's Bits and Bytes forum provides detail of upcoming events, resources, links to articles, tech tips, questions, or answers.
Podcasts
Future Tense is a radio show and podcast exploring new ideas, new approaches, new technologies—the edge of change.
The DLTV Podcast features discussions, interviews and panels.
Blogs and websites
We would love to feature the blogs and websites of individual teachers who are working with Digital Technologies in their schools. Suggestions welcome: [email protected]
Clive Thompson writes about how technology affects everyday life.
Graham Wegner – Open Educator: This primary school educator is involved in technology leadership at his school.
Technologies Curriculum Resources for Teachers - Dr Jenny Lane is a lecturer at Edith Cowan University. Her blog includes materials posted by her pre-service teachers as they review and trial resources in Digital Technologies and Design Technologies.
I Code in School - This U.S blog is created by Codesters. Content focuses on the rationale for teaching coding and computational thinking in schools.
Social media groups
Stay connected and add some of these big groups
Here are some great well connected groups of Digital Technologies on Facebook and Twitter. Like and follow to hear everything that is coming up in this exciting space.
The Digital Technologies and Computational Thinking group is for educators and others who recognise that learning to code is only part of the process. Purposeful tasks and computational thinking are essential future skills for every young person.
The Teaching and Learning Digital Technologies group is aimed at assisting primary school teachers in the familiarisation and implementation of the Digital Technologies curriculum. All members are encouraged to share advice, teaching resources, lesson ideas, etc.
One of the best ways to help build a professional/personal learning network (PLN) with teachers you admire is through hashtags. Join a chat, explore a hashtag, discover resources, and connect with other teachers using this list of top education hashtags!