Goals for "Learning in the Digital Age"

1. Professional Context Statement

Apart from the normal teaching load of an Economics, Business Studies teacher I am leading the Learning Environments Committee and the Touch Football Sport Programs at St Vincent’s College. I have been teaching in the NSW Secondary Education System for the past 12 years after a stint in the marketing/events industry for 6 years.

I enjoy the teaching aspect and the being in the classroom but I constantly grapple with the many inefficiencies of the educational framework I work in. I do get bored very easily. I believe there are many teaching professionals, school councils, governing bodies and educational suppliers who have exploited the system, created more bureaucracy and have driven the already archaic system backwards.

The main area of concern is the accreditation system for teaching professionals which is merely a temporary and ineffective system designed to make up for the mistakes BOSTES made years ago to deal with the shortage of teachers.

In dealing with this dilemma I have focused on areas where I can make a difference. With my interest in everything design I have chosen to focus on making learning spaces more effective in education and developing more effective coaching instructions for developing skills.

With an entrepreneurial spirit and a willingness to try things I am exploring other avenues where I can best utilize my skills. Secondary teaching can be very monotonous and at the moment I have developed an interest in training within the corporate setting. I see a gap in the market, with many companies downsizing Human Resource Departments and outsourcing training programs. In taking a bigger risk with the same skills I think the startup industry would be a good starting point, especially with the Governments focus on innovation, services and research.

Always learning myself, I am a big believer of practicing what you preach. I am feeling more and more like I am wasting my time in secondary schools. Education institutions don’t want to change, they tick boxes. I would love to spend more time reading and listening to all the interesting things that are happening in the World and make a difference.

I want to be able to set learning matrixs for different industries. And work with designers to create applications or software to make training programs intuitive and effective for individuals to use. Make training less boring and a more important part of professional development. Also sell these ideas, apps to companies.

Industries include: design, sport and social.

2. MyCourse Learning Goals

• Understand the effective use of digital technologies for learning across all educational contexts.

• Be able to come up with a formula for effective use of digital technologies in learning within various platforms.

• Work with designers to come up with elements need for a good training app. Be able to plot in variables intuitively and be able to integrate with social media etc.

3. Connections and links with other subjects

• Be able to make all learnings effective through the use of technology.

• Be able to make the same learnings I did without technology and provide a context for current generations with the same experience but through technology.

• Be able to make technology relevant to professional development.

• Understand how to launch learning for different industries/various levels and have effective technologies as the platforms for the learning.