Award Winning Educator, Emerging Technology Leader, Global Influencer, International Speaker, Keynoter, Top 15 influencer in Augmented Reality, Branding and Messaging Specialist and a good story-teller. Working with schools, industry, businesses, thought leaders and government bodies to improve learning, education and the human experience.
Travis Smith is the Teacher Engagement Manager for Microsoft Australia and leads the Microsoft Innovative Educator program across the nation. Travis will share the latest in innovation that we will be seeing in our classrooms in the coming years.
Role: Deputy Head of Senior Learning Community
School: Hillcrest Christian College
Audience: P - 12
Session Name: Check out what's new with OneNote, PowerPoint and Sway
Session Outline: This session will provide an update of the changes that are coming to OneNote, PowerPoint and Sway. Attendees will be given time to have a quick play while also sharing best practice with each of the Microsoft Tools.
Role: Head of e-Learning P-12 & STEM Coordinator
School: Emmanuel College
Audience: Primary
Session Name: Creative Coding!
Session Outline:
Come and get hands-on with a number of simple and affordable options to help teach coding. Learn how to assist students in creating their own projects while having fun learning how to communicate and collaborate through code. Come and see how you can integrate coding into the curriculum and hear how to develop a progression of coding across the Junior years. Play and interact with a range of technologies (featuring Cubetto’s, Scratch, Micro:Bits, AdaFruit Circuit Playgrounds, OhBots). Bring your laptop and be ready to engage in some Creative Coding!
Role: Assistant Director of eLearning
School: Saint Stephen’s College
Audience: Secondary
Session Name: 3D, VR and Coding with CoSpaces
Session Outline:
CoSpaces is a really fun and easy online tool that allows your students to CREATE VR content that they can use on their phones with the help of VR goggles. It also uses 3D modelling and Blockly or JavaScript coding, so that users can interact with objects. The teacher dashboard allows you to keep track of your students’ work and the single sign on means no extra accounts to worry about. CoSpaces can be used across all learning areas and there is also a free training course for teachers. In this session will create a basic VR experience with some 3D modelling and Blockly coding.
Role: eLearning Coordinator
School: The Springfield Anglican College
Audience: Primary
Session Name: 3D Tools in Windows 10
Session Outline:
Learn how Year 5 students created their own 3D animations in Power Point and used Paint 3D to create representations of space inventions.
Role: Head of E-Learning
School: The Springfield Anglican College
Audience: Secondary
Session Name: Learning Analytic and Academic Mentoring at TSAC
Session Outline:
An outline of TSAC academic mentoring and learning analytics roll out that started in 2013. One of many factors at the College that have helped improve academic culture and performance of our senior students.
Role: P - 12 Digital Learning Coordinator
School: Hillcrest Christian College
Audience: P - 12
Session Name: Mission Possible
Session Outline: Your mission if you choose to accept is, to support and differentiate for all your students to meet their individual needs. To assist you with this mission, head to the lab to find out about some of Microsoft's latest innovations in Learning Tools.
Role: Technical Evangelist
Company: Unity Technologies
Audience: Secondary
Session Name: Playground Project: Getting started in Unity3D
Session Outline: Learn to make simple physics based games using Unity and the Playground Project. In this session you'll get an introduction to Unity and learn how to make 2D game.
Role: Year 8 Teaching Team
School: Riverside Christian College
Audience: Secondary
Session Name: Cooperative Authentic Productions with a focus on 21st Century skills
Session Outline:
This workshop will explore the introductory learning journey of three Year 8 teachers and how they have overhauled traditional PBL to create a new approach using corporate business structures within the classroom. The new approach helps explicitly teach and review 21st century learning skills rather than assuming that it will be picked up along the way in the traditional PBL structure.
Role: Head of Faculty - Technologies
School: Bundaberg Christian College
Audience: Middle Years/Senior
Session Name: Development Boards, Drones, and Data: Exploring Digital Technologies in the Context of Smart Farming
Session Outline:
Bundaberg Christian College is situated in the heart of the "salad bowl" of Australia. The rapid technological advancement happening in the agriculture industry provides an excellent context within which to explore the Digital Technologies. During this workshop you will have the opportunity to see how we have used a combination of development boards (Micro:bits), drones, and data to explore and develop digital solutions to agricultural problems. Time permitting, you will have the opportunity to get hands on with some of the technology we are using so be sure to BYOD!
Role: Secondary School Coordinator
School: Lutheran Ormeau Rivers District School
Audience: All
Session Name: An organic professional learning community that doesn’t freak people out? No way!
Session Outline:
Come and explore a model of professional learning developed by the classroom teachers, for the classroom teachers, and comprised of the classroom teachers, where the Cycle of Collaborative Exchange is the name of the game. Underpinned by our learning and teaching framework, regular data collection, and the rich professional tapestry found within our staff, this is a dynamic and organic model, in which success is measured not by the achievement of individual teachers, but by improvement of the whole staff against key indicators, which are established by... the classroom teachers. And it doesn't freak people out.
Role: ILR Education Consultants
Organisation: I Love Reading
Audience: Junior, Learning Support, ESL
Session Name: 3I Love Reading
Session Outline:
I Love Reading is a unique literacy program designed to facilitate the rapid learning of reading. This comprehensive program aims to remove the complexities from reading, empowering learners to grasp literacy concepts from an earlier age. ILR combines proven literacy methodologies with an innovative approach to learning. This fresh model for literacy learning assists readers to learn every sound, of every word of the English language through a multi-faceted yet simple phonetic coding system. This session will outline the fundamentals of the I Love Reading program and demonstrate how ILR can support early readers and non-English speakers to have immediate access to the correct pronunciation of words, regardless of their complexity. The aim is to equip children as they move from ‘Learning to Read’ to ‘Reading to Learn’ and foster a love for reading along the way.
Role: Assistant Director of Academic Performance & Innovation – SLC
School: Hillcrest Christian College
Audience: P - 12
Session Name: Connect, Learn, Share, Grow with Twitter
Session Outline:
New technologies and social media are driving changes with regards to information, learning, creation and sharing. The need for educators to become 21st-century learners thus requires a fundamental adjustment in the way we approach our own professional development. This session will focus on how Twitter and other social media can be used to take control of your own professional development and how we can support one another as professionals. An online personal learning network allows greater connections to new ideas and resources; with the ultimate goal of being able to better serve our modern learners.
Role: K-12 Teacher Librarian
School: Bilkent Laboratory & International School, Ankara, Turkey
Audience: P - 12
Session Name: Digital Games and the school library
Session Outline:
A case study of how game based learning (GBL) was incorporated within an upper elementary school library program to develop information & digital literacy. Participants will be encouraged to share their own experiences with GBL in the classroom and school libraries.
Role: Junior School Teacher
School: Emmanuel College
Audience: P - 12
Session Name: Evolved Learning & Teaching in the Classroom – “the wall” who needs a relief teacher?
Session Outline: Setting up a Self-Organised Learning Environment using “the wall”. Can students really run and monitor their own learning? Giving students an opportunity to connect, network and independently achieve in a win:win classroom environment. What if students know the why and what their needs are to grow in their learning? Know thy Impact when you know your children, know the curriculum and you own strong teacher pedagogy in explicit teaching through inquiry and PBL with design thinking. Explore one way to set up a deep learning culture in your school or classroom.
Role: Microsoft Learning Consultant
School: Microsoft
Audience: P - 12
Session Name: Explore the possibilities of Minecraft Education Edition in your Classroom
Session Outline: From Chemical Reactions to Coding to Hundreds Boards to Creating and Exporting 3D Objects for Printing– Minecraft Education Edition allows you to facilitate learning across many curriculum areas and year levels. Hear how educators all over Australia are pushing the boundaries with this much loved game!
Role: Academic Performance & Innovation Coordinator (P-2)
School: Hillcrest Christian College
Audience: P - 6
Session Name: Seesaw: An introduction to student-driven portfolios
Session Outline: Come and discover how students can independently use 21st Century Skills to create their own digital portfolio to share their learning at school. This session is designed for teachers from P-6 who are brand new to Seesaw. It is a hands-on session where you will learn the basics of Seesaw.
Role: Charles Sturt University: Open Pathways Design Leader with the uImagine Digital Learning Innovation Laboratory, and Adjunct Lecturer, Flat Connections; Founder and CEO
School: Charles Sturt University
Audience: P - 12
Session Name: Getting started with online collaborative learning - Tools and strategies to move from 'local' to 'global'
Session Outline:
Join Julie who has been designing and implementing collaborative learning opportunities for 20+ years, is completing a PhD in online global collaborative learning and and has written two books about global education and online global collaboration. This session will explore approaches, tools and strategies for online collaborative learning in the classroom at all levels. Yes, it is possible, and with careful curriculum planning you and your students can connect with others beyond the classroom for mutual learning opportunities.
Role: National Manager
Company: Trap Ed
Audience: P - 12
Session Name: Play. Learn. Win - experience the power of the Trap Ed student study app
Session Outline: This session will introduce you to the power of our game based student revision app through the findings of our current national pilot and independent evaluation. Enjoy your own experience downloading and playing it and discover the user opportunities now available to QLD schools. Join us to Play. Learn. Win
Role: National Program Director
Company: High Resolves
Audience: 7 - 12
Session Name: Transforming Students through Citizenship Education
Session Outline: Join Rachel as she takes you through the High Resolves Theory of Change based on 30 years of research and over 10 years in the field. Learn how you can begin to develop the critical global competencies your students need to succeed in a rapidly changing world.
Role: Head of Faulty - Design & Technologies
School: Hillcrest Christian College
Audience: 7-12
Session Name: Developing Soft Skills with Design Thinking
Session Outline: This will run across both Breakout Session 2 and 3. Participants are introduced to the six8’s Design Thinking framework. The framework is applied through the design and realisation of a model experimental flying car. Participants are able to test and modify their concepts with the use of a power delivery device called a Power Anchor.
Role: Principal Consultant
Company: Sentis Education
Audience: 7-12
Session Name: Design Thinking for Quality Feedback in the Classroom
Session Outline:
Explore the concept of Design Thinking and how it can be used to develop critical, creative and autonomous learners. This session will provide an introduction to:
- Design Thinking processes
- Embedding Design Thinking to build robust feedback loops in the classroom
- Harnessing digital platforms to facilitate a Design Thinking approach to student learning.
Role: STEAM Coordinator/Coach
School: Merrimac State High School
Audience: P - 12
Session Name: Microsoft MakeCode and Microbits
Session Outline:
In this hands on session you will learn how to use Microsoft's new online Block coding tool Makecode. Learn how easy it is to use Makercode to program a variety of different digital devices including the popular Microbit microcontroller. Become a coding wizard while dabbling in the world of electronics to make an Electronic Dice and/or an interactive Scissors, Paper, Rock game. Want a bit more of a challenge? Move from Block coding into JavaScript all within the same tool. Microsoft's Makecode is the perfect tool for beginning Makers and Coders. Laptop required for session.
Role: Head of Student Leadership & Wellbeing
School: Hillcrest Christian College
Audience: P - 12
Session Name: Learning through quizzing
Session Outline: This session will outline three great applications that can provide instant feedback on students' progress: Microsoft Forms, Quizlet and Kahoot.
Role: Year 6 Teacher
School: Hillcrest Christian College
Audience: P - 12
Session Name: Unpacking the SECRET Skills
Session Outline: See how the SECRET Skills are transforming learning at Hillcrest Christian College. Through a Design-Centred Learning (DCL) approach, students are now being given the opportunity to develop 21st century skills that will equip them for success both at school and in the future workplace.
Role: Head of Faculty & Year 8 Teacher
School: Hillcrest Christian College
Audience: 7 - 12
Session Name: The SECRET Skills in action through HaSS
Session Outline: This session will share insights from introducing the SECRECT Skills through a Design Centred Learning task in Year 8 HaSS.
Role: Academic Performance & Innovation Coordinator Years 3-6
School: Hillcrest Christian College
Audience: P - 6
Session Name: Tech Tools to Turn up Teaching
Session Outline: Show casing a suite of technological tools that add value to our learning and teaching. These techie tools will enhance English lessons and other learning areas by providing engaging and stimulating digital resources to enhance lessons.