eLearning News
Glen Eira College has officially become an eSmart school! This means that GEC received funding from the Commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) in order to create a safe and smart environment where there is any online activity at GEC. We have implemented ICT and Google Apps for Education (GAFE) policies that every student and parent or guardian has to sign which states the ins and outs of the rights and wrongs to do with the use of technology on college grounds. Parents can find this on Xuno.
We are also working on an “eSmart Transition,” which will be run by the new eLearning Coordinator, David Ebert. This provides a more in depth exploration into what students should and should not do online. This has already been implemented in many classes and will continue to be enabled throughout the school. These two safety precautions will be especially enforced when a student receives a Chromebook, as the internet is more accessible as the Chromebooks are students’ personal laptops.
The eLearning team are working on some small stickers, one for each checkpoint, that students can have on their Chromebooks to say that they have completed these safety briefings. Students in younger year levels will also be taught in health classes about the dangers associated with online activities. Teachers and the eLearning team have been working hard to raise awareness of the importance of educating students about being safe and smart online.
Other cool stuff that is happening is the beginning of an after school Engineering Club and the winning of a grant that will allow the school to purchase 3D printers! This means that design, robotics and materials classes will have access to new and innovative technology to complement their education. The eLearning Squad is also looking into offerings by Code Club Australia (formerly Noah Code). This would be an after school club run by a professional in the area of coding. The eLearning squad are running a test session to see if we’re interested. We are very excited for all of these opportunities.
Another cool new thing that the eLearning team have been talking about is an innovative way to access news tailored to what you're interested in sent directly to you via texts. How it works is you put in your preferences of what news you want, how often you want it and BAM, free, easily accessible and current news about anything you want sent directly to your phone. We are working to get this technology to students to encourage them to be up to date on all the current world events. The team is working on a special something that allows students to do this but with news from Glen Eira College like the daily bulletin or other GEC news through Facebook. An app that is similar to this experience is called “Quartz”, which simulates a conversation in the app that gives you the most important news daily. It has quirky features that allow you to ask for more information on the topic or move onto the next one. It even has a “Trump Snooze Button” if you don't want to hear about the latest debaucheries of the current US president all the time.
Another awesome thing is a podcast available wherever you get your podcasts called “Hackable?”. It includes pop culture references of insane hacking feats shown on TV and in the movies and asks is it real? Through demonstrative experiments, the team at “Hackable?” sheds some light on how secure we really are in a world full of “Malicious cat photos, sketchy Wi-Fi networks, rogue rental cars and all-knowing webcams.” It's also highly entertaining.
Last thing! A reminder to never EVER share your Chromebook password or any other device with anyone, even with your friends. Students have been complaining about “hacked” Chromebooks. Change your passwords regularly. You can do this by delving into your settings page.
Elizabeth Lindner-Craig
eLearning Captain