Digital Technology News

Two weeks ago Kathryn, Shaun, Andrea J and I were fortunate enough to attend a teacher-learning conference called EduTech. The day was packed with informative sessions and workshops on the latest trends in education technology.

One of the conference's main themes was the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in education. The speakers discussed how AI could be used to personalise learning, provide feedback, and support students with their learning. 

There were many speakers from all over Australia and internationally, and many of the sessions we attended were held by speakers from Google and Apple. The Google and Apple sessions showed us tips and tricks that can support teachers in tweaking their lessons by incorporating apps and Chrome extensions to enhance student engagement. 

Another session I attended was run by Marty from Inform and Empower, who many families would be familiar with. Marty spoke about the use of green time vs screen time and the importance of parents and teachers communicating with the students about what they use when having screen time. 

Marty also spoke about some of the social media and communication platforms that Primary school-age students are using and shared that the Discord messenger app now has some updated controls. 

The new Discord update now allows parents to be able to see:

• Recently added friends, including their display names and avatars.
• Servers joined or participated in, including server names, server icons, and member counts.
• Users messaged or called in direct or group chats, including display names, avatars, and the time of the last message or call.

If you would like to know more about the Discord parental controls please click on the link of an article shared by Inform and Empower. If your child uses Discord I highly recommend that you read the article.

Overall, it was a great experience attending EduTech, and we look forward to implementing some of our learning throughout the school. 

Lucas Mangani

Digital Technology Leader