From the Leadership Team

Just Scratching the Surface

It has been a very exciting two weeks since the last edition of The Anchor. 

What has been one of the most exciting events was the opening and now extended use of the Discovery Centre. Having such state-of-the-art technology in this College is a blessing and honour, as well as a great responsibility. 

This technology can be used in so many ways to enhance learning for students, and teachers are already finding engaging applications that help build student understanding of key curriculum concepts. 

To continue to be responsible stewards of this technology is our next challenge. 

We had a large number of visitors through the space at the Discovery Centre Opening including the Hon. Michael Brown and other partners critical in transforming the immersive learning space. Endeavour teachers and students, Board members, Connected Schools Principals and Leaders in Lutheran Secondary Schools, have also seen the space and experienced what it has to offer.

The more we talk to others and have them try the technology, the more we can see the opportunities for students. These opportunities fall into one of two categories. 

Firstly the benefits of the immersive and XR experiences themselves. The VR explorations allow for students to be immersed in worlds and lives and places which support the building of empathy, sense of space and place and deepening the knowledge base only possible by "being there". It is very little in this realm about the technology itself. It is all about the experience. The Year 12 Biology class has journeyed inside the cells in our bodies to physically see how they work and how they interact. A Year 10 History class has flown a mission in the Berlin Blitz, gaining a detailed understanding of the planes themselves as well as the dangers of such missions.  

This technology allows for a powerful immersive experience that can only enhance learning – whether that is with a deeper understanding of content or a more holistic development of empathy. 

The other facet to this space is the application of the technology itself. Industry is already using VR to model in environments where access is problematic. Industry is already using it to prototype and test and industry is in need of young people who can move and grow with this ever-advancing technology. Students can now work directly with the technology, learn the technology and build the technology to support particular curricular aims.

This is the full articulation of the holistic vision for education at this College. It allows for students to deepen their understanding and appreciation right through to using the technology and making their own instances of it.

It certainly is an exciting time. Teachers are keen to learn and share with classes, to add to their tool kit for effective teaching. Students are excited with the possibilities of what they can learn. 

I feel we are just scratching the surface of what this technology can do to enhance learning here at Endeavour.

Sandra Barry

Director of Learning