Australia, Day 9

This day brought the first visit to Macquarie University (https://www.mq.edu.au/).  Our first stop was MacICT (http://macict.webfactional.com/), the Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre for Learning and Teaching.  In this space, a small group of educators offers workshops and resources for K-12 teachers and students in New South Wales to explore new technologies, like Robotics, and finding ways to integrate these into the regular classes. They offer a Robotic Bootcamp, work with Augmented Reality, gaming, and the art of coding or thinking process through.  We saw a group of students in action, programming a robotic car.  The goal is not the use of technology but the transformation of pedagogy. Another interesting angle is the introduction of Maker spaces into the classroom for students to have a space to tinker.
Some of their research projects, all listed on the web site, include transmedia story telling, how to use ipads effectively.  Workshops are run not only by members of the Centre but also by faculty and students, including high school students.
Some of the tools they use are
Unity for Scripting:  http://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/modules/beginner/scripting
Aurasma for Augmented Reality:  http://www.aurasma.com/
FIRST LEGO League:  http://www.firstlegoleague.org/
together with
LEGO education:  http://education.lego.com/en-us/lego-education-product-database/wedo/2000097-lego-education-wedo-software-1-2-and-activity-pack
Squishy Circuits with Play Doh for experiencing electricity in a safe way:  http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/apthomas/SquishyCircuits/howTo.htm
Scratch for simple programming:  http://scratch.mit.edu/
Sim-on-a-Stick for simple virtual world creation:  http://simonastick.com/
or
Kodu:  http://www.kodugamelab.com/

The focus is to integrate the 4 Cs into all courses:  Critical Inquiry, Creativity, Communication, and Collaboration.

Cathie Howe, MacICT

Students programming a Robotics car

We even saw some kids in action -- they received basic instructions and then worked on computers in pairs to design a program that would move a robotics car across the room in a square route.  One of the rules for them was Ask three before Me (the Me being the teacher).



On our way to the Staff Cafe for lunch, we were shown the old library space that has been transformed into a Learning Commons, Student Connect place.  The university gave 4 architects the opportunity to build informal learning spaces in different corners of the building (with budget limitations), and the results are quite interesting.

Plywood, large open spaces

smaller spaces, with adjustable dividers

comfy furniture for lounging

comfy furniture for lying about and working

small cubicles for quiet work, with erasable surfaces

Then it was on to meeting Dr. Ian Solomonides, the Director for the Centre for Learning and Teaching.  I learned a lot about the Australian Higher Education system, with such basic differences as vocabulary (there are no tenured faculty but contract staff; there are no instructors but casual staff; there are no courses but units, and colleges are faculty).  The university is not based on majors though they are thinking about moving into this direction; instead, students take classes and graduate based on the classes and their combination they have taken.  Students are not paying tuition up front but accumulate a debt that is repaid if and when they start making more than $40,000 per year-- apparently, this is one of the things the current government wants to change.
The Learning and Teaching Centre has a couple of different responsibilities, including the maintenance of the instructional technologies on campus.  As Macquarie uses moodle and other open source technologies, this includes a relatively large number of programmers and other IT specialists, in addition to instructional designers and academic support that focuses on teaching courses, research and outreach activities.