Supporting NSW rural and remote school communities
Supporting NSW rural and remote school communities

Using our site

The aim of this site is to support rural schools and distance education schools of NSW by providing targeted access to current information, curriculum strategies as well as professional and community development. To easily find material  on this site you may use 1 of 3 different search strategies: 1. Browse the menus, 2. View the dynamic sitemap, 3. Use the keyword search in the top right hand corner of each page.


Understanding rurality

Learning in a woolshed

All school are impacted by and respond to  disadvantage in their communities. In many cases, it is multiple forms of intersecting disadvantage. What is different in rural and remote communities is how geographic isolation amplifiers the impact of intersecting disadvantage.

DE News: 2013-T2-Week 05

Hay SOTA using REACT

In this edition: DE Symposium, Camden Haven HS News, Karabar News, Hay SOTA REACTs, Western Access Program, Middle Years Network, Legal Studies Network, Primary Network, ClickView,

DE News: 2013-T2-Week 04

Hay SOTA teachers preparing with REACT

In this edition: Great news for Dubbo SODE  and 15-17 Years, Camden Haven Term 1 Mini School, Hay SOTA REACTing creatively, Sydney DEHS newsletter, Wilvandee Access Program, DE Collegial Networks, Course Endorsed,

Celebrating Diversity : Moving Forward Together

Diversity hands

The 2013 Western NSW Special Education Conference held on the 29th April 2013  allowed delegates from schools, health services and other consultancies to work together to meet the additional learning and support needs of every student in every school. 'Celebrating Diversity' was a collaboration between the Department of Education and Communities, and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, Western Local Health District. Here are some of the presentation resorces from the event.

Caring for yourself - professional learning via video conference

Caring for Yourself

We all want to live a happy and healthy life! Vicki Nightingale a Senior Psychologist with NSW Health will lead school staff through strategies to better care for ourselves. Vicki's session will focus on how to:
1. Learn about self-care practices which moderate the effects of stress and possible burnout, 
2. Encourage us to reflect upon experiences and current practice. 
3. Identify workplace stressors and 
4. Encourage participants to develop a self-care plan

Global Accessibility Awareness Day

Global Accessibility Awareness Day icon

Global Accessibility Awareness Day is a community-driven effort whose goal is to dedicate one day to introducing the topic of digital (web, software, mobile app/device etc.) accessibility and people with different disabilities to the broadest audience possible.

Listening to what learners want

The School Cliff. Source: http://thegallupblog.gallup.com/2013/01/the-school-cli

There is a growing international movement about Personalising Learning. Societal changes in personalised devices such as iPads, the capacity to learn what you want, when and where you want through systems such as iTunesU, MOOCS and YouTube have democratised the learning pradigm. A critical reflection of our own lives shows that we personalise everything except education. At the same time there is a growing disconnect with school the longer learners stay in school as highlighted in the Gallup Student Poll.  Whilst this is a U.S.A student survey annecdotal comments from secondary teachers here in Australia would seem to indicate that this phenomenen in not localised to the  U.S.A.  The question is how do we as individuals and as a profession respond.

Premier’s Awards For Public Service-2013

Premier's Awards Icon

Nominations are now open for the 2013 Premier's Awards for Public Service. These awards recognise excellence in the delivery of public services across NSW.

Spash

Splash logo

In 2012 the ABC has partnered with Education Services Australia in launching Splash, a new educational website offering a range of multimedia resources including captioned content. Splash provides free articles, videos, audio clips and games linked to the new Australian Curriculum. The extensive online library covers maths, English, history and science for primary and secondary students up to Year 10, with other subjects to be added in future.

2013 Horizon.K12: The Interim Results

Source: http://www.nmc.org/system/files/imagecache/Thumbnail_100x90/bigstock-Clo

This is a repost of the article by Samantha Becker on the March 13, 2013 on the New Media Consortium site. 
"The NMC is pleased to announce the interim results of the 2013 Horizon.K12 Project. The Horizon Project Advisory Board voted for the top 12 emerging technologies as well as the top ten trends and challenges that they believe will have a significant impact on teaching, learning, and creative inquiry in global K-12 education over the next five years. "