Year three

Title sequence: 4Up. Four years of laptops. Year three.

Robyn (Principal): 2011 is the third year of our school’s involvement in the Digital Education Revolution and it’s been an amazing journey for us. The senior students have really embraced the use of the laptop and they use it in all their lessons in different ways. Some teachers use it every period, other teachers use it infrequently. I see students really being able to engage much more thoroughly in their learning as a result of it and as they’ve taken on the laptop program the depth of knowledge that kids have in classes has certainly been increased.

Gaye (R/Principal): When I think about what’s happened at Bathurst High I kind of think of it like a really stereotypical successful relationship. We were part of the trial when the laptops were first introduced and it was kind of like the courtship and we were all excited and madly in love with these wonderful little Lenovo machines. That was a really, really exciting time for us, we said ‘Play with them, use them however you like in your classroom and let’s see what we can do with these’. We then went into the honeymoon phase of distributing the laptops to the first Year 9 group. It was all this great sense of euphoria, having a TSO put into the school, the wireless installed across the school was fantastic. Just walking around the school and seeing students with their laptops, out in the playground at recess and lunch using their laptops was just a wonderful change in the whole learning environment.

Jake: I feel that the laptop helps us be an independent learner because we can pick it up, go wherever we need to go, go outside and study on our own, be in our own little world.

Tylar: Now, that I’ve been in Year 11 the laptop is, it’s always in my bag, I take it out if I have homework then it just goes straight back in, it’s like a habit, it comes out, it goes back in, so I don’t forget it anymore.

Gemma: Year 11 it’s very stressful. A very different change with relationships with my teachers because you’re a senior now and it’s cool having that differentiation between the juniors and seniors. I love it.

Nethanel: Now that Year 11’s started workload’s gone up about by three times.

Victoria: Going into Year 11 was such big change with the amount of work that we have and the expectation is just so much higher.

Gaye (R/Principal):Now we’re into that phase of really getting to know what the laptops are capable of, what we can do in classrooms with the laptops, what sort of structures we need in the school to support students so that they’re useful and valued and an important part of students’ lives.

Oki: It’s very much now about independent choice, it feels like I’ve got so much more control over everything and, yeah, it’s just been great.

Ruby: So this year in year 11 we’ve become seniors. It just means you have more fun at school and that you have more responsibility; you’re a lot more independent. Year 11 has been about schoolwork.

Victoria: Lots of schoolwork.

Nethanel: About preparing for the HSC.

Ruby: With the teachers this year, the relationship between teacher and student you have the respect for each other. Also you can do a lot more things by yourself.

Victoria: Being an independent learner I guess I can just zone out from everything else and just do what I need to do, what needs to be done, then I get the marks that I need because getting into uni is the most important thing. There’s a lot more responsibility in Year 11 and 12 because it’s all on you but that kind of makes you want to try because you have that responsibility.

Jake: The laptops have helped me stay organised in the classroom.

Victoria: The laptops have helped me so much with schoolwork.

Ruby: The laptops have helped me get assignments done on time.

Stacey (Deputy Principal): The focus is still very much on students achieving syllabus outcomes, you know, to the highest possible level and teachers maintaining the integrity of their subject but it’s really about how we can use these technology tools to meet students’ individual learning needs.

Victoria: Now that I’ve had the laptop for three years I know what programs are on there, I know what ones I can use for different things. Make my assignments look more professional by using like the headers and the footers and like the cover pages and all of that just because I know how to use it now.

Nethanel: I’ve been using the laptop mostly with my Italian because it’s by distance, can’t do it at the school so I go up to the library, I’ve been given a USB, I’ve been given workbooks and I get a phone call every week on different days and I use the laptop for listening tasks, for learning new things in the Italian so as I can write in the workbook and scan and send if off.

Ruby: I have a lot of assignments and obviously I have to go do them in Sydney when I’m with Dad. Yeah, I take my laptop down and because I go into the city on the train and so I’ve taken it to the State Library and they have Wi-Fi there as well, so yeah you can do heaps of work.

Damien (Maths Teacher): Technology has many benefits but I think I use it because I see the students engage a lot more. And when the students are engaging I know that they’re focused and they’re learning which is what it’s all about so I try and use technology all the time. There’s so much available on the laptops that we have, we’ve got fantastic programs already installed on them. I’ve just completed a topic with Year 12 on spherical geometry and we use Google Earth quite extensively in that topic, it’s a fantastic simulation of the earth and we can spin the earth around, look at how the sun moves across the planet and see how time zones have been developed and look at all the different latitude and longitudinal areas and calculate distances on the earth’s surface. It’s just brilliant.

Nethanel: OneNote with its many different notebooks that you can use and the many different file sections that you can use and the different sorts of pages. I’ve become pretty adept at linking. Say, I make a contents page at the start and then I go, okay, double click on this link, it’ll go to here and then bang I can look at it and that’s all about what I’ve been looking for. I’ve done that with my Japanese for Years 9, Year 10 as well. I needed to talk about greetings, I double click on the link for greetings, it goes straight to the file within that massive notebook and tells me all about the different greetings I could use.

Victoria: I’m doing my biology assignment at the moment. We have to do the leaf dichotomous key, the internet’s been really helpful in finding what each leaf is and all the structures of the leaves to make the key like for it. I’ve used Adobe Reader a lot due to the fact that my Biology teacher sends us in that and that’s the only way we can open them. I use PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, those kind of ones I use them on pretty much a daily basis.

Jake: In the three years I’ve had the laptop I’ve definitely learnt a lot more and become a lot more technology friendly. We had a trial run with Adobe Premiere, the video editing software and also getting better using Audacity and music editing software just to make things a bit easier to crop songs to fix them up a bit, tune them down.

Tylar: A few days ago Gemma taught me FreeMind. It’s like a mind map sort of tool that organises like for essays and stuff you can organise all your information within that one application instead of having it here, there and everywhere. Different causes of the World War, there’s so many different causes if you break it off into that mind map you can then make other branches that link to it and then highlight what you have written in the essay. Because usually with essays you know you make the introduction and just continue whereas with this you actually have every little thing that you can add knowing what it is instead of just writing an essay from the top of your head.

Gemma: I’m doing in Textiles at the moment I have to make a portfolio to go with my garment. I use my Lenovo to use Photoshop and do a collage on there. I got to make my own gradient that matched exactly the colours that I was using in my piece where it’s like you can’t always get the matching paper. I’ve just got to jump onto the internet, find the images I like, save it, I don’t lose anything.

Jake: The classroom is different now because we’re all online and connected at the same time

Gemma: Because it’s more interactive.

Robyn (Principal): My job has really been involved in being the strategic leader of the school, so my knowledge of laptops isn’t as strong as my staff so I’ve positioned staff who are experts in their field and they’re leading the revolution quite literally in our school.

Stacey (Deputy Principal): The technology has really allowed us to meet individual students at their point of need far more effectively. And there are lots of ways that we do that. We’ve spent lots of time developing teacher skills and confidence.

Scott (PDHPE Teacher): We’ve developed as part of our PDHPE program with Year 10 a fitness assessment task.

Matt (PDHPE Teacher): They need to provide a five minute instructional video which outlines the component of fitness.

Scott (PDHPE Teacher): So we’ve actually looked at a way of incorporating something that they like to do. Once the task was actually introduced the kids understood that it wasn’t necessarily going to be us just teaching them about fitness and running them through fitness drills so therefore they were a lot more excited about it. Once they understood that they were actually going to be making a movie and teaching each other they were a lot more interested in actually participating.

Ashleigh (PDHPE Teacher): The laptops have been essential to aerial study this year, because students tend to go up into the air. They have no idea of where they are and how they’re moving so they’re completely disorientated. With the use of the laptop and using Debut webcam recorder we can then record them so that they can have a real world view of what they’re actually doing and they’re able to watch themselves back.

So being able to use Debut Screen Capture means that I can record all of my feedback and I tend to give a lot of verbal feedback. And normally the kids that get maybe five out of the ten points I’d make so this way they get all ten and they can annotate them and take them home and know exactly what I’m talking about.

Tylar: In class and out of class Edmodo is a tool that sort of links to social networking but it’s on a more educational level. You can talk to your teachers; you can talk to your peers. It’s sort of like Facebook. In class we can be discussing things on Edmodo which makes it more interactive.

Sumana (Head Teacher, English): Edmodo provides a great structure for students to communicate with each other because when they do actually post their messages they get to really consider what other people are saying and writing, they also become more aware of they themselves as a composer as well of the text. So, that direct link between being a responder and a composer is really part of the core of what we teach in English. This format really allows them that aspect of anonymity where they can actually offer up their ideas and responses and they’re not actually being or having that attention drawn to them so they feel a lot more confident in being able to respond.

Stacey (Deputy Principal): As a teacher we’ve had to really change the way that we’ve embraced this technology over the last three years. Initially, teachers were setting up learning platforms and students were emailing them and messaging them at 2am and 7am and ‘Sir, you didn’t get back to me to give me my feedback’ or ‘Miss you haven’t handed my work back to me’. Teachers are really happy to give detailed ongoing feedback so they might say they’re available at a particular time to respond to student questions or they might say you’ll receive feedback from me in the next forty-eight hours or the next few days. But just because you’re awake at 3 o’clock in the morning doesn’t mean that I’ll be responding at that time.

Alexandra (Head Teacher): Students are encouraged to submit drafts of work when they know that they can email you and receive a tracked changes document back with comments and suggestions on how to improve.

Nethanel: It’s better when we get feedback from the teacher to know we’re going the right way and can continue going the right way.

Alexandra (Head Teacher): We have with our Year 12 Ancient History a group site. As soon as they came across something that they didn’t understand they were posting a question. We often found that it was other students who answered them before we even got to the site and so we’ve actually seen a lot of peer learning through that.

Gemma: The most exciting thing I do on my laptops is … create my work on Photoshop.

Victoria: Search the internet.

Nethanel: Preparing for Japanese tasks.

Jake: Organising my music.

Nethanel: My maths teacher sent out this email about this kid who needed tutoring. I started with maths, I’ve moved on with my other subjects as well. It helps me look over things I might have forgotten, so it’s very much a two way thing.

Victoria: I think I would have struggled a lot through Year 11 and 12 even Year 10 without a laptop because they’ve just helped so much. I’ve had so many assignments all at once and being able to manage my time between the assignments and schoolwork and work and my social life, anything like that.

Jake: The school social was a very big night for the Year 12 fundraising. I was asked to do the DJing and sound for the actual night. I have a passion for music but I could never become a musician as a kid, I wasn’t talented with guitars or drums or anything like that. And as I grew up and I realised that you know all this electronic sort of music was produced with computers and laptops and you know all this equipment I thought to myself ‘Well, I could give it a try and see how I go’ and I was good at it. It was like an instant snap, I knew what I was doing, I knew how to do it and I have fun doing it.

Gemma: I go to Tamworth every year for the Country Music Festival and I take my laptop up there and do my assignments or my homework. Being able to have that mobility it’s been really wonderful for me. I can jump on and check out the news and see what’s happening in England where my sister is. I have that access to weatherchannel.com and things like that. So just my daily needs I can get there and then in my computer.

Alexandra (Head Teacher): When they leave school and move into the workplace they are going to be meeting new technologies all of the time and we know that companies are constantly updating hardware and software. They have to be adaptable within the workplace. And if we can keep up-to-date ourselves as teachers with the changes in technology and pass that onto our students then we’re creating lifelong learners.

Rob: Since last year I started an apprenticeship and that worked out real well, started TAFE. I think I am lucky that I can work in something that’s my passion. The laptops helped me a lot, say, in the office learning about the computers in there and it made things a lot easier even when I was working with the dealerships in some things on the computers there on diagnostics and stuff like that. I want to finish my apprenticeship and that way I’ll have a trade behind me and it can take me other places in life.

Stacey (Deputy Principal): The laptops have really allowed us to work with students on developing skills and knowledge that they need to be lifelong learners and to operate beyond the confines of the classroom and beyond school.

Ramese: I didn’t leave school because I was failing, I was getting good marks, I wasn’t slipping or anything, I was actually doing really good but I just felt like I was losing passion for school. I think right now I’m just seeing how things go and seeing how far I get with this thing, maybe three months from now I might be like, ‘Oh, this isn’t for me’. Actually before I left school I used the laptop for my resume because during school they got us all together, our careers adviser, and she had this one big program where everyone ... she hooked her laptop up to the projector and then she sent us all emails with a draft resume and we all typed out our resume and she helped us go through it and she gave us, sent us links and stuff and we all set up our resume there. So, I actually used that actual resume that I made in that class, that template as my actual resume that I handed in to the jobs that I wanted to go to. Yeah, it was good at the time at school having all of those programs like, you know, within your fingertip and being able to use them all. And now that I don’t have it here I don’t really get to use any of them.

Nethanel: What I love about technology is the way it connects me with the world.

Ruby: Instant communication.

Victoria: The freedom.

Jake: Ease of access.

Ruby: I think it is cool to have the laptops I mean it’s become quite of a norm just having them and you expect everything from them and if they don’t work you get really annoyed and things.

Stacey (Deputy Principal): The laptops do present challenges in terms of organisation and logistics. So, for instance, students having their laptops recalled for breakages or for warranty or to have them reimaged.

Victoria: My laptop was down at the TSO getting reimaged. The home computer died and I was trying to use Dad’s laptop and it was basically all I could use and it was really difficult not having my laptop to do the assignment. I got it back just in time because I got one assignment for every subject like a couple of weeks ago. But thankfully I have my laptop back so I could get it all done.

Gaye (R/Principal): It really has re-shaped the way we think about what happens in classrooms, how students learn.

Gemma: It’s virtually an online classroom. So it’s made the classroom accessible at all hours of the day.

Oki: It’s not as if I only use my laptop for work though. Outside of school just makes a great multimedia device. My phone can’t access the internet; I can’t play videos on it like so many other people. So, the fact that I don’t have all of that just makes the laptop so much more important.

Tylar: I have my phone; I have my iPod, my laptop. With the iPod and the phone you can link to the laptops and access, you know, the photos from the iPod, the music from the phone, the videos from the phone. With technology kids my age are sort of like if you don’t have it, you’re lost.

Ruby: Technology can influence society so much. We did this in Ancient History, like Bronze age, like that made society go up so fast. I mean maybe one day it would turn out to be something like Dr Who, like it would be heaps cool.

Victoria: Having that step ahead of everyone else is going to be really helpful just knowing how to control it, how to use it, how to use it responsibly, that kind of stuff. I think having the laptops and having this kind of technology has set us up to know what to do and know how to use things. I hadn’t ever even used an iPad before and then one of my friends had one and I knew exactly how to use it just straight away.

Jake: If I don’t have my phone or my laptop or even my social networking I feel really disconnected from everyone else like I feel I’m missing a part of me, I can’t really walk out the front door without my mobile these days.

Gemma: For me technology is with me every day. I’ve got my phone it goes everywhere with me, my laptop has everything on it, it’s my life. My iPod, I would cry without it and also they kind of intertwine with each other. The other day I had through a HDMI cord my laptop with my ballet exam stuff hooked up to my TV at home and my Mum came in just between my sisters, they didn’t know half the stuff I can do on my computer because they didn’t get that opportunity to do it.

Victoria: I think the future will involve ... exciting adventures.

Ruby: Drama.

Jake: A lot of opportunities.

Gemma: Lots of fashion.

Tylar: Last year I was looking into nursing and midwifery, this year I’m looking into law on an international basis. Since senior school we have a wider range of subjects and for one of them I decided to pick Legal Studies and since I’ve been doing it, it’s one of my favourite subjects. As for Year 12 now that I’ve settled and things have changed I hope that I can finish my school career, be happy, you know have the support that I have now to get through it and be happy and safe where I am.

Gemma: I did want to do journalism but I fell in love with designing and fashion and all that kind of stuff so I want to do fashion design. It’s a hard industry to get into but I want to work in the industry, learn and then I want to end up having my own fashion line. I’m really excited about Year 12, I’m more excited than I am nervous but it’s happening so fast and it’s like all my friends that are in Year 12 now are winding it up saying their goodbyes, you know Dance HSC is over and everything and it’s just crazy. This will be me in a year.

Jake: I’m nervous in a way because I know, I’ve heard stories about what to expect. Towards the start of this project my dreams and goals were actually to become like an I.T. specialist or work with computers. Now it’s changed to work in the retail industry or to major in the entertainment industry but that’s going to involve a lot of work, a lot of hard time and effort.

Nethanel: My first plan was once I finish the HSC going to Japan. That was it. Earlier this year I went on a program which got me my cert two in outdoor rec. and it’s absolutely amazing. So now my plan is I’m going to go to TAFE and do an outdoor rec course in my cert three and four because I can go outside, do adventure tour guiding, teach other kids cert two, outdoor rec and stuff and it would just be an amazing job to be in while at uni.

Ruby: I’m really worried about Year 12. It’s going to be crazy, the work and the stress, yeah major works and study and all of that. I would like to be School Captain and I really would like to have a say in what happens. I think it will be a high stress load but I think I can manage it with my other subjects.

Nethanel: They vet us out to see if we’re worthwhile nominees and then after that we have to have done a speech in front of everyone on the Wednesday and that was pretty interesting.

Victoria: I still want to do the special ed teaching at uni. I went through a stage in the middle of this year where I was like, I don’t know if I want to do it, everything just changed, but I’ve come to the conclusion that that’s what I want to do. I want to teach special ed children and I’ve just got to set myself up to do that.

Lyndel (Head Teacher): As teachers we’re always reviewing and reflecting upon the processes and our practices in the classroom to continue to improve student learning outcomes. It’s a great opportunity to step outside of your comfort zone and expand your views. Many of the teachers in the school now have paperless classrooms and that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re using a whole range of applications in every lesson but it certainly means that there’s an ICT focus in the classroom. And even students that we’ve had who have been traditionally reluctant learners are certainly engaged in the process as a result of having ICT in their classroom.

Gemma: We have SMART Boards in every second room at this school and it’s all touch screen. It’s really interesting because you can go and you can get involved with your learning rather than just reading out of a textbook.

Jake: It was a head start having the computers at school. We have all this new technology that’s coming at us left, right and centre and with the laptops especially it just gives us more practice for things that are going to come out in the future.

Stacey (Deputy Principal): The classroom has become a really dynamic student-centred place. Teachers are more able to meet individual students at their point of need and it means that students are working with each other and sharing knowledge with each other and exploring knowledge together and co-constructing knowledge rather than just receiving knowledge from the teacher.

Nethanel: This is Classical Gas. There is no singing involved, because I can’t sing. So we’ll see how I go.

Final sequence: Music. Credits.

Thanks to the staff and students of Denison Secondary College, Bathurst High Campus and Campbelltown Performing Arts High School.

Thanks to the family and friends of Nethanel, Ruby, Victoria, Oki, Gemma, Ramese, Jake and Tylar.

Title music composed by H. Kemp. Performed by H. Kemp and T. Symes from Winmalee High School.

Additional music composed by Rhys D. Webb.

Produced by the NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre as part of the Digital Education Revolution – NSW.