Incursion and Excursion

Learning without borders
In this second of four series of episodes from edna's online workshops, edna Education Officer Cecily Wright leads a cross-sectoral discussion on the importance of global education.

National Secondary School Computer Fund: Round Two
The Minister for Education, the Hon Julia Gillard MP has announced that Round Two of the National Secondary School Computer Fund is open and applications will close at 8pm Australian Eastern Daylight Savings time on the 9 October 2008. Round Two will focus on moving all secondary schools with Year 9 - 12 students, to a target computer to student ratio of 1:2. DEEWR's Digital Education Revolution Taskforce, 14 July 2008.

Keeping students safe
South Australian school teachers will be offered professional training in managing difficult and disruptive students through a new program called Your Classroom – Safe, Orderly and Productive, that is being rolled out to the State's schools.

Australian students lead the way in 2008 CensusAtSchool project
More than 44,000 Australian students in years four to 12, completed the online questionnaire between 29 January and 4 July 2008, once again making it the most successful CensusAtSchool collection globally.

Policy plea on school bullies
Tasmanian teachers say that dealing with cyber and mobile phone bullies should not be left to individual schools.

Australian youths help shape global online safety
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is taking ten youths to London next week to be part of the world's first congress aimed at giving youth a voice in how they are protected in the online environment.

Google launches virtual world called Lively
Google launched a new service called Lively, a browser based virtual world add-on that lets users create and customize avatars and worlds, interact with other users, and generally have a richer social interaction than is offered by GTalk today. Worlds can be embedded into web pages, although only Windows users on IE or Firefox can view them, after an add-on download and installation. Mac and Linux users will have to wait for now. TechCrunch, 8 July 2008

Technology is reshaping American classrooms
From online courses to kid friendly laptops and virtual teachers, technology is spreading in America's classrooms, reducing the need for textbooks, notepads, paper and in some cases even the schools themselves.

Boost for School Science Education
Acting Education Minister, Brendan O'Connor, today announced extra funding for three school science programs, working towards providing Australian students with a world class science education. Over the next two years, the Science by Doing project will receive $2 million to improve the teaching and learning of science in junior secondary years by exciting students' interest in science.

Magic of online learning boosts kids' reading and writing skills
A 10-week trial of a new web-based education tool in three Northern Territory primary schools stimulated an increase in the concentration and literacy skills of children struggling to read and write. The 'Abracadabra' software, supported by a $750,000 grant from the Telstra Foundation, is interactive and educational, and designed to help struggling school students aged five to eight years learn basic literacy skills which are the cornerstone for their future learning opportunities. CDU, 3 July 2008.