Rural and Distance Rural and Distance Education Education David McLeod Leader, Rural & Distance Education Programs
Jan 29, 2016
Rural and Distance EducationRural and Distance Education
David McLeodLeader, Rural & Distance Education Programs
our focusour focus
curriculum access, peer interaction & connectednesscurriculum access, peer interaction & connectedness
Tibooburra
Bourke
Casino
Ballina
Port
Macquarie
Broken Hill
HayQueanbeyan/
Karabar
Dubbo
Walgett
Primary Distance Education
Centres
Secondary Education Centres
Distance Education Pre–School
Distance Education CentresDistance Education Centresand Schools in NSW and Schools in NSW
Camden Haven
Sydney DEPS
Sydney DEHS
Open High School
DESU
BackgroundBackground
The Distance Education review identified a need to improve digital technologies that supported the development of blended learning programs for contemporary distance learning pedagogy
High School leaders have supported the concept of sharing through the Camden Haven Declaration
The Main AimThe Main Aim
• Collegial networks• Symposium
The Role of EquellaThe Role of Equella• The Equella trial demonstrated the capacity of
the system to meet the need to store, classify, access, adapt and share teaching and learning materials in Distance Education in New South Wales
• The repository will provide management of content so that it can be:– used in multiple output and distribution
formats (LMS, print, portable media)– adapted and cloned to meet individual student
learning needs– easily discovered by end users
Key GoalsKey Goals
• provide a platform for Distance Education schools and staff to share and update resources in an efficient manner
• Protect valuable DEC resources
• replace the disparate and disconnected thumb drives, portable hard disks, local storage and other solutions
Equella ServersEquella Servers
• Equella is implemented on servers administered by the Information Technology Directorate with full disaster recovery protocols.
• This implementation matches the system implemented as part of the Virtual Learning Environment of TAFE NSW.
CollectionsCollections
• Teaching materials• Non-teaching materials• Image Collection
SupportSupport
Level 1 Rural and Distance Education Unit Network Organisers Distance Education – NODES (see section 3.3)School based technology staffCollegial Networks
Level 2 Rural and Distance Education, Distance & Rural Technologies Support Unit
Level 2 ITD Support Operations
Level 3 ITD Infrastructure Services, Information Services, Network Operations
Level 3 The Learning Edge International
PROFESSIONAL LEARNINGPROFESSIONAL LEARNING
• DE Teachers– Delivered by the Rural and Distance Education Unit – (Kym Knight, Greg Alchin and Suzie New) – Curriculum considerations – blended learning, universal
learning for design– Using Equella – contributing an item, sharing an item,
searching, publishing items– Copyright considerations– Technical – Moodle integration
• Content Administrators – Specific role for a limited number of staff in each school
with additional ability to access/remove/archive material. Principals and Deputy Principals will automatically be members of this group.
ONGOING TRAINING AND ONGOING TRAINING AND SUPPORTSUPPORT
• Equella Bites – how to videos– Search– Contribute-Single/bundle– Quality Control-Favourites/review– Moodle LMS integration– Making a favourite– How to share
• Online User Guide• FAQs• Online quick reference guide• Equella VC Meetings
– Once per term available to all staff via video conference
• Equella User Reference Group– Once per term user group meetings of key school staff via
video conference
ConsiderationsConsiderations
• DE Symposium• Professional learning through targeted writing• Purchased resources• Primary music material• https://detwww.det.nsw.edu.au/directorates/
profcurr/schoollib/pdf/hbkcopyright.pdf
EquellaEquella
• http://www.equella.com/guest-access-sites.php
• http://labs.equella.com/institutions.do
• https://sharetest.schools.nsw.edu.au/rde/logon.do