Innovative project explores educational technologies through local school

Exchange scholar Shelley Kinash with children from Flagstone Creek State School

Flagstone Creek State School students, teachers and families joined with University of Southern Queensland (USQ) staff and local community groups to attend a Celebration of Learning at the school on Friday, 20 June 2008.

175 people attended the event which celebrated the completion of a project initiated by USQ exchange scholar Dr Shelley Kinash, along with Dr Robyn Henderson and Dr Karen Noble. The project involved four groups of school students planning and directing their own learning.

Dr Kinash said each group designed and executed a research project on their local area and used different technologies to report their findings.
 
'One group did a podcast. The children put an advertisement in The Gatton Star asking for community members with knowledge of the impacts of the drought and flood on local wild and domestic animals to speak to students,' Dr Kinash said.
 
'The coordinator of the catchment responded to the advertisement and the children visited the creek to study its environment.

'The exercise involved the children putting their findings into a podcast and linking to it on a website developed by the children.'
 
Another group researched and re-enacted the first crossing of Gorman's Gap. 
 
'Lockyer Valley Councillor, Dave Neuendorf, lead the children on an entire-school excursion and USQ Media Services recorded the re-enactment.'
 
The third group made a website containing stories of Flagstone Creek that had emerged through a Tea and Talk, where grandparents and people from the community visited the school to tell their stories, many of which had never been written down.

The final group documented the entire project in a PowerPoint presentation and led planning of the Celebration of Learning event.
 
Dr Kinash said the project demonstrates the importance of children taking charge of their learning process.
 
'The children came up with their own research questions, their own excursions and outcomes,' Dr Kinash said.
 
'Through this process they are not just the recipients of knowledge but they are generators of knowledge.
  
'For too long learners have been taught to sit and take in lectures and simply regurgitate information,' she said.
 
Dr Kinash said increasing the integration of technology into the school environment will enable teachers and students to become familiar with learning through different technologies.
 
'The research team wanted to help schools discover multiple means of representation, engagement and expression through educational technologies.'

The project team aim to use the research to develop educational resources for teachers and students.

Media Contact: Jane Urquhart USQ Media +61 7 4631 2559