Trent Ray is the Curriculum Innovation Leading Teacher at Melbourne’s St Helena Secondary College responsible for promoting 21st Century curriculum design and innovate teaching and learning at his school.
All of the 1500 St Helena students own a Windows 8 touch device and its Trent’s role to give teachers the support they need to incorporate technology in the curriculum, assisting students to develop 21st century skills.
Trent divides his time at school between teaching his own classes and formally coaching staff to build their capacity in designing technology rich curriculum and building their confidence in using technology. His focus at the moment is transitioning the school to be ‘on the Cloud’ with Office 365; developing curriculum OneNote and virtual class sites for the students allowing greater collaboration and access to learning for both teachers and students.
He believes that as technology evolves, teachers will require an ongoing and systematic approach in supporting the integration of technology into the curriculum. Through a coaching methodology, Trent has seen the confidence and capacity of his colleagues grow, intern influencing the opportunities for students to develop skills to tackle the world of work in the future.
“Technology changes so quickly. Last year we went from having an on premise SharePoint server to this year moving to Office 365 online,” Trent said. ”Teachers really need support to get their head around how they can use the technology effectively in the classrooms. The staff have kids with a range of different learning abilities and it’s critical to have coaching models in schools to empower them in the classroom.”
”Teachers really need support to get their head around how they can use the technology effectively in the classrooms. The staff have kids with a range of different learning abilities and it’s critical to have coaching models in schools to empower them in the classroom.”
“I really like enabling ways for student to connect with other students and break down the walls of the traditional school classroom. A great example of this, is when we gave our year nine App development kids the opportunity to create a game using Touch Develop, with the brief of developing apps for year five students at Laburnum Primary School.”
“The primary school kids played the games and learnt how to give constructive feedback via Skype, which was two-way learning at its best as well as helping to break down the classroom walls.”
“We also conduct an introductory subject around technology for learning, teaching the kids in Year Seven how to use different technologies such as using organisational tools and working with OneNote as a place to record their digital work and accessing curriculum.”
“We assume that the kids of today are ‘digital natives’ but the technology that they use in schools is often new to them. At home they might have App-based devices with basic functionality but when they start using technology in class for organisation and learning it’s on a whole other level. We find if we don’t give them that induction they really struggle, and teachers don’t have time to do this on their own.”
“We assume that the kids of today are ‘digital natives’ but the technology that they use in schools is often new to them.
Trent Ray is one of six Expert Educators who have been selected to represent Australia at the Microsoft Global Educator Exchange (E2) in Seattle, on April 29 – an annual event that brings together 300 of the most innovative educators and students from around the world.
Trent has also been involved in a transformation project with Microsoft and several other Expert Educators, designing ‘Teachers Online Meet’, which delivers monthly webinars to teachers, inviting people to share their stories, successes and challenges. The group is hoping to add more people to the conversation in coming months.
“Microsoft’s Innovative Educator Experts program has connected over 40 awesome innovators who are all passionate about technology and on the same wave length. There are some amazing ideas that are regularly shared amongst the group, and being able to take those ideas and apply them in my own role has been invaluable,” Trent said.
