'Enough teachers to fill a school' gather at Glenmore
Published on 22 September, 2004
Hundreds of trainee teachers, current teachers and administrators from public and private education sectors gathered at Glenmore High on the morning of Friday, September 17.
The gathering included around 260 trainee teachers (now referred to as ‘learning managers’) from the Faculty of Education and Creative Arts at Central Queensland University.
The Bachelor of Learning Management (BLM) students presented their Futures Expo 'installations' to teachers, school students and interested members of the public, who provided an authentic context for the work.
Participants discussed new interactive learning environments and activities.
The BLM students shared with professional educators and community members learning methods and concepts that can engage learners from Early, Middle and Senior-Secondary phases over the next decade and beyond.
Learning managers incorporated digital technologies into their activities and designed authentic learning tasks around learners’ interests.
Teachers are competing with amazing products in the ‘edutainment’ marketplace like the newest digital phones, personal information devices and the World Wide Web, explained CQU’s Dr Lindy Isdale.
“Students, more than ever, are poised to pace their own learning and contribute to their own learning. What we have to do as learning managers, or teachers, is integrate those types of ‘wow’ factors into teaching and anticipate future learning needs,” added Dr Isdale, an authority on educational futures.
Teams of Learning Managers, currently studying ‘Futures’ as part of their degree at CQU, developed more than 40 learning experiences for the Expo that have real applications for learning today.
Some, for example, developed an approach that will include interactive learning about reforestation. Another group of Learning Managers with an interest in Physical Education linked learning about obesity to activities like measuring fat content and kilojoule-burning.
The Futures Expo was a partnership between the Glenmore P-12 alliance and the CQU Faculty of Education and Creative Arts. ENDS