Episode 30: Explore the halls of NSW power
Joachim Cohen:
Welcome to The Virtual Staffroom, a podcast made for teachers by teachers and all with a dash of educational technology thrown in. My name is Joachim Cohen. And today, like every day, I'm joined by Yvette Poshoglian and Linda Lazenby, members of our Technology 4 Learning team. We would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we are recording today, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. And pay our respects to elders past and present, and also pay our respects to other traditional elders and other indigenous peoples on whose country or through whose country this broadcast will travel. Welcome to the second episode in our brand new series of Virtual Staffroom shorts that we guarantee will pack your virtual backpack full of ideas of inspiration and ideas in around 10 minutes or less. Just enough time to add some sugar and spice to the weight in the canteen line. Let's get this podcast started
Yvette Poshoglian:
Last episode, we started a three-part special delving into the world of virtual excursions and empowering everyone of you to make the most of that awesome digital display in new your classroom, library, or shared space. Today, we're hopping back into the digital teleporter and discovering another amazing experience. Joe, where are we off to today?
Joachim Cohen:
Well, Yvette, it's time to head to New South Wales parliament in Macquarie Street. We'll be joined by Daniela Giorgi, senior education officer with New South Wales parliament. Let's start them in.
Linda Lazenby:
Welcome, Daniela. What a real pleasure to have you in the Virtual Staffroom. Now we have a quick and awesome mantra this year, so we are going to get right into it. Can you tell us about your virtual experiences that teachers, schools, and students can access?
Daniela Giorgi:
Yes. Thank you. Years five and six students can join us for an interactive one-hour video conferencing session, it's free and it's great fun. And because we know how hard it is to teach about parliament and how hard it is to sit still for an hour, we've made it really entertaining. The program includes lots of activities that the students can participate in. Frankly, it can get a little silly as our hosts, the sergeant at arms and the Usher of the Black Rod take students through parliament on a virtual tour and get them up and moving about and interacting as much as possible. It can look and sound a little like a drama camp at times. So make sure when you book that the students are ready to get involved and have a giggle as they learn all about how parliament works, what members of parliament do and how laws are made. There's usually also a little hello from the local member of parliament who pops in via a video clip that they've especially recorded for the program.
Yvette Poshoglian:
Daniela, it sounds like you're really able to capture the drama of the bear pit, what's one aspect everyone raves about?
Daniela Giorgi:
We get a lot of feedback that the program is great fun and not what students expected when they were told they would be virtually visiting parliament. They seem to be delighted by our host. Sorry, did I say host? I mean, hosts. Did I mention them? The sergeant at arms and the Usher of the Black Rod who are really quite irrelevant and who look remarkably like each other. They're very good at ensuring that the students learn about our Westminster system of democracy by actively engaging with the students and the topic.
Joachim Cohen:
Oh, gosh. I'll just tell you, I want to join in, that is for sure. And I'm really keen oftentimes when I was back in the classroom, I really wanted to incorporate this into things that I did throughout that day or throughout that week or month. Have you got pre and post activities as well for teachers?
Daniela Giorgi:
We do. And I think before I tell you about the pre and post activities, one of the activities we do on the program is how to remember the upper house and the lower house, and how to remember how to say the legislative assembly and the legislative council. These are activities teachers can take into the classroom. Well with the upper house, our hosts use voice and they say upper house and with the lower house, lower house, and we get the students to practice that. And then we have a tongue twisting competition for the legislative assembly and the legislative council to see how fast people can say those really complex words.
Daniela Giorgi:
But yes, to answer your question, we've got lots of activities, both pre and post. We have lesson ideas and classroom activities on the parliamentary education website for syllabus link topics, such as the development of democracy, the role of parliament and government, federation, Henry Parks, Edmond Barton, and a whole lot more. There's also a great new animation that explains the passage of a bill. And the resources include lots of diagrams, images to help students get their head around and have fun with what can be quite a complex topic to teach. Each section also includes a set of quizzes and the quizzes has answers built in so no need for teachers to do any marking, it's done for you. You might want to have students complete the quiz for each relevant section before you begin to teach a topic just to check what they already know, and then get them to take the quiz again at the end of the topic and see how much more they now know.
Linda Lazenby:
I tell you what Daniela, you've definitely found some ways to take what can be a very dry subject area to teach and make it a little bit of fun for our students. So well done on that. Can you talk to us about some of the curriculum connections in the work you're doing?
Daniela Giorgi:
Sure. The learning outcomes for the program are based on the history K to 10 New South Wales syllabus with a particular focus on stage three. And they include understanding the role and function of the New South Wales parliament, understanding the three levels of government, and understanding the role of members. And there's also a little bit there on the development of democracy in New South Wales in Australia.
Yvette Poshoglian:
Just that little bit we need to talk about, that's a massive, massive subject area, Daniela. You're covering so much, but how can teachers find you? How can they connect?
Daniela Giorgi:
Teachers can book directly through the DART website, and the session times are also on the parliamentary education website. And of course they can call or email us with any questions at all or for help with their bookings. We also send out an email to all primary schools across the state at the beginning of each term with updates for the program for that term. So it might be a good idea to check in with the person who sorts the school email inbox and ask them to forward you all emails from parliament when they arrive. And we also have a newsletter just for teachers that goes out once a term that teachers can personally subscribe to from the link at the top right hand corner of the education page website.
Linda Lazenby:
Awesome. And we'll have all those links in our show notes for anyone who's interested to get involved in the work you're doing. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Daniela Giorgi:
Thank you for this amazing opportunity. And thank you so much DART for hosting such great video conferencing programs from so many fantastic organisations across New South Wales. I've seen a few of them and they are terrific.
Joachim Cohen:
So team, if ever there was a reason to get excited about those virtual windows, that has to be it. But there are loads of other ways we can get the most out of our digital displays or MLDs in the classroom. What are your top tips? Yvette, start us out.
Yvette Poshoglian:
Can I recommend T4L Kids TV. We have a series of videos that are short and sweet that show you how to use jam board and how to get your students collaborating using jam board. It's a great space for them to share ideas, brainstorm, and also for you to get a little bit of feedback. So I highly recommend that. Linda, what have you discovered?
Linda Lazenby:
Look, I'd recommend people have a little bit of a look at using digital inking, using their stylist that goes with their main learning display, annotating certain things they might bring up just to slow down the pace. It's not just show and move, but really paying attention to some pieces that you might have on the main learning display. But also I would add to that, take it slow, don't feel like you need to take all of the ideas and all of the things you can do with the main learning display and do it tomorrow. Just take the things that works for you.
Joachim Cohen:
I really like that, Linda, it's a little presence to open throughout the year.
Yvette Poshoglian:
What about you, Joe?
Joachim Cohen:
Look, my favourite tool on the main learning display is immersive reader, so I can use that inside the Edge browser or with a lot of other platforms as well. It's a Microsoft tool, but basically it takes away a lot of the noise on a website in Edge, which is fabulous and means that students can focus in on what you are wanting to display to them. And then you can even explore some of the other features like pulling out the nouns, the verbs, grabbing some picture dictionary elements, and even having the MLD read the text to the students. So I think that's a really great tool to jump into. Like Yvette mentioned, there is a T4L Kids TV video that will put in the show notes that can show you exactly how to do it.
Joachim Cohen:
So Yvette and Linda, I sure hope we have inspired and empowered everyone out there to get even more out of their MLD. I'm already excited for the next episode, when we'll be connecting with the Australian War Memorial. And listeners, please let us know what is your thought of our new format and our new take on what you need for 2022. The whole T4L and Virtual Staffroom team wish you the most amazing start to 2022. And we look forward to hearing from you, walking along beside you and helping you make your 2022 even better. This podcast has been produced by the masterful Jacob Druce with the assistance and supreme coordination of many more awesome members of T4L team. Stay awesome, everyone. Thanks for joining us
Yvette Poshoglian:
Just a little note, please be aware that all views expressed by the podcast presenters, that's us, are our personal opinions and not representative of the New South Wales Department of Education. Discussions aren't endorsements of third party products, services, or events. And please note that as much as we sound like it, we are not experts in legalese, tech speak or anything in between. We are just passionate people keen to boost technology for learning in the classroom and to help build the skills in your students and for you to solve the problems of tomorrow. Do your due diligence, read further. And if we've got something wrong, let us know, we too are always learning and always improving.