Trent has teaching and leadership experience in both Primary and Secondary Schools in Australia. As founder of Collective Education he supports school leaders and teachers with school wide ICT transformation, designing professional learning programs to support curriculum innovation and coaching to ensure students are offered opportunities to build the necessary skills in readiness for the work environment of the future.

Trent's Sessions

Opening Session: The Future of Technology in Education
What skills will today’s learners need to be successful in their future? And how can teachers harness digital tools and platforms to support students to create the future with technologies, not just consume it? Launching our conference, Trent Ray, Microsoft Learning Consultant and award winning Microsoft Innovative Educator will showcase how technology can be harnessed to improve educational outcomes. Trent is excited about the future of education in the digital age and believes that, now with ubiquitous access to technology in schools, we have the platform to launch into exploring new ways to collaborate, create and innovate. Hear how advances in the space of Mixed Reality, the use of Big Data in Predictive Analytics, Gamification, AI and Cognitive Services will shape learning into the future.

Assessing Future Skills through the General Capabilities
With an imperative for today’s learners to be ready for Industry 4.0, many schools nationally have already introduced and explored frameworks that support teachers to design learning experience that provide opportunities for students to practice and develop future ready skills. With emphasis now placed on Collaboration and Critical Thinking in the Australian Curriculum the next step is to understand how we can assess ‘21st Century skills’. Through this presentation, Trent Ray will uncover a new resource supporting school leaders and teachers through a methodology, to not only design effective learning experiences for developing future ready skills, but how to assess and report to the General Capabilities (supported by evidence) with confidence and rigour.

Tamara is the Head of Academics and Innovation at Ormiston College and facilitates the College's directions in 21st century teaching and learning. She understands the new and changing demands of the teaching profession and believes that building capacity is the cornerstone of a contemporary school. She is an innovator who leads e-learning, blended learning, curriculum development and the meaningful use of technology across the profession.

Tamara coordinates the College’s Learning Innovations Leadership Committee which was created to lead innovation, improvement and transformational change across the campus. She supports members to share their findings with the wider community through online forums, conferences and publications.

She is a well-known member in the global educational community and regularly conducts key note addresses, professional development workshops and online webinars. The presentations have a strong focus on shifting educators’ understanding of student learning in 21st century environments, and practical strategies on how to build a culture of innovation.

In 2016, Tamara was awarded the Excellence in Educational Leadership Award by the Australian Council for Educational Leaders in Queensland, and the Australian College of Educators Fellowship Award for her demonstrated leadership in implementing educational initiatives to improve outcomes for students in 21st century environments. In 2017, she was also awarded the Australian Council for Educational Leaders New Voice Scholarship for her contemporary leadership Australian education.

Tamara's Session:

Leadership Action Matter: It begins with you!

Today’s world is increasingly complex and fast-paced. This brings new and stimulating opportunities to enhance learning, while at the same time, it requires us to navigate the disruptions that come with phenomena such as globalisation, technological advancements, and the changing nature of work. The most effective schools have the capacity to respond to these shifts, reimagine the learning process and ensure that students are future ready.

This requires more than simply allocating resources for professional development programs, but rather, ensuring our teachers feel confident and passionate to lead initiatives, take risks and drive transformational change.

As leaders, how can we develop a strategic mindset and set of behaviours to effectively lead improvement, innovation and change in digital schools?

This presentation will outline the key steps for creating an innovative culture to improve student, teacher and community outcomes in 21st century environments. Drawing on the initiatives Ormiston College has implemented; this session will provide participants with practical techniques and strategies for developing and sustaining innovations in their schools.

Participants will:

• Reflect and examine the key attributes of an innovative culture
• Explore school wide initiatives to overcome barriers to innovation and technology integration through shared leadership
• Learn practical strategies to use in their schools for scaling initiatives in areas of STEM, digital technologies and entrepreneurship
• Explore a whole school framework for 21st century teaching and learning
• Learn new strategies for differentiating professional development to meet the diverse needs of all learners

Chris McNamara joined the Melbourne Girls Grammar community in 2010 and currently works as Deputy Principal: Program Design and Development. Chris has worked across Catholic, Independent and International School settings at both Primary and Secondary levels. In his four years overseas, Chris was a member of the School leadership team charged with the responsibility of opening a new International Boarding School in Pune, India before moving to Vietnam to take on the leadership of the newly opened Thao Dien Campus of the Australian International School in Ho Chi Minh City.

In his 7 years at Melbourne Girls Grammar, Chris has been instrumental in the development of the new Years 5-8 Middle Years Program and the design and development of the new Senior Years Program. This new model for Schooling leverages technology to deliver a blended learning pedagogy that provides greater levels of personalisation and student control; allowing them to shape their day in accordance with their changing academic, wellbeing and physical goals and priorities.

Chris is passionate about School adapting to meet the needs of students and becoming more aligned with how students experience their world.

Chris' Session:

Designing school for student autonomy and agency; the MGGS Senior Years

- The Philosophical driver for the MGGS Senior Years
- Designing the structural blueprint – putting the student at the heart of the design
- Releasing the shackles of time that constrain the student experience of school and create the environment of control
- Wellbeing as the paradigm in which academics sit
- Acknowledging the need to diversify the workforce within Schools
- Transformational change and the need for collective action
- The expansion of expertise as the antidote to a period of consolidation

Melissa Marshall is the Head of Digital Learning and the Head of Technology & Commerce at Santa Maria College, located in Perth, Australia. She completed a Master of Education (ICT in Education) in 2016 and holds a Bachelor of Education (K-12 Middle Schooling) majoring in Information Technology from Charles Sturt University, New South Wales. Melissa has taught in three states (NSW, VIC and WA) as well as in San Diego, CA, and has a keen interest in implementing digital technology curricula in a way that resonates with students and adds value to their lives. Melissa's teaching expertise is in Computer Science and Applied Information Technology at a senior WACE level. Her passion is girls becoming excited about studying computing and other STEAM subjects. Melissa works to engage parents with digital citizenship practices and supports staff in integration of technology in the classroom. She has presented at conferences in Australia and is keen to meet educators who are passionate about games-based learning, enhanced learning programs, digital technologies, real-world digital solutions, apps, robots, drones and more.

Melissa's session

Gamification in Schools – with or without technology!
Virtual Reality is fiddly and expensive for many schools. How do we extract the best value from it and use some of its potential in low tech environments? Exploring how an effective VR setup (or just the best principles from one) can revolutionise how we do excursions, activities and document school events - and bring students into the creation process.

Professor P John Williams is the Director of Graduate Studies in the School of Education at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia, where he teaches and supervises research students in technology education. Apart from Australia, he has worked and studied in a number of African and Indian Ocean countries and in New Zealand, and the United States. His current research interests include STEM Literacy, PCK and electronic assessment of performance. He regularly presents at international and national conferences, consults on Technology Education in a number of countries, and is a longstanding member of eight professional associations. He is the editor of the Australasian Journal of Technology Education, advisory editor of the International Journal of Technology and Design Education, series editor of the Springer Contemporary Issues in Technology Education and is on the editorial board of five other professional journals. He has authored or contributed to over 230 publications, and is elected to the International Technology and Engineering Education Association’s Academy of Fellows for prominence in the profession.

John's Session:

What does research say about STEM in education?
The STEM movement began as a socio-economic response to workforce needs. It was predicted that the need for individuals with qualifications and expertise in the STEM areas would outstrip supply in the near future, and action was needed to rectify that imbalance. So the concept of how the STEM movement related to STEM education initially was rather nebulous, and represented a general amalgam of education, qualifications and careers.
Over time it was recognized that primary and secondary education had a role to play in achieving this agenda. The development of attitudes toward STEM, which may influence career choices, and then the development of appropriate skills, begins in school. Tertiary education then continues that skill development and provides a qualification for entry into the workforce.
The literature indicates that a range of vocational outcomes have been measured as goals for STEM programs – interest in STEM, subject choice, and career inclination. The question that this paper pursues is: Are vocational and workforce goals adequate for measuring success in STEM education? The research and the stated goals of STEM will be reviewed, and then alternative goals will be suggested.