26 May 2009

SQC teachers and chaplains meet

Brisbane, Queensland
David Edgar

According to Royce McMurtrie, associate director of Adventist Education for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Queensland, close to 160 chaplains and teachers attended the 2009 Cape/Case iTeach Conference at the church's Northpine Christian College in Brisbane in late April.

Held over two days in the school's new performing arts centre, Mr McMurtrie says the meetings were some of the largest held for Adventist teachers in Australia. As well as the plenary sessions, teachers were able to choose from a number of workshops, which ranged from classroom management to integrating new technologies.

On offer at one of the many educational booths was a new software package called "Mathletics," which enables student to pit their arithmetical skills with students from around the world. Northpine student Jordan Narayan played "Matheletics" online with students in South America, Japan, and China. Winning most of his age group, Jordan discovered his mathematical skills were equal to, or better than, some students from other countries.
"Mathletics" is in many Australian schools and is rolling out to another 30 Brisbane schools this month.

The keynote speakers for the conference, Travis Smith from "Expanding Learning Horizons" and Bruce Dixon from "Anywhere Anytime Learning Foundation," spoke about emerging technologies and amalgamating these into curriculums.

Mr McMurtrie says, "One point Mr Dixon made was that Australian students spend about 53 per cent of their learning time on their home computers, and not at school."

Tony Kent, director of Adventist Education for the Adventist Church in South Queensland, said the meetings went well and teachers benefited from hearing about new methods, technologies and ways of reaching students, for the benefit of society and God's work.

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