Innovation and Technology
Here at Newington, we’re passionate about the boys we teach and keen to engage with them in ways that will benefit them after they leave school.
Learning with Technology
Technology is now standard use in classrooms, seminar rooms, laboratories, performance spaces and lecture theatres at Newington. Our ICT team are experienced in supporting the needs of each area. We conduct workshops to train our teachers in the most effective and up-to date online learning tools, so that your son will have a classroom learning experience that is interactive and engaging.
Our Learning Canvas
Our Learning Management System, Canvas, is an online learning environment that allows boys and teachers to interact online, both during and outside classroom time. In Canvas teachers can create and deliver content, monitor the boys’ participation and assess their performance. Canvas blends the world of the classroom with the online environment for our boys.
Role of ICT at Newington
At Newington College we believe that technology plays a vital role in helping students learn. Informed in part by the work of Dr. Ruben Peutendura (SAMR) and his contemporaries including Punya Mishra and Matthew J. Koehler (TPACK), we see the value of technology in not just ‘substituting’ things students would do - for example, a laptop replacing pen and paper - but rather to augment, modify and redefine learning activities. Technology opens new ways of engaging and nurturing learners.
Creating
- Student as independent learner, empowered by technology
- Constructivist approaches
- Mobile learning
Connecting
- Student as collaborative learner
- Authentic sharing outside the College
- Effective research skills
- Ethical and informed
Organising
- Individual file/resource organisation, note taking and revision
- Reflective/portfolio approaches
Personalising
- Student as reflective learner
- Effective & responsible user of personal and mobile technologies
Digital Citizenship
• Digital citizenship is a big part of our Wellbeing program • It is taught from Kindergarten to Year 12 • It’s about teaching the boys what’s at stake when they use social media • Topics include: ‘being aware of our digital footprint’, and ‘online privacy’
Not all technology use is helpful or acceptable. At Newington we will have the hard conversations with the boys around the following.
- Time management – wasted time, always online
- Information overload – wading through the vast quantities of largely unfiltered resources
- Online identity – young (and older) people making poor choices online
- Harmful and age-inappropriate behaviours – bullying, sexting, access to pornography, and more.
