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The Microsoft Partners in Learning Innovative Teachers Award

Take a look at how the 2009 winners are bringing technology into their classrooms to create dynamic new learning environments. The 2009 state winners are:

Subject: 'ALL', product: 'ALL'

Brett Butler: Crows Nest State School, Crows Nest, Queensland

Impressed by the amount of employment and learning opportunities in the gaming industry, Brett Butler has transformed his ICT students into game development teams. On any given day Brett's students could be writing the game narrative and logic; drawing or digitally creating images of characters, objects and backgrounds; recording sound effects, voice over and musical scores; filming and animating cut scenes; or programming the whole thing using Scratch. The students develop their projects organically, allowing each student to explore their interests and nurture their personal talents
Ed Staples: Erindale College, Wainnassa, Australian Capital Territory

It's a tall order to visually imagine calculus, integrals or logarithms, but Ed Staples is doing just that using his Spinnamaths spreadsheets in Microsoft® Office Excel®. He has developed over 100 'Spinners' – visual representations of mathematic concepts complete with click-able sliders, which let students manipulate the values on the x and y axes and watch the graph dynamically respond to the changing input. By bringing complex mathematics to life, Ed enables his students to understand concepts at a glance, so they can focus on asking the 'what if' questions and explore concepts at much greater depth
Erin Svean: Wirrabirra Primary School, Gosnells, Western Australia

Erin sees ICT learning as the most important way to prepare her students for their future educational and occupational experiences. She presents classwork to her students in a variety of mediums and lets them choose the manner in which they bring homework and projects back to her. "My students are more motivated to work to a high standard when they are given the opportunity to work on a computer or use a digital camera," says Erin. Her students have been using everything from Microsoft® Office Word®, Publisher, PowerPoint®, PhotoStory to MovieMaker to create 'Super Hero' comics, design futuristic objects and make presentations about maritime explorers.
Harry Postema: Glenunga International High School, Glenunga, South Australia

Harry's media, film and animation students have long been using the video and Bluetooth capabilities of mobile phones to record video clips, edit them together using Windows® Movie Maker and share them online. Now Harry is introducing this to traditionally media-poor subjects, like physical education. Badminton and basketball teams have been equipped with flip cameras (small hand-held video cameras) that they use to film their skills, edit into small clips using Movie Maker and upload them onto a web site. This lets them view their clips in sequence with previously uploaded clips, so they can self-monitor their skill progression online and authenticate their learning.
Patricia Corby: Tasmanian Online Campus, Rosny, Tasmania

Patricia's global classrooms connect over 225 students living in remote or isolated locations throughout Tasmania. She encourages her students to communicate by all means possible – and not just on formal educational aspects – to build a real sense of community based on interactive learning experiences. Her primary students have been collaborating online to create an imaginary street and her secondary students are sharing projects online and even winning prestigious national awards. Learning together in a warm and accepting virtual classroom not only enables her students develop strong ICT skills, but helps them feel a lot less isolated.
Simone Timms: Durack School, Durack, Northern Territory

In Simone's classroom, ICT is not a stand-alone subject but integrated with all aspects of learning. Her Year 3 and 4 are putting together 2D shapes on computers and converting them into 3D, recording themselves narrate storybooks, tabling spelling scores in Microsoft® Office Excel® and composing and editing entire 'claymations' using Windows® Movie Maker. Students are jumping out of their seats to play games on the class Smartboard and getting together to create their own documentaries. The most impressive aspect of Simone's grass-roots approach is that it has levelled the playing field for all students, even if they typically struggle with schoolwork.
Stacie Witton: Korumburra Secondary College, Korumburra, Victoria

When Stacie told Year 9 electronics students they were going to build alarms in class, they were incredulous. But with the right technology, simulation, activities and skill development they did it. Students researched electrical components online to create data sheets using Microsoft® Office Word. They learned to solder, filming an instructional video using Windows® Movie Maker to demonstrate the skill to others. Finally, they started building their alarms. "Then the buzz came: the first working alarm," says Stacie. "The personal success, pride and knowledge students gained blew me away – and none of it would have been possible without technology."
Steve Cornish: Narrabri West Public School, Narrabri, New South Wales

For Steve's Year 5 and 6 students, experimentation and collaboration are helping them learn essential technology skills. At their own pace, they use a range of technologies to create and present their projects. They might use Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® and an interactive whiteboard. Or create visual aids for oral presentations using Microsoft® Office Publisher. Or animate their ideas using Windows® Movie Maker. With the help of a buddy system, they're also teaching younger students how to use email and produce animations. And they're collaborating with peers at other schools using videoconferencing, blogs, emails and wikis.