Nine schools in South Australia came together, with the support of Flinders University and an American multinational technology company, in order to find and tackle solutions to the escalating challenges of rapid digital transformation in education.
According to a recent press release, students and teacher teams were tasked with choosing a priority challenge, then progressing through the two-day inaugural ‘Education Hack 4.0’ to come up with a product and pitch.
The Hackathon
The workshop was hosted by the University’s New Venture Institute and the technology company, with the aim of securing an NVI Innovation in Schools package to upskill students in innovation and design thinking upon winning.
The Australian Science and Mathematics School (ASMS) and Glenunga International High School emerged victorious.
The ASMS team was able to devise an online platform that will help students connect to work placements relevant to their aspirations.
Glenunga, on the other hand, was able to design a new curriculum assessment that redefines ‘failure’, incorporates a better feedback cycle, and includes tasks with real world connection.
The format of the event was a powerful way to define priorities and focus on practical solutions as it combined the expertise and knowledge of students and teachers.
Education Hack 4.0 was delivered as a component of the Digital Schools Network (DSN), which is an element of the industry and education sector partnership between the University and the company.
The DSN focuses on how technology helps teachers to become better educators as well as helps the students learn about emergent technologies.
The event was a practical and experiential demonstration of the DSN’s applications, designed to teach participating schools the hackathon format for ongoing use.
According to the Dean of People and Resourced in the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work at the University, they are on the brink of an explosion in digital technologies and their use and adaptation for education practices globally.
Who are involved?
There was a broad mix of schools that participated in the hackathon. The event was facilitated by representatives of NVI, who are all part of the University’s Innovation and Enterprise teaching team.
The Digital Schools Network is a collaboration platform designed to transform the way educators teach and students learn in K–12 systems for schools in Asia-Pacific and Japan.
It enables educators and students to connect and share lessons and resources within a secure collaboration space.
Partnering with Higher Education institutions and education providers, the DSN network of partners provides expertise on the digital pedagogy, curriculum, micro-credentialing and more.
The New Venture Institute is the entrepreneurial arm of Flinders University.
Their mission is to reinvent the way the University creates impact by building the capacities of individuals, businesses, educators and researchers so that they thrive in a future disrupted by rapidly evolving technology.
