As the bar is lifted through ubiquitous access now becoming a norm in Australia, the challenge to provoke and promote innovative practice in our classrooms becomes one of significant scale. Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach has worked across a diverse range of professional development initiatives, and will lead a discussion around the challenges and opportunities that are presented for us to consider.

Is the drive for accountability an icon of conservatism or an agent of innovation? In this session we will look at how schools can make some of the innovative changes discussed in this morning’s keynote while dealing with the need for and issues around accountability. We’ll look for the benefits and limits, both real and perceived that our ideas around accountability present.

As we move to remodel curriculum to better reflect society needs for the 21st Century, there is increasing pressure to rethink the models of assessment that we have traditionally used. Much of the forms of assessment we currently use might be called models of convenience, rather than effective measures of understanding and competence, and with initiatives such as project-based learning, we need to do a better job of measuring the outcomes. Mary Burns has spent much her time assessing the effectives of our use of IT in education and will be sharing her thoughts on the broad works of study she has completed across the US and beyond.

In light of the constant stream of media reports around the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of web 2.0, and associated social networking technologies it is critical that all school leaders fully understand the relevance or otherwise of them. So much is now impacting on the lives of students, and as leaders we must be well informed about their potential to support or intrude on learning. Too much is written by inexperienced or overtly biased journalists, and if we are ti ensure relevance with ridicule, we must keep an open mind to these new ideas until proven otherwise.

“My goal in life is to find ways in which children can use technology as a constructive medium to do things that they could not do before; to do things at a level of complexity that was not previously accessible to children”

Prof. Seymour Papert 1998

There is much that both casual observation, and rigorous research have reported about 1 to 1; but how much of it really matters; really makes a difference in the lives of young people in unique ways that were not previously possible? … and how can we best capture that practice in ways that we can leverage to others?

Much has been written in recent years around personalisation and student-centeredness, but what does it really mean, or more importantly, what does it look like in a technology-rich learning environment? Wayne Craig is leading a radical reform initiative in the Broadmeadows region of Melbourne and will lead discussion around the pre-conditions that must be established if such reform is to ultimately impact not only on the school experience, but the broader lives of children.