The team teaching concept
Profiles in Success: The Armidale School
For Levins and other TAS teachers, one of the more interesting challenges is the concept of team teaching. Levins explains: "Our more successful teachers are often those who actually ask students how they've achieved a particular result using the computer - so it's the student who becomes the teacher. Where this pays off is with the teacher then being able to teach that same technique to other students.
It's all about breaking down the barriers. The fact is that there are computers, teachers, curricula and systems that put barriers in front of students. The trick is to ensure all those things are there to help the students instead of hinder them.
— Martin Levins, TAS Head of Technological and Applied Studies
One of Levins' colleagues, teacher Cindy Barnsley cites an example of a class that was regarded typically as a group of low achiever students. "We had a project on the history of Australia - something that under normal study practices probably wouldn't have delivered much in the way of results," she says. The results, though, were surprising.
Working in teams, the students created a Web site focusing on various aspects of Australian history. "Students who felt more comfortable and confident speaking into a microphone rather than writing an essay provided narrative to the site," Barnsley says. "Others worked on scanning in relevant images, designing the look-and-feel or writing the copy for the Web pages.
"The big thing is that everyone got involved in the project, had an enjoyable time and importantly they learnt something about Australian history. We even received feedback from parents recognising that their children were achieving in areas that were previously proving to be difficult."
Moving forward
As a school renowned for its innovation, TAS is setting its sights on further uses for its growing population of MacBooks. An Apple Xsan storage solution is next on the list, with students to be given what Levins refers to as "bucketloads of space". "We want our students to gain the full experience that the Apple hardware and software can deliver," he says.