Leading a Digital School Conference

It has long been acknowledged that ‘talk is the sea upon which all else floats’ (Britton, 1970) with recognition that students’ learning and literacy are heavily influenced by the nature of classroom dialogues. Yet, it has been argued that students’ talk – their opportunities for meaning making is severely constrained in practice (Groves and Davidson, 2017) and typically not accurately monitored and assessed. The Australian Curriculum: English (2017) recognises the importance of speaking and listening within two main areas: Language for interaction and Interacting with others. But what does this look/sound like in practice as students for example, ‘share the talking space’, ‘provide useful feedback’, ‘be a supportive and attentive listener’ or ‘elicit responses’ in natural interactions? How do teachers effectively assess, monitor and report on these foundation skills within the Achievement Standards of the Australian Curriculum? In reality, most teachers currently admit to making an educated guess when reporting this aspect of the curriculum. This session demonstrates how innovative audio/visual technology (Activate by Lightspeed) can be used to monitor and capture evidence of students’ interactions in natural settings thus making assessment and reporting valid and formative assessment more effective. Hear and Learn, a Gold Sponsor of the conference, is the sole Australian distributor of this patented, world first technology.