Australian Digital Programs

There have been some great collections of digital programs being complied from around the world. I wanted to create a list of Australian education providers and websites that have great resources. There are some great options to help your students and kids in class or at home.

ABC Education

ABC Education brings you thousands of free, curriculum-linked resources for Primary and Secondary students and teachers.

ABC TV Education broadcasts two hours of dedicated education programming for school aged viewers nationwide each weekday from 10am – 3pm on ABC ME.

Live Streams

Sea EagleCAM is a live remote feed operating out of the BirdLife Discovery Centre in the Armory at Sydney Olympic Park close to the Parramatta River.

Zoos Victoria is bringing the zoo to you with learning activities, resources, webinars and live stream animals to help with real-world learning, by distance. Check out the Zoo Education Online resources. Melbourne Zoo and Werribee Open Range Zoo have set up a live streams of enclosures online.

Taronga Zoo Sydney has set up 24/7 live-streaming cameras at so you can enjoy your favourite animals at any time of day.

Get up close with our animals from the comfort of your own home and discover more about WILD LIFE Sydney Zoo by watching our live streams below.

ReefCam is Australia’s first ever rocky-reef, live-feed, combined under and above water webcams. Discover species found in Port Phillip Bay including the underwater flora and fauna.

Virtual Tours

Australian Museum

Australian National Maritime Museum – Virtual Endeavour

Great Barrier Reef

Macquarie Island Research Station

Melbourne Museum

Queensland Museum

Queensland Gallery of Modern Art

State Library of NSW

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Observatory

Find more virtual tours with Google Arts and Culture

Online resources

Fizzic Education has 150 Science Experiments online for FREE. Science experiments and project ideas using simple, low cost materials that teach science easily.

Sydney Science Education has FREE Earth and Environmental Science resources with simple information and ideas.

Cool Australia has FREE activities and resources that make teaching and understanding real world scenarios as easy as possible.

Australian Music Examinations Board Theory of Music online courses now FREE

TedED is producing high-quality, interactive, video-based lessons to help teaching and learning from home.

Virtual Field Trips

Here are 30+ great Virtual Field Trips for early learners to explore from your home on your couch. From zoos and landmarks to famous museums, you can explore the world with your child with over a month of virtual field trips

Interactive online programs

Interactive activities direct to your home through as Virtual Excursion. Fizzics Education, Sydney Science Education, REDed Dance and Chess Mates are all offering online school holiday programs.

Skills and Thrills

March 23, 2020March 28, 2020

Virtual Excursions Sydney Olympic Park Authority

The Sydney Olympic Park Authority (SOPA) Education Unit delivers curriculum based school excursion programs and events to over 30,000 K-12 school students annually. These programs focus on Geography, Science, History and cross-curriculum priorities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History and Cultures and Sustainability.

Virtual Excursion at Sydney Olympic Parks. Exploring the Badu wetlands. Park Live will enable your students to join in fieldwork sessions.

Our suite of place-based school excursions are (usually!) experiential, immersive, hands-on learning opportunities that share our unique story of sustainable development, environmental conservation and heritage management across the Parklands, urban township and Heritage Precincts of Sydney Olympic Park. We also have annual marquee education events, the Primary and Secondary Youth Eco Summits (YES) which involve more than 40 partnering organisations.

As a response to the service delivery challenges we are facing with customers unable to attend school excursions, SOPA currently has live-streaming virtual excursions and customised resource packages for teachers in rapid development. From next week under the mantle of ‘Park Live’ these interactive programs will enable classes and/or individual students to connect directly to our educators in the wetlands using Zoom conferencing. Here is a glimpse of a what the students will be involved in during a live-streamed virtual excursion in their classrooms. They will be able to interact with the SOPA Educator and any other presenter partners that we have joining the virtual excursion. This video clip is starring one of our casual Educators Tom who also runs nature based public tours with his company “Hooked on Nature”.

Where possible we will engage other partners and industry experts to enhance each live-stream session. Our next steps will be to extend this approach to our heritage programs, technical tours, ArtExpress at the Armory and courses for Wetland professionals. We will then look at the potential for interactive live-stream models to deliver our YES events out to schools. We have immense pride in our place as a huge outdoor classroom and will continue to connect people safely to our programs and resources however we can. If you want to partner in this or simply talk through the technical aspects of the approach please contact mike.bartlett@sopa.nsw.gov.au or danielle.leggo@sopa.nsw.gov.au.

March 19, 2020March 27, 2020

Virtual Excursions with Sydney Science Education

Video Conferencing can be used to create unique learning experiences for students of all ages. Sydney Science Education offers a range of video conferences called Science Made Easy. Specialising in Earth and Environmental Science, Science Made Easy are hands on, interactive workshops designed to inspire your students about the natural world.

Since 2001, I have designed and delivered innovative programs for schools across New South Wales and Australia. Over the last 20 years I have become a leading expert on using digital technologies especially video conferencing to deliver quality learning experiences in schools.

Invertebrate Investigation video conference

Through these programs your students will gain insight into the importance of science and help them discover more about the natural world. Workshops are designed to empower your students and provide them with the knowledge and skills to continue their learning. Content will help increase your students scientific literacy and critical thinking skills by participating in experiments, fieldwork and asking questions.

Due to the current health crisis Video Conferencing becomes more important as a way to deliver programs to students in the classroom and at home.

https://youtu.be/CiDtyDzekw0

Find out how you can participate in live, interactive video conference sessions. This enables your students to ask questions and really be involved in their online learning.

There are a range of packages available to suit your digital science education needs. Enquires and bookings

March 16, 2020March 19, 2020

Virtual Excursions with Fizzics Education

Multi-award-winning virtual programs by Fizzics Education are available to all students to keep up student enthusiasm & enrichment in these unprecedented times. These virtual excursions are available to your school now, no matter your location across Australia and the world.

Liquid Nitrogen Video Conference

Fizzics Education has been running live virtual classes with students since 2011. Their programs are highly interactive distance lessons by highly experienced distance educators including:

Direct curriculum links
Live classes; students can question & answer our educators and participate in experiments using household materials
Pre, during and post virtual excursion lesson notes for both teachers and students.
A list of inexpensive materials that students can have on-hand during the lesson.
Option to use Flipgrid to help students discuss the content further
Simple connection, one click and you’re in!
All supported by over 150 FREE experiments, student podcasts and more

We know that this may not be part of your scope and sequence yet, however these virtual excursions are a direct solution for keeping students focused and connected with the online content that you are preparing.

Contact Fizzics Education now to find out more and secure your booking!

September 6, 2016September 6, 2016

Virtual Endeavour Project Officer

Looking for work at the Australian National Maritime Museum? Check out this amazing oppurtunity – Virtual Endeavour Project Officer.

Project Officer – Virtual Endeavour

“One APS Career…Thousands of Opportunities”

The Australian National Maritime Museum has a skilled and diverse workforce. We value our people, performance, integrity and service. We encourage applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with a disability and people from every cultural and linguistic background.

T242 Project Officer – Virtual Endeavour

Non-ongoing Fulltime (2 years)

Purpose of this Position:

Implement the Virtual Endeavour STEM excursions project funded by the Catalyst program (Department of Communication and the Arts). Specifically to conduct virtual school excursions to the HMB Endeavour and develop further Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) resource material and programs. Market and promote the program. Manage two teacher academies during the life of the program. Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the program in conjunction with Head of Learning / Data61 (CSIRO). Be an active participant in other museum programs where required.

This is non-ongoing fulltime position for period of 24 months. Applications Close: 11:30 pm AEDT, 11 September 2016

Contact Officer: Lynda Kelly, Head of Learning, Learning, Public Engagement and Research Division, Australian National Maritime Museum on (02) 9298 3745.

Selection for this position will be made on the basis of relative merit which will be assessed against each item of the selection criteria. Applications that do not address the selection criteria will not be considered for short listing by the Selection Committee. As part of the selection process the selection committee may invite candidates to undertake psychometric test, you should advise the selection committee if you have any special needs. Psychometric tests may be used as the initial short-listing test or later in the selection process. Some tests are very short while others may take one or more hours.

Notes

This position is open to all eligible members of the community. To be an eligible member of the community you must be an Australian citizen. Applications may be accepted from Australian permanent residents who are in the process of acquiring Australian citizenship.

Full position details, application requirements, selection criteria, position description and a pre-Application form are located on this website: https://anmm.nga.net.au/cp/index.cfm?event=jobs.listJobs

Find out more and apply online

June 24, 2016July 15, 2016

Cook and Banks: Charting the rumoured great southern land

The Royal Botanic Gardens and the Australian National Maritime Museum recently offered 6 virtual excursions looking at Cook, the voyage of HMB Endeavour and Banks the botany and plant classification. The collaboration began as a special presentation linked to the RBG 200th birthday celebrations.

The sessions on Wednesday 18th May were offered through DARTconnections and sold out very quickly and more spaces were added. The Thursday 19th May sessions were offered through Electroboard. The content was written by Mary Bell RBG and Anne Doran ANMM with Kieran Hosty an ANMM Maritime Archaeologist and Mary Bell presenting.

The students were very engaged with the content as it extended what they had been learning in the classroom. The questions they asked, clearly demonstrated that they had been thinking about what had been presented during the sessions and having Kieran who had dived on the wreck sites to give that extra insight was very useful. He may have inspired students to think about archaeology as a career.

The RBG and ANMM are considering offering this cross curriculum program again next year, to support teachers in the classroom and provide access to experts from both organisation. The program reached almost 1000 students.

February 3, 2016February 3, 2016

CAASTRO in the Classroom sessions for 2016

CAASTRO in the Classroom has an exciting year ahead with some intriguing new video conferencing sessions offered to schools all over Australia.

Bookings are now open for all school terms for these engaging sessions presented by research scientists, with newly-developed pre- and post-visit resources provided for each topic.

Topics for 2016 are ‘Awesome Astronomy‘ for Year 5, ‘Solar System and Beyond‘ for Year 7, ‘Big Bang – How to Make a Universe‘ for Year 10 and ‘Special Relativity‘, ‘Cosmic Engine‘ and ‘Gravity and Orbits‘ for Year 11 and 12 Physics.

December 1, 2014March 24, 2020

Virtual Science Club

In May and June 2014 a number of Virtual Excursions Australia members were involved in a video conferencing science club that brought students from across Sydney to do science experiments in an informal after school session in 3 Sydney libraries.

Coordinated by Fizzics Education, Sydney Olympic Park and Greater Western Sydney GIANTS Football Club, the 7 week program linked hands on science experiments with leadership and life skills.

Each week guests from a number of Virtual Excursion Australia members were able to join the sessions whereby the students could learn all about organisations such as the Australian Museum, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, ReefHQ, Australian Fossil & Mineral Museum, State Library NSW, Powerhouse Museum, Macquarie University and the Australian National Maritime Museum.

Video Conferencing Science Club presented by Fizzics Education with special guests from the Australian Museum

This science club represented the first of its kind in Australia and showed the strong potential for collaborative technologies to bring together distant communities together to learn about their world and culture in a real time environment.

Check out the video of the program at Vimeo – Video conferencing science club

Thanks to Blacktown Libraries, Auburn Library and Hurstville Museum & Gallery for hosting the students!

For further information about how you can get involved please contact Ben Newsome at Fizzics Education.

December 1, 2014

Video Conferencing lessons learned in the United States

Ben Newsome from Fizzics Education shares insights from his amazing journey through the United States

Earlier this year, Ben Newsome of Fizzics Education travelled for seven weeks in the United States to investigate the use of videoconferencing in science education. Visiting 16 science centres, museums, zoos, aquariums and school districts across North America as a recipient of a Churchill Fellowship. Ben met with many distance educators who shared insights and techniques on how to produce outstanding science & technology video conferencing lessons for remote learners.

Among Ben’s findings were:

Learning how to incorporate animated games & live dissections into marine biology video conferences at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Los Angeles.
Visiting Alaska to learn techniques in remotely teaching ecology at the Alaska SeaLife Center and Alaska Zoo

Darin Trobaugh from Alaska Sea Life Center

Touring the Canadian badlands to learn how palaeontology is taught via IVC at the Royal Tyrrell Museum
Speaking with the talented team at the Centre for Interactive Learning & Collaboration in Indianapolis & the Central New York Regional Information Center on video conferencing installation and best practices
Immersion in the simulated learning environments at Rochester Challenger Learning Center and the Bathysphere Underwater Biological Laboratory plus spending time with the distance educators at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the International Spy Museum, Nina Mason Pulliam Ecolab and the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Complex
Touring Washington DC galleries & museums offered by the Smithsonian Institution
Discovering robotic video conferencing technologies being used at the New York Hall of Science.
Learning how social disadvantage and isolation can be overcome through the use of collaborative technologies

‘Vinnie cam’ from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History

Ben met many video conferencing content providers at the Center for Puppetry Arts as well as leaders of the educational video conferencing community at the International Society for Technology for Education conference in Atlanta.

Following his Churchill Fellowship tour Ben has made many recommendations to improve the delivery of videoconferencing in Australia. These include that professional development in collaborative technologies needs to be ongoing in the school system and should be embedded into pre-service teaching courses at Universities. Video conferencing should wherever possible be incorporated into all mainstream teaching & learning sequences to enrich the K – 12 curriculum, particularly as significant investment has already been made to install H.323 systems in over 3000 Australian schools.

Ben also recommends that where possible mobile H.323 systems also be installed into all schools, libraries, hospitals, retirement homes & juvenile justice sites if funding was available, to ensure better access to educational experiences from around the world regardless of key learning area.

Full report can be read here: www.churchilltrust.com.au/media/fellows/To_investigate_best_practice_in_science_education_B_Newsome_2013.pdf

May 15, 2014May 16, 2014

VC Science Club kicks off with libraries; no codec, no problem!

Term 2 has seen the introduction of a science club held via video conference connecting students at Auburn Library, Blacktown Library and Hurstville Library Museum & Gallery to the science presenters at Fizzics Education and Sydney Olympic Park Authority (SOPA). Known as ‘Leadership; It’s Not Rocket Science’, the weekly after school science club integrates character and leadership development exercises by SOPA integrated with engaging hands-on science activities by Fizzics Education in an immersive video conferencing environment. Working with local Council IT and education officers the club was brought to life by meshing tablets and formal video conference infrastructure through the VCme bridging solution. Together with internal WiFi secured and local training conducted on using H.323 software multi-point conferencing with different hardware endpoints works a treat!

Fizzics Education runs the club as a central helpdesk, which means students can work at their own pace on their experiments once the initial guidance is given. This has the additional safeguard on connectivity as any difficulties in connecting the external sites can be solved by pulling them into the conference via the multisite function on the Fizzics codec.

In addition to the science and aspirational aspects of the club, weekly guests from across the Virtual Excursions Australia community also contribute to the mix where guests speak about how they got to work in their job and how might students use science as a possible career path. Open to students in Years 5 and 6 plus their parents or guardians, the science club can be extended into any site wanting to foster community engagement using science & technology via a informal setting as the medium.

Further information on the science club can be found through the website