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Music helps language skills Researchers at Cognitive Brain Research Unit in the University of Helsinki studied in a community setting whether a low-cost, weekly music playschool provided to 5-6-year-old children affects their linguistic abilities.

Victorians roll out Minecraft to state schools Victorian schools are deploying Microsoft Office 365 and a statewide rollout of Minecraft: Education Edition, which will be made available to more than 600,000 students attending Victoria’s 1,500 state schools.

Independent schools say caution needed in SES review The jury is still out on the the use of parents' personal income tax receipts to determine the amount of funding given to Independent and Catholic schools and the Independent Schools Council says caution should be exercised.

Student smartphone use should be monitored not banned Bandwagons are a great thing and the latest is the anti-smartphones in schools one, but smartphones are an essential part of modern life and children should know how to use them appropriately.

How are kids using tech outside of school? Deakin University researchers have developed a new resource for teachers to better understand how their students are using technology outside the classroom to support student learning.

Jacaranda now on LearningField online textbook platform With the addition of Jacaranda to the Copyright Agency’s LearningField digital textbook platform, teachers now have access to the resources of 20 of Australia's best educational publishers.

Facebook’s Workplace for Good is free Facebook is a great way to goof off but when tweaked for the workplace it can be used as a very powerful communications and collaboration tool and the familiar layout and functions mean there’s very little training involved to get it running.

GitHub Education, a free program for schools Coders’ resource and collaboration site GitHub is offering schools its tools for free in a new GitHub Education bundle which includes developer tools, workflows for teachers and training.

Racism reason for indigenous underachievement? Pervasive, strong opinions about indigenous students and their inability to engage and learn effect their performance at all levels of education and in later life, still, a report to be presented to government says.

Specificity for better results High school students taught by a succession of teachers who specialised in teaching a subject instead of holding a general teaching degree consistently did better.

SA’s first driverless shuttle for public roads Flinders University in SA is giving us a taste of what is to come with the launch of the driverless electric shuttle which will start transporting members of the public around the Tonsley Innovation District.

Flipgrid’s social learning catches Microsoft’s eye Flipgrid is a video based social platform aimed at school communities, think a snapchat/ whatsapp/ facebook mashup centred on classrooms. Microsoft has aquired the company and will provide it free to schools.