ACA wins $10m for Digital Technologies curriculum support

Image: ACA Academic Director Assoc Prof James Curran, University of Sydney VC and Principal Dr Michael Spence, Education Minister Simon Birmingham and Trent Zimmerman, Federal Member for North Sydney, with Year 5 students from Artarmon Public School.

The Australian Computing Academy (ACA), based in the University of Sydney, has received $10 million over the next four years to provide teachers with the educational resources and professional development necessary to deliver the new Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies.

The ACA will deliver the Australian Digital Technologies Challenges for Years 5 and 7 on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Education and Training until December 2020, with support from Grok Learning and Monash University.

The Challenges are a series of free, self-paced, online classroom activities linked to the Digital Technologies curriculum for Year 5 and 7 students. These activities include:

• interactive course notes, videos and unplugged activities
• engaging, real-world coding problems with intelligent automated feedback
• lesson plans and other resources for teachers.

In addition, the ACA will provide email, phone and online support for schools participating in the Challenges to deliver the new curriculum.

Digital Literacy School grants of between $10,000 and $50,000 are available with applications open until 11 August for schools and other organisations to support the implementation of the digital technologies elements of the Australian curriculum. For more details and how to apply go here.