Patrick Duignan President Australian Council for Educational Leaders

I welcome you to the third ACEL Microsoft Online Conference, entitled 'Curriculum: Getting the Balance Right in Your School’.

This is a very timely conference, given the current debate on the nature, purpose and structure of a national curriculum. The instructions given to those of you who will write papers for the conference include a number of key questions about the challenges facing educators and educational leaders in the 21st century.

The focus of these questions is on the learning needs of students in the future and the knowledge, skills and capabilities educators require to respond creatively to these needs. A major challenge for educators is to generate the type of learning opportunities and environments that bring out the best in their students, making their learning experiences rich, challenging, and meaningful, in terms of the trajectory of their lives.

I believe that curriculum must personalise learning for each and every student while, at the same time, taking advantage of group and relational learning dynamics and whole-school pedagogical processes.

This online conference provides each of you with the opportunity for personalising your learning from the dialogue and debates, as well as tapping into the wisdom of the whole group of participants.

I invite you to engage in this dialogue and debate and hope that this engagement will assist you in forming and re-forming your approach to pedagogy and curriculum, to better engage your students in a 21st century learning environment.

Patrick Duignan
President
Australian Council for Educational Leaders

Felicia Brown National Academic Programs Manager Microsoft Pty Limited

Welcome to the third ACEL – Microsoft Online Conference. 

Preparing students for the 21st century presents an ongoing challenge to educators, communities, and governments worldwide. With the information age connecting people and countries in new ways, schools need to provide rich learning opportunities that better address the real-world skills students need to succeed in a global economy.

In this conference, we hope to generate discussion and debate, as well as find answers to some of the questions that surround the issue of curriculum. What skills, knowledge and attitudes are likely to be needed by students in the future; how should curriculum change to provide the new skills, knowledge and attitudes, if indeed it needs to.

This conference has once again gathered many outstanding papers, website and multimedia presentations. Microsoft is offering three i-Mate JasJam PDAs as prizes for the best entries in the following categories:

1. The most creatively presented video, MP3 or website presentation on the topic

2. The leading paper/presentation on the topic

3. The best paper/presentation on the topic by a practising classroom teacher.

Winners will be announced on the last day of conference.

We look forward to another stimulating and thought provoking conference.

Felicia Brown
National Academic Programs Manager
Microsoft Pty Limited

Debra J. Brydon Online Conference Manager

Welcome to the third ACEL-Microsoft online conference. It is clear that the topic has excited the imagination of many educators. This is reflected in the range and outstanding quality of the papers and presentations submitted.

What really matters in curriculum today? Will today’s students be prepared for the types of jobs they will encounter in the 21st century? How can we help produce 21st century outcomes for every student? A growing number of respected voices have sounded the alarm that students are not being prepared to compete in an increasingly global marketplace and that new curriculum models and structures must be considered. There is widespread consensus that today’s students must be able to think critically, solve problems and collaborate if they are to succeed in work and live in the 21st century. But what do those closest to our students think?

Please set aside some dedicated time in your week to join us in our daily (24 hours a day) online discussion. Interacting with colleagues from all around the world, on such a global topic, is a central feature of this professional development opportunity. Professional sharing is vital to getting the most you can out of these online conferences.

Some of you may not have taken part in an online conference before, so a few guidelines are provided here.

Remember that all the papers and comments on the online discussions have been provided by well-meaning colleagues, who have taken the time to share their views and information. When you are online, be friendly, polite and helpful. We welcome both positive and negative views on a paper, or in response to a colleague's comments.

Always enter your name, school and country, so that others know who they are ‘conversing’ with. It is very important that you do not share the website address of the online conference with those who have not registered. If you do know of someone who might like to participate, please ask them to formally register online.

Comments entered in the online discussions by persons known by the conference organisers to be unregistered will be removed, without notice. Please help to keep the online discussions as private as we can make them, and restricted as much as possible to this registered group of interested professionals. Please do not publicise the website address to unregistered persons under any circumstances.

I warmly welcome you to the second of this year’s ACEL-Microsoft online conference and look forward to our time together as an international online community. If you have any difficulties, comments or suggestions for future conferences, please don’t hesitate to email me.

Debra J. Brydon
Online Conference Manager
Email: brydon@cybertext.net.au