Improving digital technology in rural and remote classrooms was on the agenda at Julia Creek’s Digital Innovation Day on Tuesday.
Tim Gentle from Think Digital said one of the things they were doing was encouraging teachers to adopt digital technologies.
“That’s not the curriculum, that’s more let’s bring an ipad in, let’s bring a virtual reality headset in, let’s start using some robotics,” Mr Gentle said.
“I’m talking people here through new digital technology than even my mum could master.”
Mr Gentle said these resources could come from different places.
“Maybe the State Library or downloadable on your phone or your computer,” he said.
“We’re talking about if you wanted to screen your mobile phone onto the big screen, how do we do that.”
Mr Gentle said it could involve taking people on a virtual experience, say to Paris or Rome when you are talking about French geography or the history of the Roman Empire.
“It’s all about what kind of tools a teacher can use to encourage their students to learn about the topics,” he said.
He also said places like Julia Creek were ideally placed to take advantage of new ideas.
“I can feel a digital technology buzz here,” he said.
“You’ve got a virtual reality experience at the visitors’ centre, let’s go on a muster and check it out, and you’ve even got that interactive floor where things move under your feet.”
Mr Gentle said it was also important to have all the information about a town easily searchable online.
“Yesterday we did a Google street view blitz and we did all the shops, and we went out to the free camp and dropped a pin there so now we’ve got a virtual experience around the free camp so people can look at that when they are hunting down places to put their caravans.”
McKinlay Shire Mayor Belinda Murphy said also spoke about the virtual experiences available at the Visitor Information Centre in Julia Creek an idea which came when they saw a Queensland Tourism VR exhibition featuring the Gold Coast and the Barrier Reef and the Northern Territory but there was nothing showing activities of the Outback such as mustering.
Cr Murphy said the council engaged a media company to come up and film a muster and the final seven minute VR video will be now on view at the Visitor Centre.
“We are very excited, it’s a first for a visitors’ centre in Queensland and probably in Australia,” she said.
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
