Pittwater House leads the way in education innovation

Wednesday, 28 April 2010

Young people are connected and networked in a way in which their parents and teachers never were. The internet has become the dynamic that is shaping the world we live in and it should become as much a part of our pupil's education as it is a part of their after-school lives.

Pittwater House launched its e-learning platform MyHouse in February this year, the first converged technology program for education in Australia. Modelled off the program introduced to Abilene Christian University (ACU), Texas USA, in 2007 called ACU Connected, Pittwater House has successfully integrated this technology as an additional teaching resource to provide teachers with powerful tools to deliver differentiated learning and challenged-based learning strategies in the classroom.

Since conceptualising this program, Pittwater House has been working closely with Prof. William Rankin, Education Innovation Specialist from ACU, now a recognised leader in this field. This week Professor Rankin visited Australia to share his expertise and spend a day at Pittwater House.

During his day at Pittwater House Prof. Rankin witnessed first hand how MyHouse is used on a day to day basis around the campus to make every aspect of the learning experience more relevant and engaging.

Pittwater House has followed in ACU's footsteps to become the first in Australia to introduce converged mobile technologies -like Apple iPhones and iTouches- to year groups within the school community to compliment more traditional educational resources. As Professor Rankin has stated "uLearn and iTeach better with iPhone Technology"!