Amanda Cawthorne-Crosby
Mark Gooley shows off his air engine
Lecturers at Charles Darwin University’s (CDU) Alice Springs campus will show off their favourite teaching tools this week as part of Teaching and Learning Week.
The theme for the week is Every which way: showcasing CDU good practice and the Lecturers have been quick to champion a diverse range of equipment and props that help to make learning fun and informative for their students.
Among the more unusual teaching tools you’ll find at CDU are a miniature air engine ticking over in Trades Lecturer, Mark Gooley’s, classroom: ‘It motivates the students. They can see an end product and see where the class is going.’
Childrens Services Lecturer, Heather Wilson, prefers to bring her students in touch with their future vocation by having them care for a life-like model baby:
‘The students can actually experience a ‘hands on’ approach. This makes the learning relevant and gives students the opportunity and time to practice.’
The ‘Tools of the Trade’ display will be launched at a morning tea in the Alice Springs campus Library at 10.15am on Wednesday 12 April.
The display can also be viewed on the CDU website.
At 3.30pm on 12 April, Alice Springs Children’s Services Co-ordinator Amanda Cawthorne-Crosby will conduct a ‘class’ with an audience 1500 kilometres away at the Casuarina campus using her favourite tool, Interactive Distance Learning (IDL), to demonstrate how the University could use this technology to create a classroom environment anywhere in the NT.
‘The most exciting aspect about IDL is its ability to provide the social experience of learning that previously only face-to-face teaching could deliver, without the two parties having to cover great distances to access this environment,’ she said.
The session will be conducted using the IDL facility at the Alice Springs-based School of the Air and any one interested in how IDL works is invited to attend either in Alice Springs or at the Casuarina campus, Business Building 22, room 12.
The Teaching and Learning week activities in Alice Springs have been co-ordinated by Mrs Cawthorne-Crosby, who is also CDU’s School of Education VET Leader (Regional and Remote).
‘This week is a chance to celebrate the fact that CDU has so many innovative and responsive Lecturers and tools,’ she said.