Mary MacKillop focus of digital learning aid

Sydney
27 July 2003

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Mary MacKillop focus of digital learning aid

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Mary MacKillop focus of digital learning aid

“Religious education must be modern and up-to-date,” says Dr Brian Croke, of the NSW Catholic Education Commission.

“In a changing society, it is important to keep education facilities up-to-date in order to achieve the best outcomes for students.

“People can no longer live in isolation, but we must work together to collaborate in the new ‘age of digital faith’.”

Dr Croke, executive director of the commission, was speaking at the launch of a new teaching tool, the Mary MacKillop Learning Object.

The digital learning object was launched jointly with the Queensland Catholic Education Commission and the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart.

Learning object is “a catch-all term” used to describe any teaching tool that presents components that can be used simul-taneously in a variety of instructional contexts.

These are ideally presented via the internet, so that they are accessible to students across a vast geographical area, are interactive and can be readily updated.

The Mary MacKillop Learning Object draws on the life experiences of Bl Mary MacKillop, to present key points from her teaching to a new generation of students across Australia and New Zealand.

The program is based on the interaction of three timelines, which feature key dates in Mary’s life that are then able to be placed into context by comparison and contrast with events in the Australian Church and the wider society during the same years.

This feature enables students to understand and appreciate that history does not happen in isolation, but that the context is crucial. Students are able to interact with the material through completing activities that range from typing a “crossed letter” to finishing a one-page brochure.

The crossed letter activity is drawn from the system that Mary MacKillop used when faced with the limited availability of paper - she would first write normally down a page. When this sheet was full, she would turn the page on its side, and write another page of information perpendicular to the first.

This technique undoubtedly helped to conserve a valuable resource, but the writing which result usually presented great challenges to anyone who tried to read it.

The second activity allows students to draw information and historical images and photographs from any part of the resource.

And it allows them to provide their own reflections on the material presented, to prepare a full-colour printable brochure or even a series of brochures drawn from the vast range of information contained in the Learning Object.

Students are assisted throughout the activities by an animated church mouse character which offers help in printed and spoken form.

The program also features a number of the sayings of Mary MacKillop, a song composed especially for the project and a brief description of the Church process involved in beatification and canonisation.

The Mary MacKillop Learning Object is the first one to be developed using the principles of The Learning Foundation, a five-year $64 million project funded jointly by the federal government, all state governments and the New Zealand government.

Sue Mann, of The Learning Foundation, acknowledged that Catholic education is at the forefront of this new development.

Dr Brian Croke said that while the information technology age was new for the older members present at the launch, it has always been a part of the world-view of the students that this project was designed for, who have not known a world without the internet.

He emphasised the importance of a project that drew on the life of Mary MacKillop, who is part of the wider Australian heritage and culture, and whose role is acknowledged in the new Year 7-10 NSW History syllabus.

It was significant, he said, that the project was launched at Mary MacKillop Place, North Sydney, which is a cultural institution and asset for the whole of Australia.

It is not unusual that Catholic Schools are involved in a project like this, he added, because students must be engaged in what they learn, which is a principle explicitly set-out in Church documents on education.