A community resilience-building project for secondary schools in East Gippsland is coming to an end in June 2023 and as part of the project, a suite of Virtual Reality (VR) headsets will be available for local schools to share as a legacy of the project.
Pictured: Bairnsdale Secondary College year eight student Madeleine Love, TAFE Gippsland Chief Executive Officer Laura Macpherson, Gippsland Tech School Director Paul Boys, TAFE Gippsland Partnerships and Governance Executive Director Susan Thomas, Gippsland East LLEN (Local Learning and Employment Networks) Executive Officer Pam Waters, and year nine student Lachlan Hall.
The TAFE Gippsland community legacy project, delivered through the Gippsland Tech School and funded by Australian IT company Atlassian, was developed to increase awareness and knowledge of design thinking in education in the Gippsland region.
The project involved a series of workshops for students to work collaboratively with like-minded pupils from their own school, mentors and communities across eastern Victoria.
Gippsland Tech School Director Paul Boys said the project funding allowed for 24 Class VR headsets to be purchased as a shared resource for secondary schools in the Wellington and East Gippsland LGAs. The headsets will be managed by the Gippsland East LLEN and loaned to schools for use in their school curriculum.
“Students from Maffra, Yarram and Bairnsdale secondary schools were all engaged with the project, learning about the Design Thinking process and how to apply it to help solve issues within their immediate communities,” Paul explained.
“Design Thinking is currently embedded in all of the programs we facilitate at the Gippsland Tech School. It’s a human-centred design process used to tackle real-world problems; so problem-solving techniques, empathising with consumers, collaboration and ideating ways to solve these issues, then prototyping and testing these ideas.”
Participating schools also received two iPads to keep and $1,500 to support students with the implementation of their community legacy projects, which included:
- Bairnsdale Secondary – Litter reduction in schools
- Maffra Secondary – Safer spaces in schools and a community sensory garden
- Yarram Secondary – School uniform upgrade.
Paul said it was a great opportunity for students and teachers in the region to learn about the application of Design Thinking and project-based learning.
“Our intention is for a legacy capability to be built among the student leadership groups within schools which will allow them to continue to address challenges within the school and local communities,” Paul said.
“Students were given opportunities to pitch their ideas with the goal of securing the required support and investment to carry their ideas forward and look ahead to next steps for their proposals. Mentors from the Gippsland Tech School and GELLEN worked with students to support them in their liaisons with local stakeholders, and to help take their ideas from concept to reality.”
The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of June 2023.
TAFE Gippsland CEO Laura Macpherson said they were excited to be project partners.
“What a great opportunity for students to develop their leadership skills, work collaboratively and pitch their own ideas to help shape the future of their communities,” Laura said.
“I look forward to hearing about the skills they’ve gained throughout the project and seeing their ideas implemented in our community.”