Building teacher and student understanding through enquiry, exploration and collaboration

The Samsung SMARTSchool, located at Magill Campus at the University of South Australia, is an experimental, digitally connected learning environment that allows teachers at all career stages to explore the transformative potential of digital technologies to support new, innovative and creative approaches to teaching and learning.

Today’s students are tech savvy, having spent their entire lives using technology - in study and in play. They send and receive information in radically different ways to previous generations using internet, social media, online gaming, texting, emailing and more in a virtual environment. It’s no surprise then that classrooms and homes need transformation to create new learning environments. 

To build on and extend the ways in which students learn and communicate, the Samsung SMARTSchool explores educational opportunities that embrace the challenges technology brings into the classroom. The facility features an array of Samsung technology including large form screens, video walls, outdoor PCs, smart phones, watches and tablets, virtual reality headsets and a digitally connected environment like no other in South Australia. It is designed to be a flexible education space, which can be configured in a number of ways for specific teaching and learning experiences – it’s a way for people to work together in new ways.

While technology can spark imagination, it is teachers who stir, harness and challenge it. The SMARTSchool connects UniSA’s acclaimed teacher education programs with world-class research against a backdrop of innovative science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teaching and learning opportunities. It provides a collaborative workspace for teachers to engage in critical thinking, creative problem solving around authentic and real-life problems and technological proficiency, for students from Reception through to Secondary School.

STEM – teaching for tomorrow

The importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in Australia has been highlighted in numerous recent reports. Government initiatives to strengthen STEM teaching has led to a renewed focus on increasing student uptake of STEM subjects in primary and secondary schools across Australia. 

The National STEM school education strategy 2016-2026 recognises that schools need to support the development of cross-disciplinary skills, critical and creative thinking, problem solving and digital technologies. In short, it is about ensuring Australia’s young adults are equipped with the necessary skills for the workplace of the near future, and ultimately help keep Australia competitive internationally in these important fields.