In Week 6B, a group of new and returning parents attended two workshops designed to introduce them to (or refresh their use of) the College’s communication technology tools. IT Support Coordinator, Mrs Mel Grant and English teacher and IT Facilitator, Mr Terence Priester hosted the tutorials, guiding parents through SPACES, Canvas and the Online Diary.

Seeing as the integration of these tools into Newington life is still a relatively recent development, the two workshops acted as a great forum to address any queries and questions parents may have had.

Firstly, parents were given a rundown of SPACES where they learnt how to personalise their dashboards by joining the different SPACES that specifically related to them or their son and learnt how to navigate from one key component to another – from the calendar, to certain information pages like their son’s report and the parent directory.

Mr Priester guided the parents through Canvas – where boys and teachers are able to communicate with each other in an online classroom format – and described how Canvas ties in with the Online Diary by giving parents access to information they will allow them to assist their son’s with homework management.

Some parents were keen to find out how and when teachers allocated time in their classes for the boys to update their diaries on their devices to which Mr Priester stressed, there are 155 full-time teachers at Newington and each has their own style of teaching. In this regard, the boys will need to adapt and show flexibility from class-to-class; a process which will prove to be invaluable in helping them develop sound organisational skills, independence and digital savviness.

If you happened to miss the workshops and are eager to learn about or up-skill your knowledge of the three tools, there will more workshops scheduled for April.