Briefing materials around the development of the palnet portal created 'by Principals, for Principals'.

1. Principals Australia Briefing Materials
June 2011
mark.sparvell@pa.edu.au 2011

2. What is palnet?
- An online professional learning environment built by principals, for principals and
informed by current market research.
- A space for cross sector, cross state and territory and cross level-of-schooling dialogue
around the trending issues in relation of education.
- A suite of easy-to-use online tools and spaces to connect, collaborate, contribute and
engage in outstanding professional learning.
- A space to think, reference and moderate around issues for Principals and aspiring
leaders nationally.
Project Update June 2011
mark.sparvell@pa.edu.au 2011

3. What's Different?
While there are many online learning communities in existence
- many are restricted by state, territory or sector
- may be a service endorsed or provided by a business with interests in the
education market
- may not be specifically targeted to the unique needs Principals and aspiring
Principals have
- may provide functionality not required and therefore distracting
palnet delivers what Australian Principals and Aspiring Principals have said they
want in an online professional learning network.
mark.sparvell@pa.edu.au 2011

4. Background
The Australian Government has committed a total of $2.4 billion to the implementation of the
Digital Education Revolution (DER).
The Department operates the Information and Communication Technology Innovation Fund
(ICTIF) under the Digital Strategy for Teachers and School Leaders element of the DER.
palnet (www.palnet.edu.au) is one of four projects funded through the ICT Innovation Fund
(ICTIF) to support pre-service teachers, in-service teachers and school leader to develop the
skills, knowledge and experience to become confident in embedding ICT into teaching and
encouraging students to use ICT productively for their learning.
Other projects include
• Plane (www.plane.edu.au)-
• TTF (Teaching Teachers for the Future)
• ICT in Everyday Learning: Teacher Online Toolkit
mark.sparvell@pa.edu.au 2011

5. Plane (www.plane.edu.au)-
PLANE will be a professional learning world for educators where they can: develop their skills; connect with others;
and take part in formal structured learning that is accredited or informal learning. It will provide in-time anywhere
anytime professional learning opportunities through two integrated environments; a rich multi-media environment
and a 21st century immersive learning environment – a “digital virtual world” - for experiential game-based
learning, problem based simulation learning, collaboration and communication across educational sectors.
TTF (Teaching Teachers for the Future)
The TTF Project involves all 39 teacher education institutions in Australia. There are three components 1. To develop
and trial explicit ICT dimensions for 60% of the descriptors in the Graduate Teacher Standards of the National
Professional Standards for Teachers. 2. To develop a national collection of digital resources that provide pre-service,
teacher educators and teachers with rich professional learning and digital resources exemplar packages 3. To second
highly accomplished ICTE educators to Australian universities to work with teacher educators and pre-service
teachers.
ICT in Everyday Learning: Teacher Online Toolkit
In partnership with curriculum associations and universities, this project will enhance the capacity of in-service
teachers to effectively incorporate varied technologies in classrooms while assisting the implementation of the
Australian Curriculum. The project will develop, trial and disseminate online professional learning resources
designed to support the Digital Education Revolution.
mark.sparvell@pa.edu.au 2011

6. Project Objectives
Audience: For principals, school leaders and aspiring school leaders:
Provides:
• Personal professional assessment and development
• A personal online profile like “facebook”
• An environment to buildrelationships and professional support
• Resources for leadership, school management and increased ICT
capability
• An opportunity to build collaboration and resources around key
educational and leadership objectives
It is Principal and school leader driven and will be
delivered through an online portal to all schools sectors, across
Australia
mark.sparvell@pa.edu.au 2011

7. Overview of functions
Mentoring opportunities
groups
Build relationships and professional
support through groups
Events- national and international
expertise Portfolio, cv and
engagement with
professional
Personal professional profile standard
mark.sparvell@pa.edu.au 2011

8. Where is it up to?
• Project Update June 2011
• Portal development to date has been informed by a national users group of over
60 principals.
• Currently a project reference group is being established to ensure functions and
resources target the needs of the users.
• Market research, conducted by Principals Australia, clearly demonstrates a
commitment by Australian Principals and aspiring Principals to engage in online
networks for professional growth.
• Currently a holding page is being hosted at www.palnet.edu.au. A live twitter feed
provides a continuous stream of updates towards the launch date and Principals
and Aspiring Principals are encouraged to follow the link to the registration page.
• A link to palnet also exists from the Principals Australia site www.pa.edu.au
• The build of the portal (palnet.edu.au) by Education Services Australia is on
schedule for a late August delivery.
mark.sparvell@pa.edu.au 2011

9. Sample Slides
• The following images are intended to provide a general idea of the functions and
navigation of the site and don’t represent all the functionality.
• The final design and features will be shaped by the Project Reference Team
mark.sparvell@pa.edu.au 2011

10. Public Page
The ‘public’ page that users will
see when they visit
www.palnet.edu.au.
The casual visitor can
- See current activity and
‘trending issues’
- Register
- Find out more information
- View promotional media
mark.sparvell@pa.edu.au 2011

11. Profile
The registered users ‘profile’
page.
The user has control over what
information is shared.
You can see common social
network features- this is on
purpose to ensure ease of
operability.
mark.sparvell@pa.edu.au 2011

12. Groups
This section will be populated
with moderated and facilitated
groups as required by the
contract including
1) Australian Curriculum
2) School Governance and
Autonomy
3) Teacher and Leadership
Standards
4) Data and Reporting
5) ICT Strategic Planning
6) Remote Schools
7) Change Management
8) Special Education Custom Groups
9) Indigenous Education
10) Social Inclusion Registered users will be able to create custom
closed or open groups eg. An existing
professional network could utilise palnet groups
for their collaboration and engagement.
mark.sparvell@pa.edu.au 2011