The Centre is part of the "Smart Precinct" education initiative, a joint project featuring contributions from the NSW Department for Education and Training (DET), Macquarie University, and a series of IT companies including Cisco, Dlink, Electroboard, Compaq and Sun Microsystems. Located within Macquarie University's North Ryde campus the centre will provide a series of IT-centric classrooms to be used as the basis for IT syllabus design and development.
According to the Minister's office, DET has contributed AU$3 million to the initiative, with the university adding a further AU$2.3 million in cash. The project will be funded over four years, and is designed to operate as a test case for similar centres throughout the state.
Brian Kissell, director of IT services for Macquarie University, said the centre will enable teachers to research the "learning experience associated with IT" with children from Kindergarten through to Year 12.
"As part of the project we will second teachers from schools within the catchment area, so they can work on developing courses from the centre, and then take what they have learnt back to their schools," Kissell said. "It is hoped that eventually all schools in New South Wales will be connected to the DET network to be able to take advantages from the teaching approaches developed in the centre."
Kissell said the centre would be working with a number of different technologies including StarOffice and Sun's Sun Rays smart card technology based on Java.
"The Sun Ray appliances and Java smart card technology will allow the students to work at the centre then return to their schools, and bring up the same desktop on their school computer," Kissell said.
The centre is set up into three different classrooms or learning centres, each focussed on slightly different technologies. The building is also equipped with two-way mirrors so that researchers can unobtrusively observe the way students interact with different technologies.
Initially the centre's educational programs will be opened to students from the North Ryde and Hornsby education precinct, however if successful the program will be extended to schools throughout the state throughout the DET IT network.
