Posts Tagged ‘vocational’

You may ask yourself what do the EPAAs and digital amnesty have in common? It turns out, they share quite a lot, and it will affect what digital products can be entered this year.

Due to feedback with issues entering digital services regarding meeting the eligibility period requirements, we have introduced a digital amnesty. For the 2018 EPAAs, entries will be accepted for any current digital service (subject to the Australian requirements and conditions of entry and judging criteria) regardless of date of release.

If you have created a digital service or platform, we want to hear from you!

Entries for the 2018 EPAAs close Friday, 1 June 2018. Don’t miss out on the chance shine the spotlight on your innovative and original products.

Submit your nomination here.

Keep up to date and join the conversation:

W: edpubawards.com

T: @EPAs_Aus

F: facebook.com/edpubawards

‘Education publishers are not just publishers of books, but experts in effective learning.’

We’re back!

The Educational Publishing Awards Australia celebrate 25 years of excellence in educational publishing in Australia. This year’s celebration will take place on Thursday, 20 September 2018 at The Pavilion, Arts Centre Melbourne.

Call for entries is now open:

Nominations must be submitted by Friday, 1 June 2018. Please read the conditions of entry and judging criteria before submitting your nomination here. Whether you are a traditional publishing company, a niche publisher or a digital start-up, get involved, because we would love to recognise your work!

The awards will be presented in Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and TAFE & Vocational Education categories as well as the Primary and Secondary Publisher of the Year.

What’s new in 2018?

We have made it easier to enter a digital service or platform and will accept any current digital service (subject to Australian content requirements) regardless of date of release.

The Tertiary and TAFE & Vocational categories have been overhauled as a result of judges’ and industry feedback.

An overall winner for each sector (Primary, Secondary and Tertiary and TAFE & Vocational) will be selected by the Chief Judge from the category winners.

Please take a look at the list of 2018 categories here.

Judging of the awards is a rigorous process for all involved. Chief Judge Professor Angela Carbone, Associate Dean (Learning Innovation), Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology at Swinburne University of Technology returns to guide the panel of judges in hand-selecting the shortlisted and winning titles.

We would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge co-founder and former Chief Judge Mike Horsley’s longstanding commitment to the awards.

We are grateful for publishers’ continued support of the EPAAs and look forward to celebrating the hard work involved in producing innovative, forward-thinking and pedagogically outstanding resources designed to enhance educational outcomes for Australian teachers and students.

Interested to see who won in 2017? Take a look here at the full list of previous winners.

Start submitting and we look forward to hosting you on 20 September!

Keep up to date and join the conversation:

W: edpubawards.com

T: @EPAs_Aus

F: facebook.com/edpubawards

Thank you to everyone who attended last night’s EPAAs! We hope you had a wonderful time and feel honoured to be part of our thriving educational publishing industry.

We would like to thank our key note speakers for the evening: Gheran Steel (Boon Wurrung Foundation), Chris Gray (Wiley), Adrian Rhodes (Inspiring the Future), and our Chief Judge, Angela Carbone (Monash University).

Thanks also to our sponsors, especially major sponsors, Copyright Agency and Opus Group, whose continued support is so important to the success of these awards.

Please see below the list of EPAA winners for 2017:

Primary

Student Resource – Mathematics (Numeracy)

Oxford Maths Student and Assessment Books WINNER
Annie Facchinetti, Brian Murray
Oxford University Press

Problem-solving Strategies and Skills
R.I.C. Publications

Student Resource – Arts/Science/Humanities

Double Helix Lessons HIGHLY COMMENDED
CSIRO Publishing in partnership with Stile Education

The Gigantic Book of Genes
Lorna Hendry
Wild Dog Books (on the Louie & Ted imprint)

Our Stories: Sportsmanship
Net Brennan
Black Dog Books, an imprint of Walker Books Australia

Student Science Journals (Primary Connections) WINNER
Kathryn Carter, Julie Smith, Zach Holmes
Australian Academy of Science

Student Resource – English (Literacy, Literature, Language)

Sound Waves Online WINNER
Barbara Murray, Terri Watson
Firefly Education Pty Ltd

Team Reads COMMENDED
Maureen Hyland (Teacher Resource Book), Various authors (Student Books)
Macmillan Education Australia

The Weird and Wonderful World of Words
Charles Hope
Wild Dog Books

Teaching Resource

Among the Gum Trees (Primary Connections) HIGHLY COMMENDED
Kathryn Carter, Julie Smith, Zach Holmes
Australian Academy of Science

Oxford Maths Teacher Dashboard WINNER
Annie Facchinetti, Brian Murray
Oxford University Press

PM Educational Toy Packs
Annette Smith, Beverley Randell, Debbie Croft
Nelson Cengage

Springboard into Comprehension Assessment
Kay Kovalevs (Teacher Resource Book); Educational Assessment Australia, a division of UNSW Global (Assessment Content – Questions and Answers); Various authors (Survey & Focus Cards)
Macmillan Education Australia

Educational Picture or Chapter Book

Amazing Australians in Their Flying Machines
Walker Books Australia

Circle HIGHLY COMMENDED
Jeannie Baker
Walker Books Australia

Nature Storybooks: Desert Lake HIGHLY COMMENDED
Pamela Freeman, Liz Anelli
Walker Books Australia

Welcome to Country WINNER
Black Dog Books, an imprint of Walker Books Australia

Yong
Janeen Brian
Walker Books Australia

Adaptation (Student or Teacher Resource)

Bug Club: Plays to Read WINNER
Julia Donaldson et al.
Pearson Australia

Twinkl Australia website
Rebecca Usherwood, Lauren Kan, Louise Scott et al.
Twinkl Educational Publishing

Primary Outstanding Digital Resource

Double Helix Lessons WINNER
CSIRO Publishing in partnership with Stile Education

Secondary

Student Resource – Junior – Mathematics/Science

Pearson Mathematics 2nd Edition
Jennifer Nolan, Geoff Phillips, Noel Davies et al.
Pearson Australia

Pearson Science 2nd Edition Student Books and Activity Books WINNER
Greg Rickard, Malcolm Parsons, Jacinta Devlin et al.
Pearson Australia

ScienceWorld for the Victorian Curriculum HIGHLY COMMENDED
Peter Saffin, Peter Stannard, Ken Williamson et al.
Macmillan Education Australia

Student Resource – Junior – English/Humanities/Technologies/PE

Health and Physical Education for the Australian Curriculum
Glenn Amezdroz, Sue Dickens, Jo Butterworth et al.
Cambridge University Press

Inspired English HIGHLY COMMENDED
Susie May, Purnima Ruanglertbutr
Macmillan Education Australia

Jacaranda Geoactive 1 and 2 NSW Australian Curriculum Geography Stage 4, 4th Edition WINNER
Louise Swanson, Nicole Gray, Karen Bowden et al.
Jacaranda

Oxford MyEnglish 7 to 9 Victorian Curriculum COMMENDED
Rachel Williams, Michael Horne
Oxford University Press

Pearson Geography NSW
Grant Kleeman, David Hamper, Helen Rhodes et al.
Pearson Australia

Practice IT for the Australian Curriculum
Greg Bowden, Kerryn Maguire
Cambridge University Press

Student Resource – Senior – Mathematics/Science

Nelson Biology VCE COMMENDED
Sarah Jones, Pam Borger, Tony Chiovitti et al.
Nelson Cengage

Nelson Psychology VCE WINNER
Helene Van Iersel, Kenna Bradley, Kristy Kendall et al.
Nelson Cengage

Nelson VCE Specialist Mathematics Units 3 & 4   HIGHLY COMMENDED
Sue Garner, Greg Neal, George Dimitriadis et al.
Nelson Cengage

Student Resource – Senior – English/Humanities/Languages/Arts/Technologies/Health and Physical Education

HTAV Revolutions Series COMMENDED
Tom Ryan, Lauren Perfect, Scott Sweeney et al.
History Teachers’ Association of Victoria (HTAV)

HTAV Twentieth Century Series JOINT WINNER
Geraldine Carrodus, Luke Cashman, Natalie Shephard et al.
History Teachers’ Association of Victoria (HTAV)

Key Concepts in VCE Business Management Units 1‒4, 4th Edition HIGHLY COMMENDED
Stephen Chapman et al.
Jacaranda

Living Religion 5th Edition
Janet Morrissey, Adam Taylor, Greg Bailey et al.
Nelson Cengage

Pearson English VCE JOINT WINNER
Mark Stracey, Leanne Matheson, Jo Ryan et al.
Pearson Australia

Religion and Society
Mary Tuohy, Damien Green, Shayndel Samuel et al.
Nelson Cengage

Teaching Resource

The Artful English Teacher COMMENDED
Erika Boas, Susan Gazis
Australian Association for the Teaching of English (AATE)

Geography NSW Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum Interactive Teacher Edition
Kate Thompson (Series Editor) and various authors
Cambridge University Press

Pearson Science 2nd Edition Teacher Companions WINNER
Rochelle Manners, Greg Rickard, Malcolm Parsons et al.
Pearson Australia

Reference Resource

A+ Study Guides for VCE
Various authors
Nelson Cengage

Australian Schoolmate Oxford Dictionary & Thesaurus 6th Edition HIGHLY COMMENDED
Oxford University Press

Get Ahead in Grammar  COMMENDED
Anne Quill, Anne Townsend
Nelson Cengage

The Invisible War: A Tale on Two Scales WINNER
Briony Barr, Dr Gregory Crocetti, Ailsa Wild et al.
Scale Free Network

Secondary Outstanding Digital Resource

Jacaranda Geoactive 1 and 2 NSW Australian Curriculum Geography Stage 4, 4th Edition WINNER
Louise Swanson, Nicole Gray, Karen Bowden et al.
Jacaranda

Tertiary and TAFE

TAFE & Vocational Education: Teaching and Learning Resource

The Big Picture 4th Edition WINNER
Karen Kearns
Cengage

The Disability Support Worker 2nd Edition
Geoff Arnott
Cengage

TAFE & Vocational Education: Student Resource

Basic Building and Construction Skills 5th Edition
Edward Hawkins
Cengage

Basic Plumbing Services Skills 3rd Edition
Dean Carter, Anthony Pingnam, Peter Wenning et al.
Cengage

Connect Master Hospitality Travel and Tourism for Certificate II to Diploma HIGHLY COMMENDED
Donaldson et al.
McGraw-Hill Education

The Road to Hospitality 4th Edition WINNER
Vivienne O’Shannessy, Dean Minett
Cengage

Tertiary (Adaptations): Student Resource

Global Business Today
Charles Hill, Rumintha Wickramasekera, Peter Liesch et al.
McGraw-Hill Education

Pharmacology in Nursing: Australian and New Zealand 2nd Edition WINNER
Bonita Broyles, Barry Reiss, Gayle McKenzie et al.
Cengage

Principles of Economics HIGHLY COMMENDED
Dean Karlan, Chris Bajada, Mark Melatos et al.
McGraw-Hill Education

Tertiary (Adaptations): Teaching and Learning Resource

Essentials of Corporate Finance 4th Edition
Stephen A. Ross, Rowan Trayler, Gerhard Van De Venter et al.
McGraw-Hill Education

Understanding Research Methods for Evidence-based Practice in Health WINNER
Trisha M. Greenhalgh, John Bidewell, Elaine Crisp et al.
Wiley Australia

Tertiary (Wholly Australian) Scholarly Resource

Australia’s Welfare Wars: The Players, the Politics and the Ideologies 3rd Edition HIGHLY COMMENDED
Philip Mendes
UNSW Press

Mia Mia Aboriginal Community Development: Fostering Cultural Security WINNER
Cheryl Kickett-Tucker (Editor) and various authors
Cambridge University Press

Tertiary (Wholly Australian) Student Resource

Clinical Nursing Skills: An Australian Perspective HIGHLY COMMENDED
Jacqueline Bloomfield et al.
Cambridge University Press

Healthy Ageing and Aged Care WINNER
Maree Bernoth, Denise Winkler
Oxford University Press

Spelling It Out: How Words Work and How to Teach Them
Misty Adoniou
Cambridge University Press

Teaching Language in Context 2nd Edition
Beverly Derewianka, Pauline Jones
Oxford University Press

Teaching Secondary Mathematics COMMENDED
Gregory Hine et al.
Cambridge University Press

Tertiary (Wholly Australian) Teaching and Learning Resource

Company Law: An Interactive Approach JOINT WINNER
Ellie Chapple, Alex Wong, Richard Baumfield et al.
Wiley Australia

Study Smart JOINT WINNER
Cengage, in collaboration with Smart Sparrow

Tertiary/TAFE Outstanding Digital Resource

Understanding Research Methods for Evidence-based Practice in Health WINNER
Wiley Australia

Award for Excellence in Australian Educational Publishing 2017

The Invisible War: A Tale on Two Scales OVERALL WINNER
Briony Barr, Dr Gregory Crocetti, Ailsa Wild et al.
Scale Free Network

Goodbye for now and see you all next year!

The Educational Publishing Awards are committed to rewarding excellence and innovation in the publishing industry at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. We have put together a series of interviews with the publishers, editors and authors involved in the creation and development of educational resources.

We caught up with Gregory Crocetti from Scale Free Network to talk about The Invisible War: A Tale on Two Scales, a shortlisted entry for the 2017 EPAA Reference Resource award.

For those who don’t know, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and the shortlisted entry?
I’m an independent publisher. In 2007, I began a long-term collaboration with visual artist Briony Barr in the art-science collective, Scale Free Network. We now spend the bulk of our time creating science adventure stories, set on the microscopic scale.

The Invisible War is our first graphic novel, created through a highly collaborative methodology by a team of Australian artists, scientists, writers, educators and historians. The story is set in 1916, partly around the muddy trenches of WWI, and partly in the mucus-lined trenches of a nurse’s large intestine. Our main human character accidentally swallows some dysentery-causing Shigella bacteria while treating an infected patient. The story then follows their epic journey as they battle their way through her digestive system and encounter other microbes living in her gut. The unlikely micro-heroes of the story are the “bacteriophage”, alien-looking bacteria-eating viruses who battle the dysentery bacteria to save Annie’s life.

What was your motivation for developing this resource?
Microbes such as bacteria, viruses and fungi make up 99% of life on Earth. And while a few of these invisible creatures can cause diseases, the overwhelming majority of microbes are beneficial, and in fact essential to the continued existence of the visible 1% of life, including us humans. I find it tragic that instead of learning about the amazing things that microbes do in our world, children are instead taught about microbes as agents of disease. Given the tragedy of this situation, I felt something had to be done. And so I made it my mission to try to create educational resources that flipped the script to teach children (and hopefully also adults) about many of the marvellous things microbes do in the world around us.

Why do you think this text will be appealing for students to engage with in their students?
Our modern screen-based world is driving more and more children and young adults to seek non-traditional modes of learning. With the simultaneous high demand for video content, immediate satisfaction and a growing reluctance to read the printed word, there is less and less space for conventional textbooks. Instead, this has set the stage for hybrid modes of educational resources in the modern classroom – and I believe that graphic novels nicely combine the necessary written content with the appeal of visual storytelling.

What challenges do you think teachers face and how can this resource solve these challenges?
From the outset, we were very strategic about our target audience for The Invisible War. We got some great advice from Ingrid Purnell at the History Teachers Association of Victoria that our WWI focus would place our content around the year 9 curriculum. Adding to that, we knew our story would have lots of great links in our book to the year 9/10 (plus year 7/8) Science curriculum, along with natural links to the exploration of literature styles and context in the English curriculum at these levels. Thus, it was our hope that in the context of lean school budgets, The Invisible War would be able to function as a genuine interdisciplinary resource across Science, History and English/Literature classrooms.

With year 7–10 students notoriously the most difficult to manage in a classroom context across both primary and high school settings, we loved the challenge of designing The Invisible War to target this audience. In this context, the key is to engage as many students, as often as possible. I’m delighted to say that from my experience sitting with several classrooms across several schools (at different levels) reading The Invisible War, I can say that without exception, every student read the story from start to finish.

Why did you decide to submit The Invisible War to the EPAAs?
I believe in the power of story to deliver complex ideas. That’s why I continue to develop science adventure stories in a picture book format to teach primary school students about the varied symbiotic partnerships between microbes and larger forms of life. But I’m now also a huge believer in the educational potential of graphic novels. I grew up reading comics like Asterix and Tintin – always entertained and sometimes unsuspectingly educated.

However, my recent experience of creating within the graphic novel format and seeing the growing demand for visual learning in modern classrooms has convinced me of the importance of graphic novels in a teaching context.
Being a tiny independent publisher brings particular advantages and disadvantages. Our small size allows us to maintain creative control and quickly follow new trends and opportunities. But we also have to work really hard to cut through the noise – to compete against enormous marketing budgets and reputations of massive publishers, especially in the educational scene. Winning an EPAA would really help validate our choices to remain independent as well as our interdisciplinary approach to learning.

Good luck and all the best to Scale Free Network!

The Educational Publishing Awards are held at The Pavilion, Arts Centre Melbourne on Wednesday, 20 September 2017.

Book your ticket now.

Keep up with the latest EPAA news @EPAs_Aus or join the conversation #EPAA17.

With the exception of the Publisher of the Year awards, the EPAAs are peer judged. The judging panel comprises a number of experienced publishing professionals across the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary sectors, and each year they undertake the huge task of evaluating the wealth of print, digital and blended resources submitted to each category.

There are three panels, one for each sector, and they judge independently over a three week period. On the final day, the three panels convene to decide on overall winners.

To bring in a different perspective, we also invited judges working in education to join the panel. Now that the judging process is over for 2017, we talked to two of our new educator judges to reflect on their experience:
• Secondary: Jess Sautner is a recovering microbiologist and now registered science teacher, who has coordinated several University-based STEM Outreach programs throughout Australia. Jess is keen to link schools, universities and industry together in the work that she does.

• Tertiary: Giulietta Costa works as the Educational Designer for an Education Excellence professional development program at Monash University. A key aspect of her role is the resource development (printed and digital) and she is always looking for opportunities to broaden her knowledge and keep up to date of emerging technologies and the way they are being used.

Both two judges are new to the EPAAs and are impressed by what they’ve seen during the process:
Giulietta: ‘This was my first year of judging and I was quite impressed with the quality and obvious energy and investment that have gone into the development of the resources presented.’
Jess: ‘I have been blown away with the quality of the entries in the 2017 EPAAs and a few of them have made their way onto my Christmas shopping list.’

On what would truly set a winning entry apart from the rest, our judges highlight a resource’s role in engaging and aiding students in their learning experience.

Jess commented: ‘I think definitely a resource that gives teachers a number of different ways to engage with students [will set it apart]. A resource that recognises the different ways students learn, as well as remembers first and foremost that their role is to engage and inspire students in the subject matter, and show them something they’ve never seen before, not simply to provide facts and figures for them to memorise.’
And for Guilietta: ‘The ease of my ability to submerge myself in the content. Design is the critical element for me. I don’t want to be distracted by clutter or feel lost because of poor navigation. I want to feel inspired, challenged by the resource and feel there is intuitive guidance embedded (in the case of print) or support mechanisms in place (in digital).’

The two judges also shared with us their views on the current Australian education landscape and what they thought the classroom of tomorrow would look like.

From Giulietta’s perspective: ‘I believe we are just entering a phase where we can begin to evaluate the impact of technology enhanced learning, if any, and measure the impact of learner centred design. If “tomorrow” is 2–5 years away, our learning spaces should be designed to be adaptable and allow for active learning approaches and different learner needs. If “tomorrow” is 5-10 years away … the next generation of teaching staff will need to adopt a deeper level of digital literacy – they are just not there yet.’
Jess: ‘We are immensely lucky in Australia to have the education system we have. Every child is entitled to an education with no exceptions. Every child is entitled to higher education with no exceptions. Aspects of it aren’t perfect, but there are amazing teachers and educational policy makers driving change where it’s needed. Of course, I would love to see a fairer funding model for government schools. And you only really need to look at the universities to see what a classroom of tomorrow would look like. Where I am at the moment we are focused more on collaboration and team problem-solving than lecturing. You won’t find tables and chairs pointing towards a lectern in many new classrooms. Virtual Reality (VR) Technology is taking off so quickly as systems and headsets become cheaper and faster, so if you’re in publishing that’d be the place to head next!’

Lastly, our two judges gave some tips on how Australian published educational resources can be improved and further developed to meet the future demands of students.
Giulietta: ‘I’m very passionate about accessibility and I don’t believe Australian Educational resources currently meet global standards.’
Jess: ‘I would say that educational resources need to keep right at the forefront of education research and development. Whether that’s in VR as aforementioned, or to take on a more collaborative, problem-solving approach with activities, or to look at integrated / cross-curricular resources (which the majority of current pre-service teachers at university are most likely working on right now), resource writers really need to be right there, in the thick of it, ready to go.’

Thank you to Jess, Giulietta, and to all our judges for being part of the EPAAs this year.

Book your ticket now.

Keep up with the latest EPAA news @EPAs_Aus or join the conversation #EPAA17