17 Jun 2021
Education Directorate employee Murray McKay, Director of Digital Literacies within the Education Support Office, has been recognised with the 2021 Outstanding Achievement Award by the Information Technology Educators ACT (InTEACT).
In 2020, digital systems were at the forefront of the COVID-19 response in every sector of Australian society.
In March of 2020, restrictions on gatherings due to the COVID-19 pandemic saw most students and teachers in the ACT move to a remote delivery of education, requiring the digital systems that support learning to rapidly adapt to accommodate the changing situation.
This required immediate, sustained and coordinated collaboration across multiple teams within the Education Support Office.
Murray was a key figure in leading this work, which ultimately resulted in almost all of the 50, 000 public school students in the ACT continuing their education remotely.
Murray ably led a dynamic team of educators to design and deliver a wide range of professional learning, supporting the teachers within ACT Government Schools to quickly adapt to an online learning environment, and to transition to a blended online and finally a digitally-supported face-to-face learning environment as schools began to re-open.
Murray acknowledges his team and others who worked collaboratively to pull off this major feat including the Learning and Teaching, Policy and Design team and The Academy of Future Skills team, as well as countless teachers and school leaders who shared their expertise and collaborated on resources.
“I would also like to reflect our admiration for all the amazing ACT teachers and school leaders who, through their dedication and care for our students, ensured the continuity of learning during such challenging times,” Murray said.
The ability of the ACT Public Education System to adapt so quickly and so smoothly to the COVID situation was in a large part to the strategic systems and structures that these teams designed and co-delivered in support of ACT teachers.
Now that the groundwork has been put in place, ACT schools have developed their digital confidence and capabilities to better enhance the learning offered by teachers within and beyond the classroom, whilst also ensuring our readiness to support students’ access and engagement in structured learning into the future.