A $4 million teacher training facility has opened at University of South Australia in collaboration with Samsung. The Smartschool is packed full of shiny gadgets for researchers, students, teachers and teaching students to learn more about teaching.
University of South Australia’s Magill campus is home to one of the largest cohorts of teaching students in South Australia and now it’s also home to a $4 million Samsung-sponsored facility.
Head of UniSA’s School of Education, Professor Stephen Dobson says the facility — which uses Samsung large-format display screens, interactive whiteboards, tablets, smartphones and virtual reality products — will help thousands of students that use it.
“The school will benefit teachers, education researchers, students studying to become teachers and school students from across Australia,” Prof Dobson says. “Flexible in concept and design, while emphasising STEM, the Samsung Smartschool is all about teaching students to become problem-solvers and innovators.”
UniSA Vice Chancellor Professor David Lloyd says that the “Samsung Smartschool will support the development of new generations of experts in the sciences and engineering who can fill and create future jobs because they have the skills and passion to make a difference in society, but also, the ability to work creatively in teams”
Bookings for the Smartschool will open on March 6 where visiting students from across South Australia can use the facilities for classes while researchers can also use them to help develop an evidence-base for teaching.
South Australian native and Education Minister, Senator Simon Birmingham says, “It’s great to see firsthand a workspace that will provide South Australian students with an advanced learning environment promoting innovation, creative thinking and complex problem-solving.”