Summary 06 | Aitken College and SMAN 54 Jakarta (2023)
Partner school: Aitken College, Victoria, Australia and SMAN 54 Jakarta, DKI Jakarta, Indonesia
Aitken College in Victoria, Australia, and SMAN 54 Jakarta in DKI Jakarta, Indonesia, established their partnership in 2023 through the Australia-Indonesia BRIDGE School Partnerships Program. In the year they have been partnered, the schools have collaborated through video sharing, hosted a high level visit from the Governor-General and engaged in a study tour to Indonesia.
August - October 2023
Developed ideas for collaboration through the Professional Learning Program
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The purpose of the Professional Learning Program is to equip educators with the skills and confidence to sustain their school partnership supporting them to design and test their partnership plan.
The educators Aitken College and SMAN 54 were able to apply the learnings and resources from the online Design Thinking, Technology and Intercultural Understanding workshops to trial collaborative and inclusive activities to engage their students. Through the PLP Aitken College and SMAN 54 focused on the UN Sustainable Development Goal of Quality Education and developed a sustainable and actionable partnership plan.
November 2023
1. School Visit and Homestay:
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The educators experimented with a range of activities during the Indonesian educators visit to Aitken College, which was embedded within the Professional Learning Program.
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1. Kahoot quiz (Synchronous): Students from both schools competed in an online quiz.
2. Guess Who? (Synchronous): Both the class in Indonesia and Australia would chose a character and the opposite school student would ask questions to guess the character.
3. Video Exchange (Asynchronous): Using the topic: About Me students would create a video about their city including what they could see, hear, smell, taste and touch.
2. Key Learning:
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​1. Focus on asynchronous activities such as video sharing that can be developed by students and used as a learning material during classes. Synchronous activities such as Kahoot! are challenging due to internet issues and lags between Australia and Indonesia.
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2. Ensure there is clear communication on activity goals (in both languages where possible) and instructions that consider each classroom environment.
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3. Make a plan for how the technology will be used in the classroom to avoid issues such as feedback from multiple computers.
January - May 2024
Students created and shared cultural videos: Students at SMAN 54 Jakarta and Aitken College created, directed, filmed and shared videos on a range of topics to share their culture with their partner school and learn more about each other. These videos were used as teaching and learning resources in the classroom.
May 16, 2024
Australian Governor-General visited SMAN 54 Jakarta: On May 12 2024, the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, David Hurley AC CVO DSC FTSE and his wife, Her Excellency Mrs Lina Hurley visited SMAN 54 Jakarta as part of a tour of Indonesia celebrating 75 years of diplomatic relations between Australia and Indonesia. The visit included a speech by the Governor-General, cultural performances by the students of SMAN 54 Jakarta and the sharing of the partnership video highlighting collaboration between Aitken College and SMAN 54 Jakarta.
June 21, 2024
Aitken College students travel to Indonesia and visit SMAN 54 Jakarta: Students from Aitken College recently travelled to SMAN 54 Jakarta on a study tour and had the chance to meet with the students they have been collaborating with virtually over the last 8 months.
Future collaboration plans​
1. Artwork sharing between schools (August - November)
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2. Funded by the Australia Indonesia Institute (AII) Australian educators from Aitken College will travel to Jakarta for 1-week to spend time at SMAN Jakarta to strengthen their partnership and explore themes of climate change, gender and social inclusion. (September)
