Strategy 1: collaborative learning- figure 1
Collaborative learning is a strategy outlined in the High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS) (Victorian Government, 2020). Collaborative learning is defined as, students working together to complete a learning task in smaller groups. This strategy can be utilised in classrooms to benefit student learning and enhance digital technology knowledge. Microsoft OneNote can be utilised to promote collaborative learning. OneNote is a platform where teachers can create lessons and activities for students to access in class, the platform has an embedded function called a Collaboration Space. Students can be split into groups in this space and work together to complete tasks. The class can also access each other’s work within their own OneNote to provide feedback and to learn from their peers. This function can be used by teachers for formative and summative assessments as well as mini learning opportunities. Collaborative learning is important for students in Year 8 Visual Art as ideas can be rebounded from student to student based on different perspectives and creative levels. Students can work together to design artworks by using their OneNote Collaboration Space, students can draw and use shapes as a function of this platform. Collaborative learning fosters skills that students can use in everyday life, these skills include, positive independence and social skills (Zaferis, 2023). By using the Collaboration Space on OneNote, students can develop these skills. When students are adding to the collaboration, they are learning to interact with their peers in an acceptable and respectful manner, this skill can be transferable to any aspect of life. Further, the skill of positive independence is developed during collaborative learning as students can ask questions, produce ideas, or responses that their peers can answer or benefit from (Susiana and Priyatin, 2025).
Strategy 2: structured lessons- figure 2
Structured lessons are also outlined in the HITS (Victorian Government, 2020) as teacher’s plan to structure and reinforce routines, scaffold learning opportunities and planned sequences to maintain student engagement. This is beneficial to students to expect what will happen during the lesson and to understand what is expected of them in the classroom. To incorporate a routine that utilises digital technology, interactive quizzes like Kahoot can be used as a form of a formative assessment at the end of each lesson as an opportunity to review what was learnt during the present lesson and topics from previous lessons. Benefits of using quizzes can produce confidence and engagement for students which encourages feedback and willingness to learn more about a topic they need to revisit (Southern Cross University, n.d.). The Australian Curriculum states that by the end of year 8 in Visual Art, students are expected to analyse visual conventions, arts processes and materials in artworks, interactive quizzes can be utilised to teach the sub-learning of this standard, like the elements and principles of Art. Doug Belshaw explores 8 elements of digital literacy in this research (2012), within these elements, a selection can be targeted in a structured lesson sequence. Confidence can be targeted when creating structured lessons and interactive quizzes by ensuring questions are surface level so students can easily access the answers from their memory bank, this reflects the first level of remembering in the Blooms Taxonomy framework (Marangell, 2021). Purposefully including the routine of a quiz at the conclusion of a lesson sets the expectation of students to engage with the class content to ensure they can recall their learning whilst fostering self-confidence.
Figure 1– OneNote collab space example
Figure 2- interactive quiz example
