With the rise of Internet usage worldwide, everything is making its way to the digital platform. The two-year shutdown has forced digitization in several sectors, including the educational sector.
With online courses and tests, many educational institutions have gone completely digital. These online courses have become a standard feature for students worldwide. Most educational materials are now readily accessible online, and many educational content creators are disseminating them very well over the internet. Rather than just teaching in a traditional environment, educators are redefining themselves as education influencers and imparting their knowledge to people all over the world through digital platforms.
In this post, we have enlisted experts from Australia based on their knowledge of the domain you must follow.
Let’s check them out:
Professor Steven Schwartz
Vice-Chancellor, Macquarie University
Professor Steven Schwartz is the Vice Chancellor of Macquarie University. He has a vital education, health, governance, and ethics background. Prof. Steven is a prize-winning researcher, teacher, public speaker, and author of 13 books and 300+ articles. He has made numerous radio and TV appearances. He also has a global track record in executive and non-executive director roles and business management in higher education, research, medical and health sectors. He has also served as vice-chancellor of Murdoch University.
Prof.Steven feels that blogs and Twitter allow you to engage in conversation and discussion, which is essential; this enables you to learn from others and comprehend what’s happening worldwide while sitting in the corner of your home.
Twitter handle: @macquarieVC
Tamson Pietsch
History Lecturer, Brunel University
Educated at the University of Adelaide, Tamson teaches Imperial and Colonial History in London. She has authored “Universities and Empire: Academic Networks and the British World, 1850-1939,” which will soon be released.
Tamson Pietsch is an Associate Professor of Social Sciences and Politics and Director of the UTS Australian Centre for Public History. Her research focuses on the history of ideas and global politics, particularly in universities and other knowledge institutions.
She has authored “Empire of Scholars: Universities Networks and the British Academic World, 1850-1939” (Manchester, 2013) and is the co-editor of “The Transnational Politics of Higher Education” (Routledge, 2016). Tamson is currently leading an ARC project on expertise in inter-war Australia and writing a book about international education and the American empire in the 1920s. She also received her DPhil from the University of Oxford, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar. She then held a Junior Research Fellowship at New College and a lectureship at Corpus Christi College. Before coming to UTS, Tamson was an ARC DECRA Fellow at the University of Sydney and a Lecturer in Imperial and Colonial History at Brunel University, London.
Twitter handle: @cap_and_gown
Ruth Moeller and Kylie Budge
Editors The Teaching Tomtom
Ruth Moeller and Kylie Budge serve as senior advisors in learning and teaching at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. They also collaborated to construct and publish the blog Teaching Tomtom to “establish a community of practise around varied interests – or reach world domination.” Kylie’s study subjects and student perspectives on e-feedback and art and design blogs were used in this project.
Twitter handle: @teachingtomtom
Professor Shirley Leitch
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Swinburne University of Technology
Shirley is a professor who describes herself as an “advocate for e-learning, Researcher and Blogger” on Twitter. She was a Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Global Engagement) at ANU, Dean of the College of Business and Economics at ANU, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at Swinburne University, Dean of Commerce at the University of Wollongong and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Public Affairs) at the University of Waikato.
She is the co-founder of the successful education technology company Online Education Services Ltd (OES) in partnership with SEEK Ltd and serves as the Board’s Chairman. She is a Professorial Fellow at the ANU Australian Studies Institute and an Adjunct Professor at Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Management. She is working with the Science for Technological Innovation National Science Challenge.
Her research has focused on science-society engagement in controversial science and technology, such as genetically modified food and, most recently, social media and AI. Her publications include the book “Social Media and Public Relations: Fake Friends and Powerful Publics.” In 2016, she and her co-authors were honoured with US National Communication Association PRIDE Award for best book.
Twitter handle: @ShirleyLeitch
Dr. Kate Bowles
Senior Media & Cultural Studies Lecturer, Wollongong University
Dr.Kate Bowles is a specialist in “academic institution management.” Bowles is involved in governance in Wollongong, where she is a lecturer and a member of the Quality Assurance Sub-Committee. However, she is more interested in online learning, and her blog, “Music for Deckchairs,” tells everything.
Her top publication list includes “A special Australian country thing: the small hall in Australian country life,” “Beyond the boundary: vernacular mapping and the sharing of historical authority,” and “Society with Spectacles: Cultural memory, business risk and the revival of 3D,” published in Media International Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy, a quarterly journal of media research and resources.
She believes that the value proposition for what human teachers contribute to learning should always be that we play the best as we build on our strengths, whatever tools we use.
Twitter handle: @KateMfD
Dr. Inger Mewburn
Research Fellow and Editor of the Blog, The Thesis Whisperer
Dr. Inger Mewburn is a research educator working with PhD students for over a decade. She is very active on her #phdchat community on Twitter. Dr. Inger is a research fellow at RMIT. In her blog, she has built an international community that includes contributors from Scotland to Tasmania. The topics range from managing the relationship with your supervisor to presenting your thesis.
She created the famous “The Thesis Whisperer” blog, which has had 4.3 million hits in the last five years and has 60,000 followers on social media. The blog is the most popular source of advice and a leading influencer for research supervisors and students worldwide because it is grounded on scholarly practice in higher education research. He is an innovative and creative scholar, publishing in high-impact journals in his field and various media outlets.
Twitter handle: @thesiswhisperer
Dr. Tseen Khoo
Research Grant Developer and Co-Editor of the Research Whisperer
Dr.Tseen, who makes up half of the Research Whisperer team, was previously a researcher and is now a research developer at RMIT University. In her blog, she explores the ins and outs of academic research, offering support to researchers and practical advice on how to apply for grants.
Tseen is also the founding convenor of the Asian Australian Studies Research Network (AASRN; 2006-2017) and an editorial advisor for the Asian Australian Arts and Culture Magazine Peril (2006-2013).
Twitter handle: @Dr.Tseen
Stephen Matchett
HE Blogger, The Australian
Born into a Quaker Family, Stephen Chapman Matchett, son of William Henry Matchett and Judith Wright Matchett, was raised in the University Friends Meeting in Seattle, North Pacific Yearly Meeting, where he was introduced to the social activist traditions of Friends. Stephen owns a blog, “The Common Room”, that presents “ideas and arguments, facts and furphies” in Australian HE. He also used to work in universities.
Twitter handle: @SRMatchett
Dr. Colin Jones
Senior Lecturer, The University of Tasmania, School of Management
Dr. Colin Jones is a Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the University of Tasmania. He joined QUT’s School of Management in January 2016, having held a similar position at the University of Tasmania since 2001. A latecomer to academia, Dr. Jones has owned and operated many service-related businesses. His Twitter biography gives a glimpse into his intriguing mind: “Reformed failure practices the art of perpetual failure so I can one day succeed.”
He developed his educational philosophies through his public education blog, Teaching Entrepreneurship. His influence helps shape the ever-changing ideals that govern education and often inspires young people to build new online skills that could propel them into their careers.
Twitter handle: @tasdevilcol
Eddie Woo
Founder of Wootube
Edward Kent Woo is a secondary school teacher in Sydney, Australia, and a writer, best known for his online mathematics lessons published on YouTube. In 2018, Woo was awarded Australia’s Local Hero Award.
He made a splash with his maths channel, Wootube, on YouTube. He has over 300,000 subscribers and over 16 million total views. However, it’s more than Woo’s exciting and understandable daily mathematics lessons that have won his followers.
Eddie has yet to make plans to monetize his channel, led by its fundamental mission to help students stumble from anywhere in the world. His down-to-earth approach strikes such a chord with students worldwide. It should serve as inspiration for continuing an online study certificate course.
Twitter handle: @Eddie Woo
Sarah Lanser
Year 4 Teacher at Epping Public School
Young Sarah Lanser, 25, of Canberra, is a Year 4 teacher at Australia’s Epping Public School and mastermind behind “Teacher is Happy”, which has about 25,000 Instagram followers.
She is making waves with her Millennial classmates in her gorgeous candy-coloured classrooms. Sarah generally spends the first two weeks of term decorating her room to create a warm and safe space for her class. She changes it up throughout the year, adding that it takes much effort. Sarah finds Instagram a great platform to share decorating and motivating ideas. To her, these platforms are also suitable enough for connecting with other students enrolled in an online certificate course of study, as it lets you share experiences and help answer questions.
Instagram Handle: @teacherishappy
Mark Scott
Head of the New South Wales Education Department
Mark Scott, head of the New South Wales Education Dept., is a leader in digital transformations, cultural change, stakeholder management, and engagement.
Despite having spent many years on television, he is no stranger to the world of education. He has received a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard. He was a former senior adviser to the Minister of Education, Terry Metherell. Scott also worked for NSW Greiner’s government as Chief of Staff to Education Minister Virginia Chadwick. His individualized and data-driven approach to education aims at diagnosing learning problems early on so that personalized learning plans can be prescribed as early as possible.
Twitter handle: @MarkScott
Do follow these notable influencers hailing from Australia.
