Phoenix P-12 College teachers Tim Blee, Christof Muller and Sharrie Milligan-Brown will join Mount Clear College’s Sam Drew at the two-day FabLearn Australia conference at the Lauriston Girls’ School in Melbourne.

An educational grant from The Boeing Company has allowed 28 spots for teachers from regional areas.

The idea is to reinvent the classroom for the digital age and to have a space that allows students to be instructed on ways to use tools such as laser cutters, Arduino boards and 3D printers.

Teachers attending the conference will have the opportunity to explore digital fabrication techniques and take practical insights back to their classes in regional Victoria.  

Ms Milligan-Brown said it’s crucial to bring new skills back to regional areas to accommodate for the ever-changing technical and manufacturing industries.

“Technology is evolving at such a fast pace, it’s important that teachers keep up,” she said.

“What caught our attention is that we’re in the process of building a new school and this is a really good opportunity to bring our technology teaching up to date.

“Bring in science, we already do numeracy, literacy and other courses, but cross curriculum learning is proven to extend their (students’) learning outcomes on multiple levels and hopefully make them more employable in the future.”

The Lauriston Girls’ School is an Australian-leader in the field, establishing a FabLab in its science faculty which is affiliated with the Stanford Graduate School of Education program two years ago.

The conference will feature keynote speakers from some of industry’s leading technology innovators as well as a number of in-depth workshops that explore the technology used to combine making and learning, and creating audio speakers, artificial hands and e-textiles.

The conference will run from May 20-21.