Melbourne Museum

DATTA Vic has been fortunate to work with Melbourne Museum on many programs for teachers and students of Design & Technologies in the past. We currently partner on the Creative Futures Annual Design Workshop, a teacher education program delivered in partnership between Melbourne Museum and DATTA Vic and funded by Creative Futures. Each year, teachers come together for a unique professional learning experience on using museum collections and design thinking practices to enrich schools-based design education. They also contribute to the development of new Design & Technologies classroom resources based on museum collections. Melbourne Museum is also a partner of Victorian Design & Technologies Week 2024.

National Gallery of Victoria

NGV is a valued partner, who has collaborated with us on a number of events and programs. Most notably, they have supported our 2024 Victorian Design & Technologies Week, which for the first time is running alongside Melbourne Design Week'

In 2023, we had the amazing experience of collaborating with the NGV team on a range of Design education programs alongside the Alexander McQueen - Mind, Mythos Muse exhibition, including a SAT masterclass for students and the most fantastic teacher workshop run by artist and drag performer Scotty So.  Participants were taken on a deep dive into McQueen's own creative process, and then were inspired to design and create their own upcycled garments inspired by his work, with Scotty's guidance.

We're excited to continue this partnership when the much-anticipated Fox NGV Contemporary opens its doors, and provide lots of opportunities for teachers to engage with their world-class design collections.

Sustainability Victoria

With sustainability being one of the core principles of Design & Technologies education, Sustainability Victoria is a natural partner for DATTA Vic.

In 2024, we are collaborating on a free program of online teacher professional learning focusing on the Circular Economy. Members can log-in and watch our sessions on The Circular Economy in Victoria and Replas - Recycled Plastic and Circular Solutions HERE. We'll also be exploring Textiles in the Circular Economy and Electronic Waste and the Circular Economy later in the year.

RMIT

We are fortunate to have RMIT as a regular partner and supporter for a range of our programs. Just recently, they have worked with us on our Industrial Design Students as Technicians in Schools initiative, which aims to tackle the teacher shortage by encouraging students to consider a future career in education.

RMIT were also a partner in our 2022 Connecting Learning to Work project. We collaborated on a Careers in Product Design resource package, which includes a video, presentation and poster, all designed to encourage young people to choose PD&T as a VCE subject and follow a pathway into future study and careers in design. We also contributed to their IMPERMANENT schools program, where we organised school visits to their exhibition which focused on mycelium and sustainable design.

Deakin University

Deakin is another long-term partner of DATTA Vic, and we have collaborated on a range of programs with their Schools of Engineering and Education. Deakin have contributed to many DATTA Vic projects, including the Big Wool Day Out, The South West Region Networking Group, Design & Technologies Week and several conferences. The most exciting collaboration is happening throughout 2024-5, as Deakin School of Education are delivering the free Grad Cert in Secondary Design Education, with support from DATTA Vic. We'll see over 50 out of field educators go through this course, which we hope will have a major impact on the ciritical shortage of qualified D&T teachers in Victorian schools.

Monash University

DATTA Vic have worked with Monash University on several education projects designed to help teachers and students of Product Design & Technologies and Systems Engineering.  Monash School of Engineering was a partner in our Connecting Learning to Work project, where we produced a Careers in Engineering resource package which encourages a more diverse cohort of young people to pursue Engineering as a career.

Monash MADA are a valued and regular contributor to our Victorian Design & Technologies Week. And we are really excited to be working again with MADA on our 2024 Educators' Symposium - Teaching First Nations Knowledge & Perspectives in Product Design & Technologies, which is taking place in June 2024. With presentations from leading  designers and educators including Jefa Greenaway, Nicole Monks and Michael Dale, this will be an invaluable professional learning experience for all Design & Technologies and VCE PD&T teachers.

Banyule Nillumbik Tech School

Since BNTS opened in 2018, it has been an invaluable DATTA Vic partner. We have collaborated on numerous teacher PL programs. In 2023, they hosted our annual conference, and we can't wait to run our biggest event of the year with them again in the future. Our latest partnership is our Success with Systems Engineering initiative. Now in its third year, this 4-day intensive program is designed to help out-of-field educators excel in the delivery of the subject and support schools to set it up as a new VCE offering.

Whittlesea Tech School

Whittlea Tech School is another much-appreciated partner of DATTA Vic. They regularly have us on-site to run teacher PL in their fantastic building, and members of their team have helped us run numerous workshops and conference session. We're looking forward to returning in July 2024 for our Beginners' Masterclass - Getting Started with STEM, which will build skills and confidence in new and out-of-field teachers to develop hands-on STEM activities for their classes.

The University of Melbourne

DATTA Vic have worked with the University of Melbourne on several initiatives over the past few year. We were honoured to have them host our AGM and Special Members event in 2022, where Professor Alan Pert delivered an inspiring keynote on how they support their students to become the innovators of tomorrow. The School of Design has committed to hosting an annual planning day for VCE teachers at the end of each year, and we're so excited to continue this partnership following our first successful event in December 2023.

Forest Learning

DATTA Vic has been working with Forest Learning to develop new resources for D&T teachers. They aim to serve school teachers and educators, children, and the public with information on Australian forests and forest- based products, and provision and access to forestry teaching resources. In 2023, they published Thinking Outside the Box - the Sustainable Seating Project, which was a fantastic experience to work on.

Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria

RBG Vic run a fantastic range of programs for schools, and we had the great fortune to collaborate with them on a Biomimicry - Designed by Nature student challenge for Design & Technologies Week 2020. They have also contributed to our teacher PL program, delivering some great conference workshops.

National Wool Museum

In the years before Covid, DATTA Vic and the NMW ran an annual teacher PL program called the Big Wool Day Out. We had some fantastic events, with educators developing hands-on skills working with wool, including felting, weaving, body knitting and wearable technologies,  and hearing from leaders in the Australian textiles industry, including Cotton On, NGV, Australian Wool Innovation, Oxfam and the Institute for Frontier Materials. We're looking forward to partnering with NMW in 2025 and beyond on unique PL experiences for textiles teachers based around their We The Makers - Sustainable Fashion Prize program.

CSIRO

In 2023, DATTA Vic and CSIRO collaborated on a teacher professional learning workshop which focused on how schools can make links with industry and engage in authentic problem solving. We explored the STEM Professionals in Schools program and the CSIRO Digital Careers initiative, as well as the NASA Globe program.

Members can log in to our website and catch up on this great session on our Resources page.

The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority

DATTA Vic has worked on several projects on behalf of the VCAA, including the creation of a series of instructional videos on how Wolfram Mathematica can be used as a modeling tool for VCE Systems Engineering

The Department of Education

As well as being a regular recipient of the DoE's Strategic Partnership Program funding, we also worked with them on the Station Ideation - A Minecraft Mission project, which saw free, high quality Design & Technologies resources developed for Victorian schools.

Environmental Education Victoria

Thanks to support from a Google Educator Grant in 2023, DATTA Vic and EEV collaborated on a teacher professional learning program called Digital Design for Sustainability. Teachers learned how to address the UN Sustainability Goals using the design process and digital design tools.

School Library Association

As office mates at Abbotsford Convent, SLAV are our natural partners!  We've collaborated on several programs which looked at developing makerspaces in schools, and we look forward to continuing this collaboration into the future!

Australian Centre for Contemporary Art

In 2021, DATTA Vic was honoured to be asked to collaborate with ACCA on their STEM in Art program, which sought to demonstrate that STEM subjects and dimensions are embedded within the practices and processes of many contemporary artists. 

The Academy of Teaching and Leadership

In 2022, DATTA Vic was commissioned to create resources for the Teaching Excellence Program for Technologies, and we have participated in several events where we worked with participants to explore exemplars of Design & Technologies education.

DATTA Vic acknowledges the generous support of Creative Futures Ltd in the delivery of our Online Teaching Design Masterclasses and Industrial Design Students as Technicians in Schools program.