Speeches
Tuesday, 31 October 2023
Willunga High School Launch of Virtual Reality Lab
Rod and I are very pleased to be with you at Willunga High School.
Willunga, and particularly Port Willunga, holds a special place in the heart of our family.
It’s a beautiful part of our state and we spend a lot of time in this region, especially over summer.
We have visited the Willunga Farmers’ Market which is held in the school grounds on Saturdays.
Today, Rod and I appreciate the opportunity to engage with your school and learn more about your community and its achievements.
Visiting South Australian high schools is a priority of ours for my term, and we’ve had the opportunity to meet many wonderful students this year.
During these visits I have been very interested to see how various technologies are embedded in the curriculum, particularly in relationship to STEM learning.
As Governor I have the privilege, with Rod, of visiting some of South Australia’s most technically advanced facilities and speaking with their directors, as well as leading scientists and engineers.
These include entrepreneurs at tech start ups in space and AI at Lot Fourteen and the Tonsley Innovation District, leading researchers at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, and many others.
Here in South Australia we are pursuing exciting breakthroughs in medical research, developing technologies for the space industry, and creating solutions to support environmental sustainability and address climate change.
These industries are of growing importance to South Australia’s economy, and will continue to be so, as our state works to become known nationally and internationally as a home of tech and innovation.
Given this goal, it’s incredibly important that we are inspiring our young people to pursue careers in these fields, as well as preparing them by embedding various technologies in their school experience.
It’s therefore my great pleasure to launch your new Lumination Learning Lab today, which supports your students to engage with the curriculum using cutting-edge, virtual reality technology.
I thank Willunga High School for giving its students the opportunity to learn in new and exciting ways beyond a traditional classroom setting.
Rod is a former high school maths teacher, and he understands the need to find diverse ways to engage students in diverse ways, and to accommodate their various learning styles.
It’s excellent to see that the lab promotes inclusion by providing visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learning options, therefore enabling students to take in information through different means.
Perhaps most importantly of all, the learning lab seems like a lot of fun!
Rod and I look forward to having a try of the headsets.
We hope the lab encourages students to develop a love of learning and to understand that learning is a core component of life, and not something that ends once we finish school, an apprenticeship or university.
I thank the Lumination team for working with the school to develop a lab which best meets the needs of your school community.
Congratulations and it is now my great pleasure to declare the Lumination Learning Lab open.