Australia-China Digital BRIDGE School Partnerships Program

The program was funded by the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations and implemented by the Asialink Education at The University of Melbourne.

BRIDGE stands for Building Relationships through Intercultural Dialogue and Growing Engagement. It is an international program that establishes school partnerships between students, teachers, and school communities. The Australia-China Digital BRIDGE Program offered a unique opportunity for schools to equip their students to be ready for the world. 

In a series of expert-led, online, collaborative, professional learning sessions, participating teachers build professional knowledge and skills in a range of areas including, digital pedagogies, digital teaching and learning tools, intercultural understanding, Asia and Australia engagement and global competencies. Participants developed and strengthened a sustainable informal school partnership between their Australian school and a partner school in China and design a collaborative, inter-disciplinary, student learning initiative between their schools.  

This experience promoted cultural exchange, built participants’ own intercultural understanding and established international collaboration between schools, teachers, and students on issues of shared global importance. 

The program totalled 20 hours of professional learning and aligned to the AITSL (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership) standards. Participants were provided with evidence of program completion for their records.  

Chinese language ability was not a requirement for Australian teachers, however sound English capability was required by Chinese teachers to participate in the program.

Participating schools could allocate one to two teachers to participate in the professional learning program - ideally two teachers per school. 

Watch 

Read 

In this article, two educator participants share their insights about the Australia-China Digital BRIDGE program, and how it enhanced their learning and collaboration.

Read our What Works Report on School Partnerships in a Digital Age, commissioned by the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations as part of the Australia-China Digital BRIDGE program, highlighting the best practices in digital collaboration. 

 

Program funder 

 

The Australia-China Digital BRIDGE program was supported by the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations. Asialink Education is proud to be a National Foundation for Australia-China Relations grant recipient.