St Joseph's Nudgee College

November 22, 2011

St Joseph’s Nudgee College Year 10 Accounting and Commerce students are pioneering a new program that is set to change the current academic landscape. 

The students are participating in a pilot study of the new ‘Retail Island’ program which was officially launched at the College recently.

“Retail Island is challenging the way in which junior Business education is delivered in the classroom,” said Head of Accounting and Technology Across the Curriculum Mr Shane Weir.

“Retail Island is an advance on the traditional school market day which doesn’t take into account global issues that affect the economy.

“This world-first approach requires students to establish and operate their businesses in an ‘in-world’ and ‘out-world’ (classroom) virtual simulation. From designing their products to seeing how the share price of their business is trading on the virtual stock exchange, students adopt the role of an avatar and must trade within the Retail Island in order to stay alive and thus continue to stimulate the economy.

“This approach has already proven to be successful at a tertiary education level and the pilot study is now being conducted at Nudgee College to determine how this will enhance the learning outcomes for today’s adolescents, the ‘dot.com’ generation,” Mr Weir said.

Retail Island is a joint initiative of Mr Weir and staff at the International Education Services (of UQ).

Dean of Learning and Teaching Mr David Johnston said the Retail Island project was a perfect example of technology being “integrated” into the curriculum.

“At Nudgee College we have taken a different approach to the DER. We are not giving students one-to-one computers but are using different options across different things, which has allowed us to do projects such as this,” he said.

The Retail Island program has received strong industry support with Domino’s Pizza, Yellow Cabs, Di Bella Coffee and the Courier Mail coming on board as sponsors.

Domino’s Communications Manager Ms Sarah Broad said the company was “proud” to be a sponsor of Retail Island.

“Domino’s Pizza is a Queensland company and initiative that now has locations in five countries,” Ms Broad said.

“Domino’s is proud to be involved in this project as a lot of our franchisees are young entrepreneurs. Domino’s is about developing entrepreneurs and believes Retail Island gives that opportunity for development to entrepreneurs of the future.”    

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