Hi! I’m Kate Frances Zarb.

I work where education, creativity and technology intersect; currently as Associate Teaching Fellow in the Department of Communications & Creative Arts at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia. I facilitate fun, interactive, and collaborative student-focused undergraduate seminars in media making, social media strategy and digital entrepreneurship. Students say:

“Is it too cheesy to say best teacher ever!?”
“Kate is an amazing lecturer. She engages super well with the class, and I loved having class discussions and being able to share my honest thoughts and opinions without being told that they’re right or wrong.”
“[Kate] goes above and beyond to get to know each of her students personally — learning our names, interests, skills, and talents — and uses that knowledge to make the subject matter deeply relatable and memorable…”

In 2020, after a decade-long global career in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) – many remotely – I founded and run teachenglishonline.com.au to support Australasian teachers utilise the affordances of online education. By implementing a comprehensive digital marketing strategy – including SEO, email and social media marketing – it has attracted consistent traffic and above-average levels of sales conversion to digital products, services and for affiliate stakeholders. The site organically ranks #1 on Google through SEO-optimised content, including an eBook with 10k+ downloads.

Qualifications
> Master of Education – University of Melbourne
> PGCertificate Education (TESOL) – UniSQ
> BA (Education & Digital Media) – Deakin University

Passion Projects
I create in a few guises, with my digital media project “Kae Zars From Mars” premiering at the 2024 New Zealand, Melbourne and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. It explored Artificial Intelligence (AI), colonisation, Guy Debord’s ‘The Society of The Spectacle‘ theory and Creative Commons media’s potential. Read more here.

I also have worked with the cultural reclamation of digitised illustrations in the Public Domain via digital collage, focusing on Māori imagery that honours my Ngāti Raukawa tipuna (ancestors). See more here.