Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Sparking Learning

When the Telecom Foundation (now to be known as Spark) invited our Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers (2014) to participate in a group discussion about future focussed learning it was great to see Helen King, Michelle George and Kent Somerville volunteer to share their practice.

The video that came out of this was launched today.
Forget school books. Digital learning is opening up new opportunities for young New Zealanders that will give them the skills they need for life in the 21st Century. Through the Telecom Foundation, we're a major funder of the Manaiakalani education programme, which is revolutionising teaching methods and dramatically improving educational performance, for thousands of kids in some of our most underprivileged communities. The programme started in Tamaki, Auckland, and we're now working closely with the Manaiakalani Education Trust to extend it to dozens of other schools around the country.

7 comments:

  1. "Putting technology in their hands for the jobs of tomorrow." This is such a great program for schools, and the fact that they are offering this program to underprivileged communities makes it all the better. The world and the jobs within it are changing rapidly. This will allow children, who may not have access to this sort of technology, to become familiarized with the technology and allow them to succeed in the future endeavors.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Logan, thanks for dropping by my blog and sharing your reflections. It is great that you are having this exposure through the world famous class you are taking. We have just had a document released by the government in our country recommending that all learners from 8 yrs old to the end of high school have a personal digital device for learning by 2017!! That is VERY close when you think of the teachers who are still preparing young people for their own past.

    Make the most of this paper and you will have a bright teaching future.

    Dorothy

    ReplyDelete
  3. Spark sounds like a great program! It always melts my heart when I see underprivileged kids in other countries experiencing an education that kids in privilaged countries experience. With technology being so universal, it's such a wonderful way to allow kids to stay involved in the classroom. Thank you, Dorothy, for introducing me to this wonderful group and it's mission!

    ReplyDelete
  4. These students are provided modern tools to provide the opportunity to learn new skills. They can interact with specific for the ethnic learning. The children get "good connections for children have been working on device in the cloud doing todays learning for tomorrows job. This is terrific for the New Zealand students to receive an opportunity to learn in their communities and foster academics across the world. It is wonderful for partners to provide devices for these children in communities to develop, communicate, and adapt to using modern technology.

    ReplyDelete
  5. What an amazing program! I can not wait to see what these students do in the future. This type of learning gets students more information then they would in a classroom alone. Now these students have the world at their finger tips.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is incredible. Spark seems like such a great program. Technology is really becoming an essential part of everyday life, and the fact that this program is providing underprivileged students with such technology is remarkable. So many new doors will be opened up for these children now that they have the opportunity to utilize modern technology. Thank you so much for sharing this!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi, my name is Amber Swindle and I am a student at the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed this post, mainly because it directly corresponds with everything we are learning about in my EDM310 class about the importance of technology in the classroom. I like how the guy in the video referred to this as "today's learning for tomorrow's jobs." This is indeed preparing our children's generation for the future technology that they will be dealing with day to day.

    ReplyDelete