Manaiakalani: September 2018

The team from Google for Education invited a group of educators from around the globe who have had experience leading and implementing large-scale ICT transformation in their district or country to present at this event in a separate education strand. I was included to represent the work of the Manaiakalani Programme in New Zealand.

We were given this context for our presentations:

“Japan’s public education system is extremely traditional, having undergone very few transformations in the past 100+ years. Despite a technologically advanced consumer culture, technology in education has not been seen as a priority.

In 2016 the government decreed that Programming (aka. Computer Science) would be taught in all grades K-12 starting in 2020. This has prompted large-scale planning to introduce ICT properly into schools and curriculum.”

With that in mind we were invited to share with the audience of principals, Boards of Educations and school decision makers our experiences using the following questions to provide coherence:

What is your a holistic vision for learning?
How does technology support learning principles and transformation?
What challenge(s) did you face before implementing Google for Education?
Why did you select Google for Education as a solution?
What results have you seen since implementation?
What advice would you have for decision makers facing similar challenges as you had?

Google Cloud Next: Tokyo '18	Education Around the World Presentation Slides
Click here For a 12 minute video summary of Google Cloud Next 2018 and learn how customers are using Google Cloud to transform their businesses, and a showcase of new offerings launched across Cloud AI, GCP and G Suite.

Seven development strands for implementing the Manaiakalani Programme

The contexts of each speaker were vastly different, carefully selected to represent different parts of the globe, different age levels, different socio-economic groups, large and small countries etc etc. We had not met each other before this week and had no idea as we prepared our presentations in our own corner of the world what each person was going to share.

It quickly became apparent that the elements of success, moving a school or group of schools into the digital age, were remarkably similar. The seven development strands of the Manaiakalani Programme, which we ask all our Outreach schools in various parts of NZ to agree to implement (see diagram left) emerged as each speaker told their story.

There is a ‘formula’ for success. Each element is important. Dissatisfaction, or even failure, emerges from taking shortcuts or ‘cherry picking’.

The day before we presented we were invited to spend the day at Google Tokyo Partner Plex n Roppongi Hills Mori Tower working with a translator to make sure they would be able to accurately translate what we were saying in real time the next day. The person who drew the short straw and had to explain what Manaiakalani is in Japanese deserved a gold medal! We all spent a little time with a video crew and the short videos below were created from these conversations.


Anthony Speranza St. Mark's Primary School Victoria, Australia	Chris Lickfold Tring School Hertfordshire, England	Cristina Cardenas General Coordinator @prende.mx Mexico	Shad McGaha Wichita Falls ISD Wichita Falls, Texas