E-Learning

Otumoetai Intermediate School is aligning the way our students learn with the 21st century world. This new, networked world of instantaneous access to information and communication around the globe has rapidly emerged and is defining how people live, work and play.

The first phase in our alignment involved students bringing their own laptops and other mobile devices such as cell phones, ipods and MPV players to school and applying this technology to their learning. Currently 135 students have their own laptops at school and cell phones are common across the school population. The second phase involves embracing tablet and other mobile computer technologies and applying them to the way students collaborate, access the internet and manipulate information, text and images

The Gradual Shift

Many teachers world - wide see the learning environment in their schools as technology-rich, including the integration of teaching aides; an arsenal of technology placed at the teacher's disposal. They all place emphasis on teaching with technology. When used effectively, such technology can enhance the learning experience, though the actual use of technology in this sense remains teacher-centred and the emphasis is not placed on learning with technology. The control sits predominately with the teacher.

The flipped perspective, from the student's point of view can be very different. Looking out across the traditional classroom, the majority of students will likely still be writing notes with pen and paper, reading from hard copied text and engaging in the rhetoric. There is nothing wrong with this approach and it is a valid practice; but to create an environment which enhances the learning experience and places the student at the centre of the process, the two perspectives must be aligned. To do this our school is positioning its infrastructure and resources to enable greater access by all students to the latest e-learning opportunities available.

By students bringing their own device (BYOD) to school, it will allow the most up to date technology to be introduced more meaningfully into the learning process. We are able to use these technologies to help students develop key competencies, to engage and experiment and to develop attributes which will support their employability in the future years.

It is the culture in which our youth are growing up. It also makes perfect sense to instil a responsible confidence in the use of technology from the outset at this stage in their learning.

The reality is many children can both unlock and navigate their parents' collection of devices and they can run the applications which interest them. Some already own their own tablet computers. Yet, in many schools they would not be allowed to access the internet or use their own devices to support their learning.

Next Generation of Learning

Early evidence suggests that young people who learn with portable devices can learn much faster than their peers and they tend to perform better in assessments. There is a stimulus when pupils use technology which is not necessarily there in the traditional classroom setting and in today's technological world; it is how the next generation expects to engage in their learning.

Our focus is on how we integrate new technologies appropriately and so that every student has equal and fair access to it.