Manaiakalani

Search this site

Film Festival 2012


Organisation details can be accessed from here

Student Survey


Warranty Issues


Insurance Claim


Film Festival
2010
Home‎ > ‎

Project Background

Raising the Mind-Ware; Living Local, Learning Global
an eLearning and Literacy Strategy
[Pt England School, Glen Brae School, St Pius X School, Tamaki Primary School, Tamaki Intermediate, Tamaki College, Panmure Bridge School]

Executive Summary
Our Goals:
  • Raise student achievement outcomes
  • Develop Personal Voice
  • Develop Authentic Audience
  • Deliver 21st Century Education to 21st Century Learners
  • Have students who are confident, connected, actively involved life long learners  (NZC)
  • Develop the employable skill level of our student population
What we expect to achieve:
  • Raise Student Achievement Outcomes
    1. We have strong evidence that shows that successive iterations of reading,writing, speaking and listening with a structured literacy cycle using digital media and web 2.0 applications produces significant gains in literacy as measured by national standardised tests.
    2. We have evidence from international studies, that shows that personal ownership of an online digital device further enhances the effect size of academic improvement
    3. We have evidence that testing in the same medium as that of the student work, produces further effect or shift. i.e. this initiative would enable all students from Y5 up to participate in e-asTTle.
  • Portability
    1. Since 1998 the Tamaki Community has had the aspiration expressed in the Tamaki Achievement Pathway Memorandum of having "a connected education pathway from pre-school to tertiary. This initiative will allow enable portability of device, connection, content and pedagogy through the education institutions in our community.
    2. We have strong evidence from the schooling improvement movement nationally and internationally that transitions between schools and variations between programmes and pastoral care etc. have a huge negative effect on student learning and engagement. This initiative will allow us to reduce the negative effective of transition between schools by having a better connected continuum of learning
    3. Part of the positive effective of portability comes from the deprivatisation of student work and teacher practice that becomes possible when we work in online permissionable spaces and can see each other's work. A community initiative of this kind, if committed to safely permissioned transparency, can have a huge effect on the quality of both teacher and student work.
  • Engagement
    1.  Our early findings from the research associated with Manaiakalani to date, show that every student in the target classes was on task and engaged.
    2.  We know from national findings and specifically from schooling improvement in NZ, that many of our Maori & Pasifika students are not actually failing exams, they are simply leaving school without sitting the exams. Of those who do sit and fail, we know that a proportion of them have actually given up prior to sitting. We have discovered that using digital tools as the medium for learning keeps a far greater number of our students better engaged and positive about their schooling. We expect to achieve a far higher degree of student engagement through this initiative.
    3.  By virtue of the fact that this initiative involves and includes families and households and provides greater continuity between school and home, we have every reason to expect greater engagement with the student learning journey on the part of whanau/aiga. The households which have connectivity and are involved in Manaiakalani at present, already enjoy this higher degree of engagement so we have confidence that if we were able to extend the connectivity to all the households in our school communities we would see a very significant pick up in family engagement.
  • Employment Readiness
    1. Because the work tools of the 21st Century are digital and will become more so, using this medium for education actually prepares people for work in the digital age, just as teaching and learning with pencil and paper prepared people for work in the industrial age. To some extent the medium is the message and when the education medium is aligned with the employment medium the nation's most disadvantaged students can be in a far stronger position to compete for jobs. Conversely when the education medium is not aligned with the employment medium, the advantaged middle class student will overcome this discontinuity if they have been gifted with the social capital to do so, whilst the lowest decile students with the least social capital will struggle to surmount this discontinuity. We have an opportunity here to provide coherence in delivery and requirement between education and employment and provide an environment of opportunity or even advantage for students with a fragile learning trajectory.
    2. With the emphasis of Manaiakalani on "students as creators of content not just consumers of content", we further align education opportunities with employment needs by fostering student capacity to create content, which in employment will be eminently sale-able and will enable our students to be employable. We have significant evidence from this project already, of our students having world wide audiences for their material across a broad spectrum of cultures and communities.
    3. Our goals of developing personal voice and authentic audience are already being realised in the national and international audiences our students are attracting and interacting with. Students who are having these experiences are not only meeting the New Zealand Curriculum goals of being confident and connected, but are also proving Chris Anderson's thesis expressed in his book on marketing and economics, "The Long Tale", that there are substantial markets and opportunities arising from this kind of social capital. There is a huge gain in employability as students who have previously undervalued themselves, realise that people value their voice and are prepared to listen to and interact with their contribution.
What we have now:
  • An evidence based improvement through integrating eLearning with Literacy
  • A community of schools contributing to a burgeoning online environment
  • Highly enthusiastic parents & staff
  • Highly engaged students
  • A national and international profile
  • More empowered students
  • Effective professional development
  • Adoption of the Manaiakalani Project as a core education plan for the Tamaki Transformation Programme, the NZ Government's intersectoral urban renewal plan for the Tamaki Community
  • We have completed a cost benefit analysis for the NZ Govt
  • We have agreement from the Tamaki Transformation for the construction of the wireless infrastructure to supply internet connectivity to the homes of our community
What we want:
  • To scale this work up and out
  • To take this work into the homes of our community and ramp up family engagement
  • 1 netbook to 1 student from Y5 up to Y13
  • Schools with fiber backhaul so they can function as community nodes
  • Schools distributing broadband via wireless to homes in the community
  • Continued professional development
  • Technical support
What we need the Minster of Education to support/endorse
  • Commitment to funding increased professional development
  • Commitment to funding technical support for schools
  • Commitment to funding education research for this initiative
  • Commitment to urgency in getting fibre to the Tamaki Schools
  • Commitment to brokerage of a bulk lease agreement for netbook devices
  • Support or facilitation of negotiation with the appropriate Telco
  • Commitment to engage with agencies such as Housing NZ and WINZ to produce sustainable solutions with manageable local contributions

Some Cluster Results from 2009 Research of Manaiakalani Programme

Reading
All year groups achieved above national expectation. Shifts ranged from minimal for one class to 10 x the national shift at the high end.

Writing
The average shift for the full cohort, Y4 - Y10 was 4x the expected national annual shift across the cluster

Average shift by ethnicity:
Maori 3.1 x 
Samoan         5.0 x
Tongan         3.7 x

Engagement
All students in target classrooms were on task. (we have video evidence of this)
Boys, in particular were showing greater engagement, there was an increase in student self management, self assessment and students thinking of their own ideas for how to present their writing and engage an audience.

Supporting Information & Technical Details:

eLearning/Literacy Development Strategy for Manaiakalani (Tamaki) Cluster
[Pt England School, Glen Brae School, St Pius X School, Tamaki Primary School, Tamaki Intermediate, Tamaki College, Panmure Bridge School]

Where we are now:
This cluster has a national and international profile for its work in eLearning integrated with Literacy. School performance has lifted as has student engagement. We have one published research project, another one underway and have been published in other people's studies.
Our cluster staff and school awards & recognitions include: 
Apple Distinguished Educator, Google Certified Teacher, Adobe Distinguished Teacher, Kid Witness News (Best Primary Class), Computer World Excellence Award, Microsoft Teacher Award, Primary Award (Wellington Film Festival), Core Education eFellow, I Am Museum Primary Creativity Award
The schools have solid infrastructure thanks to the support of Douglas Harre and the Ministry of Education.
Pt England has been able to join the National Education Network Trial (NEN) due to the support of Douglas & MOE, Phil Earl & Connector Systems, Telstra Clear and Westfield, David Clough & REANNZ.
Our cluster has one of the larger public online students' presence compared with clusters in this country, work which is sharply focused around literacy development for Maori & Pasifika.
Tamaki Transformation/Manaiakalani Cost Benefit Analysis
Manaiakalani Cluster Planning


Four Concurrent Development Strands
Cloud Network design & build
Infrastructure design & build
Device testing & identification
Growing the mindware; -staff, parents, students

Cloud Network
We are developing the Cloud Solution using Google Apps for Education in partnership with Cloudbreak Ltd. We have selected this solution because it is flexible, free and is a whole of life solution for our learners and community. It allows for portability of both people & content. We are templating the cloud 'exercise book set' that students at the various class levels will receive.

Infrastructure
We are working with Fusion Networks to develop the community wide wireless infrastructure that will enable and empower our learners for anywhere, anytime learning witihin the confines of the Tamaki Community.
For technical support & information see:
Manaiakalani Infrastructure Design

Device Selection, Development & Roll-Out
We are working with Norcomm Ltd and with OLPC to select & develop the netbook device choice, operating system and associated management issues.
We have attended in person presentations related to large & small, successful and unsuccessful 1:1 roll-outs as well as reading research papers and investigating online.
Our major point of reference for this work will be the roll-out and sustaining 1:1 programme in the State of Maine, the largest & longest of its kind to date.
The findings upon which we are basing our planned roll-out can be found at:
Manaiakalani 1:1 Roll-Out Summary of Findings
Further policy and management materials from the State of Maine can be found at:

Growing the Mindware
We are working with ICT PD Regional Collaboration as a Regional Cluster to develop a community approach to using the National Education Network to raise the achievement and engagement of our Maori & Pasifika students and families.This work is funded by the Ministry of Education and facilitated by Dorothy Burt. The work is being researched by Colleen Gleeson.
The planning for raising the mindware (professional development of Staff, Students and Parents) can be found at:
Manaiakalani ICT PD Regional Collaboration


Barriers
Most of the families in our community do not maintain a landline, therefore we are a poor risk for a telco putting in fiber and even if the government pays for fiber to our homes, a good proportion of our families are unlikely to access it. They currently manage their fiscal risk by using pre-pay cell phones.
Schools on their own are unlikely to be able to afford the sustainability costs of 1:1 devices or of the necessary bandwidth to support this proliferation.
Schools on their own will not be able to support the sustainability costs of technical support.
Schools on their own are unable to negotiate with telcos or the suppliers of the appropriate device.

Removing the Barriers
Distribute internet connectivity to homes in the community from schools using wireless, (see the Uruguay Model)
Make this internet connection a condition of owning the device and make a portion of the connection rental pay for the device over 3 years. Undercut the telcos in doing so.
Create a stakeholder group that has sufficient size and government support that it can negotiate and drive down costs for low decile & remote communities as well as securing state and charitable funding which will support this enterprise over time.
Central government to take a role in brokering solutions with organisations and providers who will never take notice of individual schools or small communities.

Where to next?

We need to trial the distribution of broadband from school to 60 homes in our community via wireless.
We need to know when we might be getting fibre to our school gates
We need to know what support the government will give to the on-going cost of fast broadband
We need help to get the right price for the right 1:1 devices
We would need to engage the right technical support at a sustainable level
We need  to continue professional development for the schools, that extends into the community.
If the 60 student trial proves our assumptions and negotiations prove sustainability, we would begin a phased roll-out of 500 students across 7 schools by the end of 2010 and 2,500 students progressively over the next 2 years.


Russell Burt
July 2010

Comments