The following is uplifted directly from the submission presented by Manaiakalani to the Education and Science Select Committee on 11 May 2012...
Inquiry into 21st Century Learning Environments and Digital Literacy
Education and Science Select Committee
Manaiakalani Programme submission
11 May 2012
Manaiakalani (a Hawaiian word meaning “the hook from heaven”) is a multi-year eLearning and literacy programme led by a cluster of nine decile one schools in the east Auckland suburbs of Glen Innes, Pt England and Panmure.
The Manaiakalani Programme seeks to create lifelong learners who are confident and connected anytime, anywhere, any pace: ready for employment in tomorrow’s market and contributing to their community. In practice, the vision intends that every student from years 5 – 13 within the cluster’s catchment has a wireless enabled laptop and the ability to access school-based internet services from their home and school. This approach supports families
to achieve their aspirations for their children by enabling engagement with their children’s learning whilst encouraging knowledge and experience-sharing locally, nationally and internationally.
At its core, the basis for the new learning environment and process is changing teaching methods; and then using IT and web based learning to improve engagement and accelerate learning. The Programme strengthens the school cluster approach and fosters knowledge sharing by establishing collaborative work spaces through technology that links schools and their community in a way that was not previously possible. To achieve
this the Programme has built a community governance organisation and approach that is integrating Manaiakalani initiatives across primary schools, secondary schools and the community, secured affordable student access to computing and eLearning tools, and invested in parent engagement and up-skilling. It has also developed continuous research and evaluation that is publicly accessible. The cluster is supported by the Manaiakalani
Education Trust, a public-private partnership that enabled the community to structure commercial relationships with government and commercial-sector organisations.
A community-wide wireless extension to the school networks was established and individual laptops, purchased by parents, have now been provided for nearly 1500 students in years 5-13.
Background context
The majority of the students attending the low decile schools involved in the Manaiakalani Programme are Pasifika and Māori. These students start school
at five years significantly disadvantaged in oral expression and vocabulary in English. A trend has been that as these students have moved through their
schooling years, they often have not engaged with, nor achieved well in traditional mainstream classrooms.
Evidence from the Manaiakalani programme
The Manaiakalani programme is successfully operating within a school cluster whose sociological and educational metrics indicate it is among the most
difficult teaching and learning environments in the urban setting in New Zealand.
Evidence to date indicates the programme has engaged children, and dramatically improved education outcomes, so that the average performance approximately matches the national average by graduation from primary school, with very low rates of truancy.
Since the Programme’s instigation in 2008, it has resulted in a significant measured increase in literacy and numeracy performance, as well as a significant lift in on-task behaviour in the classroom. Results to date include:
students acquiring (from a much lower starting point) the education basics at a rate of 1.5 educational years per calendar year, sustained over 5 years, compared with a New Zealand Mean rate of 1 education year per 1 calendar year. In effect, students are learning at 1.5 times the normal rate;
significantly shrinking the tail of underachievement evidenced by results from national standardised testing in reading and writing. Increased attendance levels, greatly reduced truancy rates and a sharp improvement in on task behaviour as students are much more engaged.
The heightened engagement directly improves educational results. Teachers raise their students’ capability in reading, writing, thinking, listening and speaking, supporting students in publishing their work digitally - locally, nationally and internationally using web technology.
Pre-requisites for success
The Manaiakalani experience has taught us:
Parents and school leadership must want it for their schools;
Teachers must want to change for the improvement to be possible;
These changed teaching methods accelerate learning only if the pedagogy has first been changed;
The parent community must invest no matter how poor the community to ensure there is whanau/aiga buy--‐in to the children’s progress.
To read the rest of the submission visit this link....