Blast from the past

From Novelty to Necessity:

VLN Primary.

Connecting New Zealand Schools for Enhanced Student Outcomes.

One of the goals that I have this year is to: Lead the process of establishing the Virtual Learning Network (VLNPrimary) at Matapu School and across cluster schools.

A little bit of background into this is that I have been teaching in small rural schools for several years. I know my limitations and what my strengths are!  I also know that in a rural situation it is not easy to get experienced or expert help readily, for the children or teachers. In 2004 I asked the Ministry how they could help with this as I knew there was a lot going on around secondary school in relation to lessons over Video Conferencing(VC)  etc. At that stage the Ministries focus was secondary schools and they would look at primary later.

So I organised with other like-minded schools to try out virtual lessons using skype and emails. This proved very successful and there were one off sessions, sessions that worked for four to five lessons and even a whole term unit with another school integrating reading and writing.  In 2009 The Ministry gave my current school an adobe site and we started with one French lesson going to two other schools (12 students) in NZ in the first term. In the second term we were able to provide French and Spanish lessons between the three schools until the end of 2009. At that stage I was coordinating the lessons and teachers etc, however by the end of 2009 we had four more schools interested in in the VLN.

I had my own school to run and the Ministry came forward with seed funding of 0.4 FTTE plus some expenses to employ a coordinator for 2010. During 2010 there were seven schools providing Te Reo, Spanish, German and two French classes. For 2011 the ministry has provided funding for 0.6 FTTE plus expenses as we now have 15 schools and 61 students involved and continuing to grow. This is growing into a full time coordinators position for an e-principal primary.

As we have progressed through the last eight years there have been those who have come in because they can see the value in what we are trying to achieve for the children and teachers and those who have seen it for its fun factor or something different for the kids to do. We have a wealth of talent in our rural schools and we need to be able to tap into this to work together for the enhancement of all our students.

There is also the challenge of bringing in outside agencies like RTLB, GSE, etc to rural schools. Travel is a big factor in getting these people to our schools. The VLN will reduce the need for travel and the agency can provide for several schools at once using the VLN supported VC or adobe sites without having to leave their home school. This can also work for other organisations such as Te papa, DOC etc.   

So this is my challenge to take it from Novelty to Necessity. How do we make educators think differently about education, how can we make educators see why we are doing it, how do we put it in a way that people ‘get it’.

My focus on this is not so much with the teachers, but the principals of the schools. With UFB becoming a reality in the next six years, what are we doing to be prepared for when it is here. Rather than waiting for it and then thinking what can we do!! Having a future focus for our schools and being prepared for the future, proactive rather than reactive.