Trusted tablets

Tikipunga High School student Tegan Halliday shows off her digital nous at the launch of a project that aims to give all Northland children access to their own tablet computer. Photo / Alexandra Newlove

The days of reciting facts in the classroom are out - today's children are carrying the sum total of human knowledge in their pockets and now need to be taught how to harness that power.

That was the take home message from the launch of a project aiming to get tablets into the schoolbags of Northland's poorest students, with 300 already rolled out and at least another 800 to come in 2016.

The Taitokerau Education Trust is a Whangarei-based initiative designed to address inequity in the education system, by allowing poorer students the same access to technology that their wealthier peers enjoy.

The trust buys the $500 tablets, and families pay them off at a manageable rate. Those funds were then used to buy more tablets.

Ross Tipene, father of year 7 Manaia View School pupil Jordan Henare, said his daughter had flourished in the four years she had been stationery-free under the school's e-learning programme, which saw almost all schoolwork done on a tablet or computer.

While the project aims to be Northland-wide, it has been led by Manaia View School in the initial roll out of e-learning and other programmes aimed at raising student achievement. The other schools are Hikurangi Primary, Whangarei Intermediate, Te Kura Otangarei, Whau Valley Primary and Tikipunga High School.

Manaia View E-Learning manager Beth Lamb said children "had the sum total of the world's knowledge in their pocket".

"Now they need to know how to get to those facts and what to do with them once they've found them," she said.

Ms Lamb said the project was about creating pupils who were engaged and sharing. She also pointed out that pupils were away from their screens during classes like physical education and drama.

The trust has partnered with Northpower Fibre, 20/20 Trust, Oxford Sports Trust, YHPJ Chartered Accountants and Orbit Audit for the project.