Technology boosts learning

A classroom of Indonesian children has experienced a Wairarapa school thanks to virtual learning.

A traditional Indonesian dance was among the experiences shared on a Skype call between Greytown School and a classroom in Indonesia.

Classroom teacher and syndicate leader Brigid Stevens says the children use resources like Studyladder, Mathletics and Skype.

"We use Skype quite a bit, bring experts in."

There are 200 laptops and iPads in the school and every classroom has cameras and data projectors.

Principal Kevin Mackay says it is the strength of the school.

Senior school students each have a MacBook with their name on it to use at school and at home.

"They don't own them but it's 24/7 because their homework is done on them," the principal says.

Junior school students also have access to technology with Apple products bought this year.

"We just got iPads into the junior school so they seem to be trouble free as well at the moment," he says.

The range of technology has allowed the school to try out blogging.

"We are just developing those. Some are up to date and some aren't as much."

Brigid Stevens says the laptops are used daily.

"They use the laptops for pretty much everything. We sometimes use a maths exercise book but not very often," she says.

Senior students view the tasks for the day online as well.

"They have access to my plan which is a digital one so they go on there and have a look at the planning and outcomes and things like that," she says.

Classrooms have couches instead of individual desks which gives a relaxed environment for students to work in.

"When we got the one to one programme I sort of thought, 'Why do we need tables? Why do we need desks? They take up a lot of space'," she says.

"It's more comfortable, it's more relaxing, it's more flexible because the sofas that we've got now anyway are very light, with two fingers you can move them around. You can create a learning environment very quickly."

Greytown School also uses Google Apps for Education.

"I've signed our school up to Google Apps for Education so that means all of our kids have a Gmail account. They don't use Word or Pages or anything like that," she says.

Throughout the year, senior students become more confident in using different tools.

"Instead of kids sitting down working in isolation there's a lot of collaboration going on now which is very groovy," the teacher says.

"Those are quite valuable experiences for the kids. We are really lucky where we are."