With TechWeek22 less than a month away the week’s theme of Connecting for a better tomorrow resonates with an EdTech community working to support learners, educators and the education system both in Aotearoa and around the world.
At its heart, connecting for anything better requires investing in relationships, which take time, trust and require conversations, lots of them – where all parties are listened to and heard.
EdTechNZ is looking forward to supporting a couple of conversations during TechWeek22, one that explores digital citizenship and the role of the edtech sector and another that shares insights on how our EdTech community can achieve global impact and accelerate growth.
We hope you will take time out of your week 16 – 22 May to connect and enjoy all that is on offer during TechWeek.
When connected, the world is yours. Kei ōu ringaringa te ao.
In the news
Dunedin firm’s education tool a winner | Otago Daily Times Online News Dunedin’s ADInstruments has won a global award for its product which helps tertiary students learn from home. The company’s cloud-based learning platform Lt this month won the content provider solution award at the annual international Edtech Awards. It was also a finalist in the authoring tools solution and science solution categories.
Congratulations ADInstruments, it’s great to see Kiwi companies winning on a global stage.
Global trends and insights
Global insights Education in 2030.The $10 Trillion dollar questions from Holon IQ.
Spotlight on an NZ EdTech start-up
Tōnui Collab | Shanon O’Connor, Director | The joy of the challenge and accepting failure as normal and valuable.
Tōnui Collab Charitable Trust is a specialist education lab dedicated to creating innovative bilingual STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) learning opportunities for ākonga (students) in te Tairāwhiti (East coast of the North Island)
Established in June 2019 and based on Kaupapa Māori principles, Tōnui Collab has provided learning opportunities for over 23,000 young people in te Tairāwhiti.
‘We use a wānanga approach with learning designed to be open-ended, we aim to foster an inquiring mindset in the ākonga (students) and we support them to socially construct knowledge through collaborative and creative problem-solving” Says Shanon O’Connor, Tōnui Collab Director.
Tonūi Collab use pūrākau (story telling) to shape the STEM learning through robotics, game development, AR, VR, coding, electronics, animation, and digital art.
“Exploration is encouraged through local pūrākau such as the journey of Hinehakirirangi, kaitiaki of the kumara or an adventure of Maia Poroaki, captain of Te Ikaroa a Rauru and kaitiaki of the hue.” Says Shanon. Shanon and her team also find time to travel across Aotearoa to provide Ministry of Education accredited Professional Development for teachers, aligned to the Digital Technologies curriculum.
“We support teachers to build their confidence to select and use a range of digital tools to enhance the learning experiences for ākonga – from coding apps and platforms, 3D modelling software, to various robotics equipment. We also sometimes co-design learning experiences with EdTech developers so that we can highlight features or tools to the community we work with.”
In 2022, Shanon and her team moved out of their lab and adopted a mobile strategy, taking STEM learning into schools during the school term and marae and community centres during the holidays. This year alone they have facilitated thirty full day STEM wānanga with tamariki (children) at English medium and kura Māori across te Taīrawhiti as well as a multi-day marae-based STEM wānanga in the April School holidays. “This work matters,” says Shanon ‘Māori and Pasifika are under-represented in STEM fields. The inequity is complex, and we’re committed to exposing our young people to the diversity of STEM and introducing them to the various pathways into STEM so that they can be future STEM innovators.”
Ka Rawe Shanon! What transformative mahi you and your team do.
The EdTechNZ Team
