Proposal for online learning welcomed

Earlier this week the Education Minister, Hekia Parata, introduced to Parliament the Education (Update) Amendment Bill which includes proposals to legislate for the provision of Communities of online learning (COOLs). As the charitable company that organises many online NCEA courses for learners in schools across New Zealand, NetNZ welcomes this proposal. NetNZ is funded entirely […]

Learning Stories: Madison

In 2016, Madison Flavell, a year 12 student from Kaikoura High School, studied L2 History through NetNZ. It was the first time she has ever taken an online course, but she flourished in the environment finishing the year with straight Excellences (her best result for any course). I interviewed Madi to get her first had […]

Connecting Learners

As mentioned in an earlier post, we are taking a slightly different approach to our Scholarship Mentoring programme this year. We have introduced a second tier of mentoring that involves connecting students through online subject communities. These largely sit as a focal point for learning in their own right, rather than as an addition to […]

What’s in a name?

I found Steve Wheeler’s discussion on the concept of “Distance Education” in this blog post rather timely. Without answering himself, he raises the question of whether the term “distance education” is rather anachronistic in a modern world in which connectivity is so prevalent. We have seen distance education walk hand in hand with the development […]

“This is just how we do things”

  Yesterday, while chatting with Derek Wenmoth, something he said resonated with me.  While this isn’t unusual, I like the way he put this particular issue.  In reference to schools’ adoption of blended learning and online programmes of learning (currently the video conference courses) he mentioned that they should not be treated as separate components.  That […]

Why Communities of Schools?

Why develop communities of schools? Benefits to the learner Broad subject choice and greater personalisation of learning as a result Flexibility. Students are not confined to a classroom for a certain number of hours on a given day, they can approach their coursework with flexibility Fewer timetabling constraints on subject choice Working with new people. […]

Why?

We never seem to completely move to a position where we don’t need reminding of this, so here it is… This is about far more than just providing broader course options for students. That is the bottom line for many of our smaller schools, but it does not explain why larger schools like Ashburton College […]

NetNZ: Beyond Sustainability

The question of sustainability has been one that has vexed all elearning clusters and the VLN community for sometime now. Ever since the Ministry of Education stopped the funding designed to build clusters to a sustainable position, uncertainty has been ever present. The reality is funding the leadership of these clusters themselves is an expensive […]