It would be easy to view NetNZ as some sort of distance learning provider. A virtual high school, perhaps. There is little doubt that learners can access and engage with a range of online courses through NetNZ. That would seem like an online school, wouldn’t it?
However, there is far more to this than the organisation – NetNZ. The organisation is just a legal mechanism to enable what we do to exist with some sort of legitimacy. I mean, after all, this all began with eLearning clusters that were just informal gatherings of schools. The cluster had no legal status at all.
The organisation does not even really employ anyone beyond our executive officer. A range of schools employ the leadership team. I am employed by Golden Bay High School. Before that, Ashburton College. And before that, Darfield High School. Going back to 2008. These schools employ leads to run the network they are a part of. The system they enable.
And this is the critical point here. NetNZ is a system – a dynamic, interconnected learning exchange connecting schools, teachers, and learners across largely (but not entirely limited to), Te Wai Pounamu. Let’s call it a networked system. Networked Learning or Networked Education? The system itself is much bigger than NetNZ though. We connect with our partner network, Kōtui Ako to enable a reciprocal learning exchange across Aotearoa. Kōtui Ako have visualised this nicely here.
Each participating school steps out of the constraints of Tomorrow’s Schools. Each contributes to the system and, in turn, strengthens itself and the system itself. The more schools contribute, the stronger the system is. Funding and staffing also flow around this environment, as schools exchange staffing and cash to ensure the system works as well as it can. Leadership teams are employed to also ensure the system runs well (and the community layer on top of this).
It is the one innovation that has always stunned me. This remarkable living system sitting across Kura. And that largely sits outside the formal educational system itself. It exists there in the background, working for those involved. While the rest of our formal education system trucks on, creaking and groaning under the growing strain of multiple tensions and constraints.
Why and how is this not centrally supported? Whenever I talk to anyone outside of education about what I and we do, they are always stunned by it. It’s no-brainer right? I certainly look at that way. After 18 years I still shake my head. Imagine a national system. A learning exchange that enables access to a range of learning experiences for learners across the motu. Why wouldn’t you try to enable this?
The thing is, everyone involved in this will just keep ensuring it works and grows. And that is the critical layer to consider here: the communities of people that sit on top of the system. Without this, all we would have is a learning exchange. A cold, sterile system which, without the community binding it together, would just turn into a wild west. The community layer is the heart of the system. It binds the people together into a cohesive whole. And multiple interconnected communities can exist. Multiple layers of people.
Without the underlying system, networked learning across Aotearoa would be fragmented and unsustainable. Without the human communities on top, the system would be cold, sterile, and isolated
When both work together, the system becomes invisible, allowing genuine connection and community to flourish. Teachers move from isolated practitioners to a connected learning community, and learners step into a rich environment which expands on their local experience. Networked Learning proves that when we reimagine education as an interconnected exchange of people, places, and ideas, we are truly stronger together.
