Maximising our Digital Education Impact With Ōtautahi Outreach and Digital Pīkau
How we make the most of our mahi
We believe strongly in the power of collaboration, of bringing different strengths and ideas together to optimise the impact they can have. Why multiply the effort and recreate the wheel when you can complement each other and collaborate to share the valuable mahi that’s already being put in?
We’ve put this theory into practice within Digital Future Aotearoa, with two of our initiatives that have been co-created to support and advance each other. Ōtautahi Outreach and Digital Pīkau both work towards a common goal of improving and empowering digital technologies education in schools, taking different and collaborative angles to spread the message as far as possible.
Ōtautahi Outreach: teaching the teachers regionally
Our Ōtautahi Outreach programme was created to help schools in the Canterbury area to adapt to and incorporate the revised Technology learning area; the Digital Technologies|Hangarau Matihiko curriculum.
Created as a digital readiness programme for learners in New Entrant to Year 8 classrooms, it upskills teachers through:
Guided planning; direct support in creating and implementing digital lessons.
Co-delivery in the classroom; professional development (PD) that takes place during class time for a practical and very effective hands-on demonstration.
Resources: ready-made but flexible lesson ideas based in good pedagogy that can bring digital technologies to life.
Ōtautahi Outreach facilitators have boots on the ground in schools, equipping and empowering teachers at all confidence levels to teach the DTHM curriculum. While most PD sessions take place after school or during release hours, eating into valuable planning and administration time, ours happens during class time, with expert facilitators co-leading a lesson and guiding both teachers and tamariki at the same time.
For this to happen, we have created a range of carefully thought-out, high-quality digital technology experiences. They’re used by the facilitators to great effect—but why have them sitting there unused outside of their sessions?
Digital Pīkau: Equipping educators across the motu
Where Ōtautahi Outreach provides depth in Ōtautahi, Digital Pīkau provides breadth by making digital technologies lesson resources available throughout Aotearoa. We call it our “online backpack’, and it’s readily available as a tool for teachers nationwide.
Organised by software or hardware platform, theme, or partner programme, the Digital Pīkau resources are free to use and easy to understand. They cover a wide range of ages and stages. Some are fully offline, introducing computational thinking in a simple, unplugged way. Most use common digital platforms as a starting point to introduce creative and collaborative activities that will advance students’ understanding.
Everything in the Digital Pīkau has been thoughtfully developed and tested in real classrooms. We update it to cover relevant and current topics—Matariki, Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, the Olympics, Bird of the Year, and more.
To create and test the resources available, we:
Have our facilitators come up with ideas that fit in with the digital technologies curriculum progress outcomes.
Take these to the Digital Pīkau development team for refinement.
Put the lesson into action, whether that’s in a classroom that our facilitators have previously worked with, a new Outreach session, or a Code Club.
Finalise and publish the lesson, making it available to all who would benefit.
Digital education impact, multiplied
Working alongside each other, these two initiatives allow Digital Future Aotearoa to boost up teachers around Aotearoa. In turn, we’re better equipping tamariki and rangatahi for a digital future.
And that’s what it comes down to—raising the digital capability of all New Zealanders, in pursuit of equity on the playing field of tech.
These and other initiatives aimed at creating digital equity are crucial for giving the next generation options and for the continued growth and success of the tech sector in Aotearoa. We’re proud to hear that Digital Pīkau is meeting a need for many teachers, with feedback including:
“I really love how accessible these resources are”
“I had no idea all these free to access software and learning options were out there for us.”
“The way this is going to support my kids that struggle in the grind of traditional literacy, mīharo, they can explore literacy through game development and reading and writing code!”
With Ōtautahi Outreach and Digital Pīkau working in collaboration, we are able to maximise the impact of our mahi and equip as many teachers and tamariki as possible. If you’re an educator, we encourage you to take advantage of the effort and care the team have put into creating these digital technology lessons with our Digital Pīkau. And if you’re in Ōtautahi, enquire about bringing our outreach programme to your school.
