Sharing our vision

Rob Clarke arming parent with information about online citizenship.

As part of our ongoing commitment to building relationships with our community I planned and ran a parent's information evening along with a colleague and some IT facilitators. The goal was to inform whanau about the 1:1 programme we run from Year 3-6.

By planning collaboratively and sharing our strengths we were able to offer information that would help the whanau make informed decisions before buying their child a device.  My perspective was based on what happens in my classroom, where the students are using the devices to collaborate, research and most importantly create. I also wanted to reassure the audience that students would not be staring at devices all day long, we learn in many different ways, the devices are a tool that we use when there are going to be benefits.

A highlight of the evening was the Year 3 students who shared their stories of how they use the devices and how excited they are to be managing their own 1:1 device to help their learning. These students talked very confidently and echoed the vision that our school has for 1;1 devices.

Through our collaboration in the planning and presenting of this evening we were able to strengthen our understanding and vision for 1:1 device use in our school. Knowing that we offer other devices for use in class, such as Ipads and MacBooks meaning that we are a multi-platform school where students learn to choose the right tool for the job and can adapt their thinking based on their needs.