Students from Decile 1-3 schools across the country are delving into the future world of technology as part of a new programme to heighten digital fluency.
The Raranga Matahiko programme which was developed by Te Papa Museum’s Tara Fagan is being run at the Waitangi, Auckland, Wellington and Hawkes Bay museums in a bid to get children ready for the Ministry of Education’s new digital technologies curriculum in 2020.
Raranga Matahiko director Tara Fagan says the programme exposes both teachers and students to some of the technology out there that can transform classroom learning.
She says it will take technology from simply transferring bookwork to a whole new creative level.
The range of free apps enable the students to do anything from 3D stop-motion, coding games, robotics, creating 3D carvings and green screen presentations.
MTG Hawkes Bay Digital Educator Natasha Hanara says the programme has opened the world to many of the students who walk through the museum’s doors and it gives her hope that students will be active creators in the new technological world.
“They walk in and recognise they are important, their stories and their knowledge are valuable and this is another way they can express themselves in new and innovative ways.”