default-output-block.skip-main
Regional | Digital project

Maniakalani programme brings Chromebooks to the classroom

Three classrooms at Auckland's Edmund Hillary School have embarked on a new learning journey thanks to the Manaiakalani programme. The decile one school is one of six other schools in the Papakura area to receive Chromebooks as part of a wider roll-out across the country and the Pacific Islands, where students have the opportunity to do almost all their class work digitally.

The Edmund Hillary school students are now on board with the digital learning buzz.

Teacher Ben Spooner says, "It's certainly the new way of learning and it's been extremely helpful for the children in the fact that they have information at their fingertips."

The students started using the Chromebooks in term one thanks to the Manaiakalani Programme. At the moment they are learning and researching about Tuatara.

Spooner says now these students can keep pace with everyone else in NZ to get the best possible opportunities.

“They are learning all sorts of skills in terms of completing work that weren't available to us before,” says Spooner.

While the Manaiakalani programme was only available to low decile schools in East Auckland it expects to extend its reach to other schools in NZ and the Pacific Islands to include around 11,000 children.

The students here now have another opportunity to excel academically thanks to this new resource.