Helping Kiwi Teachers Learn Digital Skills through the Manaiakalani Education Trust
Back in 2013 Google New Zealand began work with the Manaiakalani Education programme by partnering on initiatives to help digitise education. Today we announced our continuing support of their Digital Fluency Intensive (DFI) which is rapidly upskilling large numbers of teachers in schools across New Zealand.
While 8 in 10 New Zealand principals say that digital technologies are positively impacting student achievement(1), 72% also believe that professional development among staff presents either a “major barrier” or “somewhat of a barrier” to the use of digital technologies in schools(2). That’s why schools working with Manaiakalani are combining effective teaching techniques with digital enablement to accelerate children’s learning.
Announced today at the 12th annual Manaiakalani Film Festival, Jenny Oxley from Manaiakalani Education Trust said “The Digital Fluency Intensive programme is a direct result of Google's ground-breaking support of the Manaiakalani Digital Teacher Academy innovation and is maximising the impact of the digital learning for young people through accelerating teachers’ own skill development. This is proving to be an enormous professional learning experience for these teachers and the flow-on impact on student achievement is now undeniable.”
Since 2018, the DFI has delivered over 1600 days training to Kiwi teachers across 91 schools. We look forward to seeing how this programme helps New Zealand teachers prepare for the digital future.
(1) Research New Zealand (2017)
(2) Education at a Glance. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2017_eag-2017-en