A Learning Exchange

At the heart of what we do is an online repricocal learning exchange in which participating schools all contribute. It is an exchange of curriculum, teachers and learning. Schools act as providers to each other, rather than rely on a distant external body to provide them additional curriculum. They have ownership of that networked, shared curriculum, while still extending it well beyond their own. There is a richness to the approach that non-participating schools just don’t get.

Schools can contribute as many courses as they wish. The more courses they provide, the more students they can enrol. NetNZ pulls together this additional layer of online curriculum and leads the learning that occurs. We are not the providers. However,we do take responsiblity for ensuring the quality of the learning that occurs. This is done in partnership with contributing schools. Participating teachers join a rich, online community of over one hundred staff. They get to connect and learn from a much wider, distributed community, while maintaining their place in the local community. It is a win, win situation.

Learners get to mix with a wide range of people from all over New Zealand. They learn to engage with others online in a constructive way and experience the best of both the local and the online / networked / distributed. This is how our world increasingly works – it is a hybrid approach that seeks to get the best out of technology and the internet while retaining the importance of the local.

What does one of our schools say?