Activity 6: Two contemporary issues or trends influencing New Zealand education:

A strategy for learning with digital technologies is critically important for New Zealand's future economic and social prosperity. Our young people need to be digitally competent, so they can participate successfully in a modern economy and society, support their families, and contribute to the wider community. (FutureFocusedLearning30May2014.pdf, page 2)

Two challenges that New Zealand education is facing:

Access to digital devices and technology is crucial

1. Providing equitable access to digital devices and technology, and ensuring Professional Development for educators and support for learners:

To prepare our young people to live and work in 21st Century environment, New Zealand education system needs to plan and implement initiatives and projects providing equitable access to digital devices and technology, for all our learners. Majority of the learners living in urban areas now have adequate level of access to digital devices and technology. The access to ultra-fast broad band Internet is also in progress in most urban areas. However the government needs to ensure that the same level of access to digital devices and technology is also available for all the learners in rural areas, as well.
Equitable access to digital devices and technology alone wouldn’t make a significant difference in learning, for our learners. New Zealand education system also needs to plan and implement quality professional development for all educators; so that all the educators become confident users of new digital devices and technology, and make the best use of those, to access, develop and use digital resources for teaching and learning. Professional development of all educators is also expected to shift the mind set towards future focused thinking, learning and teaching.
Although our young generation is digital natives, technical support and guidance to them, up to an extent is necessary, in order to facilitate effective 21st Century learning for them. Our learners’ whanau and the community around them also require good technical support, so that they too can be involved in their learners’ education, this can make a significant difference in our learners’ success and also helps transform the community thinking to more future focused learning environment.

2. Transforming New Zealand Curriculum, assessment and qualification systems, and adopting new teaching pedagogies:

Future focused New Zealand education

Every country on earth is reforming public education and there are two reasons for it, the first one is economical and the second is cultural. (Sir Ken Robinson's talk on RSA ANIMATE)
To meet the needs of changing world we need provide education which is accessible, affordable, effective, personal and completely scalable. (Global trends, Video Animation)
Contemporary teaching and learning in New Zealand is mainly driven by assessments and qualifications, as well as curriculum that is not entirely future focused, Current pedagogies, strategies and teaching approaches no longer suit 21st century teaching and learning. All these aspects of contemporary education don’t seem to leave much space for authentic learning, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurism in classroom learning. In modern societies, new and emerging technologies power the skills that drive knowledge creation: complex problem-solving, innovation, communication and collaboration. Twenty-first century skills go hand-in-hand with technological advances. (Future focused learning). An increasing number of school dropout young Kiwis becoming successful people in many areas, give evidence that New Zealand education must transform to more future focused education. There is a growing body of evidence that the thoughtful integration of digital technologies with effective teaching practices can significantly improve learning outcomes (Greaves et al., 2010). It is time to implement the ten strategic priorities and the 23 recommendations to the Government (suggested in the report by the 21st Century Learning Reference Group, May 2014) for 21st century skills and digital competencies.

References

Global trends (Video): “The world is changing faster than at any time in human history”
https://app.themindlab.com/media/9251/view
Future 2030 (Video): https://app.themindlab.com/media/6835/view
Sir Ken Robinson's talk on RSA ANIMATE: Changing Education Paradigms
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
What are 21st century skills?
https://k12.thoughtfullearning.com/FAQ/what-are-21st-century-skills
The New Zealand Curriculum Update: file:///C:/Users/dinesh.govind/Downloads/NZC_Update_26_ONLINE.pdf
A report by the 21st Century Learning Reference Group, May 2014
“Future-focused learning in connected communities”
http://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Ministry/Initiatives/FutureFocusedLearning30May2014.pdf
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