TOP STORY: Schools sign up to online learning

School books will be replaced by online learning and parents will be able to monitor children's progress from home in a radical classroom change for thousands of Bay students.
New software which will be used by up to five Bay schools will change the way children learn and interact in class _ and other schools are expected to follow suit.
The programme, Knowledge Net, provides access to Education Ministry-approved websites, including encyclopaedias, news, world maps, calculators and other resources.
It also allows an instant messaging service for teachers, children and parents; as well as student attendance and information, online learning, e-portfolio and eventually assessment.
Parents will be able to access their children's school work online and communicate directly with teachers.
Otumoetai College, Otumoetai Intermediate and Omokoroa Point School have signed up for Knowledge Net.
Tauranga Boys' and Girls' Colleges are exploring that and other similar systems. The changes will reduce the need for traditional classroom books and cut the amount of handwriting students will do.
But one Bay principal is worried, saying children risk becoming emotionally stunted because of techno-saturation. However, it is anticipated most schools in New Zealand will sign on to the same kind of web system within the next two years.
Developed under government guidance by Bay information technology expert Mark Treadwell's company Dataview, Knowledge Net software is one of several interactive websites available.
Because it is internet-based, only a web browser is needed so schools can choose how much hardware they buy.
Students will share computers and move around class as normal, discussing subjects between themselves and their teacher.
Knowledge Net will cost schools $1000-$6000 to set up, depending on the size of the school and $100-$400 a month covers help desk, data storage and upgrade costs.
Mr Treadwell believed schools would have no option but to embrace the web and manage school environments completely online.
The programme aims to tighten the network of children, parents and schools.
Apart from being a new mode of delivering curriculum, the teacher's role is morphing into a "facilitator" of learning.
The teacher will equip learners with skills to understand, rather than just acquire knowledge.
"A learner can now bypass the teacher and go straight to NASA if they want to know something about space ... They might do it by chat, email, text, phone, blogs ... Suddenly a 12-year-old child can contact anyone, anywhere, anytime," Mr Treadwell said.
Three years ago, Otumoetai College, Aquinas College, Te Puke High School and Bethlehem College formed a professional development cluster for which about $360,000 government money was granted.
Since then, Otumoetai alone has spent more than $1 million on computer hardware and ceiling-mounted data show equipment.
Principal Dave Randell said his school would have a complete intranet system up and running from next year at the latest.
Some of his classrooms house ``pods'' of about eight computers, which were used in conjunction with class discussion space.
Through Knowledge Net or a similar set up, students could access work from class, home _ anywhere they can access the internet.
"You don't necessarily just sit in class with your laptop and do it ... you can do it anywhere. It's a far more practical and future-proofing way of doing things."
He said there was also a possibility of entire clusters of schools working on the same system _ creating a seamless transition and record of learning for children as they move from primary to intermediate to college.
Omokoroa Point School principal Hugh Smith said teachers would be trained in its system and some classes would begin to implement components gradually this year.
IT facilitator for seven rural Bay schools, Lorraine Watchorn, is working through a three-year Education Ministry IT contract with Paengaroa, Otamarakau, Pongakawa, Te Ranga, Pukehina, Maketu and Rangiuru primary schools.
The biggest struggle is getting professional development for teachers.
But Tauranga Rudolf Steiner School principal Janet Molloy is concerned about the direction technology is taking children.
"The biggest thing for me is the inability to socialise. For children to be relating to a machine when they should be learning to relate to one another and other beings, it seems a terribly backward step to me."
Her school values rich learning taught through movement, art and storytelling. She believes online chat between teacher and student is terrible.
"It's absolutely appalling.
"Where are the little nuances of body language and voice inflection and all those little things to help to develop emotional intelligence. They will develop only an IQ. Other people give us and feed us energy ... a machine can't do that."