Tamariki from Pehiaweri Marae spent more than an hour using games as a way to learn computer coding. From left: Blake Brown, Raniera Harris, Tema Fenton-Coyne and Ngakau Fenton-Phillips.
A Northland marae has combined Maori culture and modern technology to improve the community's digital knowledge.
This week communities and groups all over the world will be participating in the Hour of Code, an event providing programmes to teach people computer coding. But for Pehiaweri Marae in Whangarei the event
was part of a wider research project in partnership with NorthTec, launched earlier this year, looking at creating a digitally literate community.
Tema Fenton-Coyne, NorthTec research educator, said the Hour of Code on Tuesday saw up to 25 youth aged 5 to 17 from the marae gather at papakainga (communal Maori land) to build an understanding of how computers work.
"Right now they know how to use them but this is about developing an understanding of how it works. For Maori it is so important to know your whakapapa and your roots and how we are connected and learning has the same values it's so important to know how things work, how arrows make you go left and right, it's science," she said.
Ms Fenton-Coyne said through the Hour of Code the youth were able to use Star Wars, Minecraft (a 3D block world game) or Disney's Frozen games to learn computer programming and coding. She used the event to monitor youth engagement and find out what to include in programmes to run at the marae next year.
