NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

School embraces learning by cellphone

By Jacqueline Smith
NZ Herald·
2 Sep, 2009 04:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Hansome Motuhavili, 9, and Fitim Rudi, 11, get the message. Photo / Greg Bowker
Hansome Motuhavili, 9, and Fitim Rudi, 11, get the message. Photo / Greg Bowker

Hansome Motuhavili, 9, and Fitim Rudi, 11, get the message. Photo / Greg Bowker

Cellphones are banned from many classrooms but at Orakei Primary School they are seen as essential to learning.

The decile 3 school has been given mobile phones to use in the classroom and students are personalising their learning, sharing files with teachers and keeping parents up to date with their progress.

Associate principal Matt Tamariki said many of the children would not get the chance to use new technology if it was not part of the classroom. Allowing low decile children to be excluded from technology would leave them disadvantaged at secondary school.

Each afternoon the children in Year 5 to 8 classes clear their desks of paper and pens and use phones to complete tasks.

Mr Tamariki can send lessons to the phones and students can let him know how they are going by either texting or file sharing.

Lessons can be conducted exclusively through the phones, or with the phones as aids to the written work.

According to Toni Twiss, director of e-Learning and ICT facilitator for Waikato Secondary Schools, digital literacy is an essential skill teachers can cultivate with students.

Orakei Primary School is operating two programmes it calls "m" learning.

The first is Mobile Maori Learning and provides podcast lessonsfor playback via mobile phone.

The other is Mobile Learning for Boys. This includes an online digital reading clinic to focus on improving reading comprehension, spelling and writing skills of students.

Eleven-year-old Fitim Rudi, who comes from Kosovo, is learning Maori via podcasts the teacher programmes into the mobile phone.

He says it makes it much easier to listen to the pronunciation and work at his own pace.

Mr Tamariki is also incorporating video into lessons. Students took footage from the Orakei marae and put together a short film about their visit.

He said the students should be able to use the internet functions to Twitter teachers and each other when the school worked out policies for accessing social networking sites.

Mr Tamariki approached Vodafone to support the school's technology initiative and was overwhelmed when 18 new laptops called netbooks and 18 3G mobiles arrived.

Though many of the children had not used the gadgets before "they took to them like natives".

He said the lessons had taught children to use the internet and phones for activities other than playing games or checking social sites like Bebo.

Meanwhile a literacy professor, Tom Nicholson of Massey University, is trying out a new approach to help struggling readers using the software application Skype.

Skype allows users to make voice calls over the internet and using a web camera enables face-to-face dialogue. Discussions with school principals have prompted Professor Nicholson to look at developing a nationwide scheme for children with no access to reading tuition.

He said Skype had enormous potential to lift reading levels of children without access to one-on-one tutoring.

He plans to expand his programme, in partnership with schools, to provide after-hours access to school computers for those using the programme. He is also seeking sponsorship from telecommunications companies.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

New Zealand

Marine biologist's family search for closure after mountain fall

13 Jul 09:12 PM
New Zealand

Fire at Parnell commercial premises attended by seven trucks and one ladder truck

New Zealand

Thick fog blankets Auckland on Monday morning

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Recommended for you
New homes, enduring comfort
Sponsored Stories

New homes, enduring comfort

13 Jul 08:50 PM
Luxon backs fast-tracking supermarkets and defends ‘brain drain’ stats
New Zealand

Luxon backs fast-tracking supermarkets and defends ‘brain drain’ stats

13 Jul 08:34 PM
Fire disrupts morning commute in Auckland suburb, road closures in place
New Zealand

Fire disrupts morning commute in Auckland suburb, road closures in place

13 Jul 08:12 PM
NZ Herald comments: The stories open for discussion today
New Zealand

NZ Herald comments: The stories open for discussion today

13 Jul 08:12 PM
Dixon and Armstrong both finish on podium as Palou wins again
Motorsport

Dixon and Armstrong both finish on podium as Palou wins again

13 Jul 08:04 PM

Latest from New Zealand

Marine biologist's family search for closure after mountain fall

Marine biologist's family search for closure after mountain fall

13 Jul 09:12 PM

The coroner's report is pending, adding to their long wait for closure.

Fire at Parnell commercial premises attended by seven trucks and one ladder truck

Fire at Parnell commercial premises attended by seven trucks and one ladder truck

Thick fog blankets Auckland on Monday morning

Thick fog blankets Auckland on Monday morning

Luxon backs fast-tracking supermarkets and defends ‘brain drain’ stats

Luxon backs fast-tracking supermarkets and defends ‘brain drain’ stats

13 Jul 08:34 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP
search by queryly Advanced Search