Feb 26, 2015

Regional Inclusion

‘All the pilot projects have now been transferred to new regions. Our wonderful team of Regional Coordinators have agreed to include the remote communities around the Motu which were previously served by National Coordinator Di Daniels. Di will now concentrate on the Refugee Computers in Homes families and centres nationwide, as well as supporting the coordinators in their local roles.’
 
‘Di will also continue to work with Transpower to obtain computer equipment for Hau Ora centres, Whanau Ora, Nga Pu Waea and Wired Marae, the InZone Project and any other community groups that wish to further Digital Inclusion, Digital Literacy and Community Education ventures. Examples are Kainga Waananga in Epsom, Otangarei Marae, Te Whanau Hokonui Marae in Gore, Oncore Youth centre in Tauranga and Highbury Whanau Centre in Palmerston North. These will be updated via the Facebook pages: Computers in Homesand Stepping UP, along with interesting bits of digital information as it comes to hand.’
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Aug 19, 2014

Pilot Projects to Regional Programmes

‘All the pilot projects have now been transferred to new regions. Our wonderful team of Regional Coordinators have agreed to include the remote communities around the Motu which were previously served by National Coordinator Di Daniels. Di will now concentrate on the Refugee Computers in Homes families and centres nationwide, as well as supporting the coordinators in their local roles.’

‘Di will also continue to work with Transpower to obtain computer equipment for Hau Ora centres, Whanau Ora, Nga Pu Waea and Wired Marae, the InZone Project and any other community groups that wish to further Digital Inclusion, Digital Literacy and Community Education ventures. Examples are Kainga Waananga in Epsom, Otangarei Marae, Te Whanau Hokonui Marae in Gore, Oncore Youth centre in Tauranga and Highbury Whanau Centre in Palmerston North. These will be updated via the Facebook pages: Computers in Homes and Stepping UP, along with interesting bits of digital information as it comes to hand.’








Sep 6, 2013

Welcoming our soon to be new region - NELSON/MARLBOROUGH

Nelson/Marlborough pilot will soon become a region in its own right, with enquiries from schools in Nelson and Motueka. A new Regional Coordinator will soon be announced and a new blog created for the region. In September we will visit Parklands and Brooklyn Schools in Motueka and Auckland Point in Nelson to get things moving.

May 21, 2013

Blenheim Pilot Graduation

What an amazing event hosted by Bohally Intermediate! On Wednesday 15 May we celebrated with families from 8 Blenheim school communities and squeezed about 200 parents, teens and children into the Bohally staffroom for supper after the award ceremony. The evening was opened by Bohally Principal Andrew Read welcoming everyone, and karakia from Pasifika Minister Menu Puni. National Coordinator Di Daniels then acknowledged all those involved in making the programme a success and congratulated the parents for their dedication to training and their families’ education. MP Colin King followed to talk about the value of lifelong learning, and tutor Cathy-Ann Scoon spoke of the personal journey for herself with the delightful group of parents she had taught, and awarded special prizes of webcams to her 2 most outstanding students. Each parent received a certificate of completion and each class contributed a speech and waiata. Pasifika Liaison Lapu Oliver made a special presentation to the Police Commissioner Steve Caldwell who is leaving Blenheim to serve in Bougainville. We were lucky to be joined by Ministry of Education Pasifika Manager Fuetanoa Kose Seinafo who had driven up for Christchurch after work to honour the families and the Polyfest performers who kept us entertained with music and dance. Our fabulous tech Carmen Wilson made appointments with families to get their internet connected at home, and we were all done! Check out our amazing photos of all this in our SmileBox.


Click to play this Smilebox slideshow
 
 

Apr 10, 2013

Now 16 computers in Homework POD for United Maori Mission boys!

United Maori Mission Tiro Roa Hostel InZone Project offers a new adventure for piloting Computers in Homes! UMM hosts 50 boys from around the Motu so that they can attend Auckland Boys’ Grammar, but the hostel originally had only 3 old computers for the boys to do homework on. So CEO Matua Terrance Wallace and Di Daniels put their heads together to come up with a plan to address this. UMM funded the 3 new computers and Di got Transpower to donate 16 refurbished dual-core desktops. We then brought 2020 Comms Trust Contracts Director Laurence Zwimpfer into the conversation and he raised issues around connectivity and improving BB access for the hostel. We are seeking funding opportunities to extend our vision and in the meantime Auckland CIH technician Brandon is working wonders with servers, power-boxes etc to get everything up and running for the boys to further their education.

Email from Brandon - United Maori Mission Computers in Homes Tech
 
Thank you for the next lot of computers.
Today I got the kids to take the computers off where they were and tidy up the cables. They also did their own cable management and set the computers up to the network.
The server now is working and the computers are connected to the server. Also there is a backup tape that runs every couple of days to keep things backed up.
 
Thank you
Brandon Johnson

 
 
 
Click to play this Smilebox slideshow
 
 

Blenheim

Blenheim training is progressing well with tutors reporting that parents are becoming very adept at emailing and finding their way around the computers and internet. (Cathy-Ann’s photos C-A pics to accompany, as attached) There will be a break over Easter and then the school holidays, but training will resume in term 2. Carmen has been filling in training while Cathy-Ann is on bereavement leave. We send love and hugs to Cathy-Ann and family on the loss of her Mum. Alofa atu. Graduation is set for Wed 15 May,  5.30pm at Bohally Intermediate. We are hoping MP for Kaikoura Colin King will be able to get leave from Parliament to award the certificates, as well as Blenheim Mayor Alistair Sowman attending.


Click to play this Smilebox slideshow
 
 

Feb 24, 2013

Blenheim Pilot

Kia ora, Talofa Lava, Malo e lelei, Kia Orana, Ni sa Bula Vinaka, Mauri, Malo Ni, Fakaalofa lahi atu and warm Pacific greetings to all!


Computers in Homes took off with huge energy and commitment in Blenheim on Mon-Tues 18-19 Feb 2013. Bohally Intermediate is hosting families for training in digital literacy and homework help. We have 25 families from 8 local schools all meeting and learning together, with a few couples – Mums and Dads who will both graduate with a certificate. Training runs Mondays 12.30-2.30pm; 6.00-8.00pm, and Tuesdays 9.30-11.30am. Classes will run for 10 weeks, interrupted by Easter and school holidays and will conclude on Tuesday 14 May.

Those who came in shyly and quietly were soon laughing and sharing their learning. Technician Carmen, Pasifika Community mentor Lapu, Principal Andrew and National Coordinator Di were on hand to assist our amazing CIH tutor Cathy-Ann. We began with mouse control and practice, using Paint and other mouse exercises chasing a squirrel across the screen – there are some aspiring graphic artists in Blenheim! Di even expanded her job description to being the magic sleep-nana so that a Mum could do her work. Big ups to Bohally for opening their doors to the community.

GRADUATION is set for 5.30pm Wednesday 15 May. Both the MP for Kaikoura Colin King and Mayor Alistair Sowman have been invited. Di visited them while in Blenheim to bring them up to speed with the Digital Literacy being initiated in their town. Other support has come from Ailsa Carey of Marlborough REAP who first invited Computers in Homes to come to Blenheim to support Pasifika families in the homework club at Marlborough Boys’ and Marlborough Girls’ Colleges. Ailsa has been great in getting local community organisations to register as Come to Your Census sites and is working with MDC to bring NetSafe to Blenheim in May to educate the community about cyber-bullying and other online safety issues.

Click to play this Smilebox slideshow

Update: 13th March 2013

"We are having so much fun - the google maps lesson was awesome especially when the parents saw their own villages on screen - magic!!"