Learning with Digital Technologies at Opaheke School 
Our Vision: Empowering learners to meet the challenges of the 21st Century
The workplace of the future is changing rapidly, and we should equip students with the right skills from a young age to help them prepare for their success in the future. At Opaheke School, we want to make learning beyond just fun and engaging.
We want to foster an environment that encourages students to take responsibility of their own learning, as well as promoting collaboration so they can learn better together and from each other.
Effective, high quality teaching and learning is at the core of what we do. Our people are our most important resource: students and families, our teachers and our leaders.
To meet our educational goals and realise our vision, our school utilises a range of digital technologies aimed primarily towards developing learner agency and enhancing our students’ learning experience.
A clear and shared understanding of the importance of effective pedagogy actively supports our vision of success for all our students.
How do we use technology to enhance learning?
We use a wide range of digital technologies to support and enhance learning. We incorporate many apps and programmes to support our learning goals, and use a range of devices including tablets and laptops to best meet the needs of our learners. In 2015 we introduced our “My Mobile Learning” programme (BYOD) to students in Years 5 – 8.
At the core of all of this is the use of Office 365 to create collaborative spaces for our students and teachers. Office 365 has also provided us with easy access and integration of other tools. OneNote has quickly become our way of getting work done! Class Notebooks for students, team notebooks, professional learning notebooks and even appraisal notebooks help us to collect, share and collaborate easily.
How our students benefit from technology in their classrooms
Our students really can learn anytime, anywhere. We know that learning extends beyond our classroom walls and beyond our normal school day. They can access resources and support whenever and wherever they need it.
Office 365 enables students to access a wide variety of collaborative, curriculum related sites to support learning. They can access homework assignments, links to helpful websites and games directly related to their focus for learning.
Online discussion forums encourage students to ask and answer questions whenever it suits. Students engage throughout the day and during weekends and holidays too. In this environment, we see many examples of our learners as teachers, as they answer queries and share new learning.
The use of digital devices has enabled us to personalise learning even more than before. Our students can choose activities and tasks to meet their own learning needs.
What our students say:
“Mobile learning has helped with my learning this year by making my learning more accessible and efficient. For example, we can access most unfinished work at home. Mobile learning has also helped my learning by expanding our range of tools to help us complete or start something for example the collaboration space, Storybird, Mathletics and other online sites”. – Year 8
“Mobile learning has helped me collaborate with peers in my classroom better and it’s also helped me with finishing my work quicker. It’s easy to understand and easy to work with, it’s perfect for this work environment.” – Year 7
‘Technology has made a positive difference to the way our children learn, understand their learning, and interact with others. Don’t hesitate to embrace it. But let’s not forget that learning should be the ultimate goal- technology is simply the enabler’ Sean Valvoi (Principal)