How It Works

Nāku te rourou, nāu te rourou, ka ora te tamaiti.
With your basket and my basket, we will nourish the child.

What teaching strengths and expertise could you bring to our national learning network that would benefit all our learners? What opportunities could your learners access through our shared network? This is the fundamental principle of reciprocity that underpins how the Kōtui Ako VLN works.

Any New Zealand school/kura can become a member of Kōtui Ako VLN.
All member schools contribute by providing an e-teacher or funding to staff and resource the wide range programmes. Affiliated schools gain access to the full range of programmes made available through the wider collective of schools. Each school is also required to designate a member of staff to provide in-school pastoral support for their students studying online. The school support person maintains communications with the e-teacher and Kōtui Ako VLN, ensures the learner has access to the equipment they need and a suitable space to work, and provides learning support as needed.

Every week during school term, the e-teacher runs a synchronous video conference with their class. Students join the class at the scheduled time from their home school, using an internet capable device and ZOOM, a free internet-based video conferencing application. During the conference, students see each other and their e-teacher, which provides an opportunity to build strong relationships, create a sense of community, while engaging in an environment conducive to quality learning.

Ongoing learning continues asynchronously during the week through carefully designed, independent learning tasks for students. The related coursework is curated by the e-teacher and shared with students via an online digital learning environment, e.g Google Classroom, Google Sites, or SeeSaw. Completed assignments, assessments and activities are shared with the e-teacher enabling e-teachers to provide feedback in a timely way.