You can contact LEARNZ, part of CORE Education, at:
Postal Address:
PO Box 13 678,
Christchurch 8141,
New Zealand

The answers were in-depth from the three experts for the areas that we are investigating. An easy way to conduct a field trip. Also very accessible for those with learning challenges.
Set at the perfect level for My Class of year 7/8 students. They took in so much information! There are lots of different ways the students are engaged through text, video, listening, and interacting. It was good to have the Māori aspects included in the Wetlands study.
We enjoyed the audio conferences - the children who were involved in them will never forget that experience. This was the first time I have been on a virtual field trip and was pleasantly surprised at how much 5 year olds were able to get from it. Having Percy the Pukeko go as our ambassador helped the 5 year olds follow along. There was also lots of discussion to and fro between the children and parents.
Very purposeful learning. Supported our bi-cultural focus. Supported different learning styles. Found it very easy to incorporate into our long term plan and to integrate across learning areas.
The quality of resources is exemplary. Being able to access audio to support the readings is crucial for a number of learners in my class. The field trip met all of the learning intentions outlined by the LEARNZ overview and opened new lines of discussion and knowledge for all students.
9 out of 10 of my children felt that they enjoyed this way of learning, and I can see a deeper curiosity for the world around them. They were able to take away more information than I thought possible.
Ability to have contact with scientists and other experts provides an authentic learning experience. We were able to learn about other wetlands and compare them to our local wetlands. Great background information and resources. Thank you!
I used this trip as part of my reading programme. Using ICT helped the children who were more visual learners. It enabled the children (Year 4-6) to use and improve their reading strategies across the curriculum. It motivated the children in their learning and was enjoyable for them. It put learning into an authentic context and gave the students easy access to experts who could extend their understanding.
Linked closely to students understanding their immediate environment while involved in EOTC (school camp in this case). I see students engaged in the topic when involved with LEARNZ plus they tend to find more information and other areas of interest linking to the particular topic.
Great for our integrated units. Fun and engaging. Allows students to greater understand ICT and the topic at the same time. I was able to adapt the materials and information provided so that it aligned with our school values, structure and learning areas we are focusing on at the moment. Fantastic and well organised. Thank you.
Thank you, this was fantastic for my class. It worked well with our topic. Children were able to undertake this independently and were able to answer the questions after watching the videos.
Wonderfully appropriate. Supported our science focus very well, as well as the key competencies of self management, relating to others (sharing tablets, working together) and texts (reading and responding to the information).
Student engagement in LEARNZ field trips is always high - they had also recently visited a local wetland. The knowledge students gain from listening to experts, developing questions, reading and viewing the videos and diaries is compelling learning! Highly motivating for students and teacher workload is reduced!
Very hands on feeling to videos and a very good learning experience all up! One of my sons loves animals and the outdoors. Living in New Zealand we all should know about the importance of these areas.
The videos make it easy for all students to access and understand what is happening. Material was accessible for different learning styles. Students really enjoyed it, they were able to ask questions and get answers, it encouraged deeper critical thinking and students worked cooperatively to learn.
I particularly used the field trip in a Science context and looking at work scientists do (science capabilities). Videos had lots of content that was appropriate to use to discuss what scientists do. Community and participation as well as ecological sustainability were principles that were supported by the wet land field trip. We had a discussion about the drought as our overarching topic this year is water.
Love the SOLO Taxonomy integration - that is the kind of thing we love! Great model for us of how to use such tools. The field trip was part of our Wonderful Wetlands term focus. We also went for an afternoon to Travis Wetlands in Christchurch. Good contrast of virtual and hands on. LEARNZ gives access to environments and experts that are pure quality.
Our school curriculum focuses on the environment and having outside experts present information is a fantastic way to extend my students' learning and knowledge.
We were studying a local waterway and were able to compare the bio-diversity between our waterway in the Far North with a fresh waterway in the South Island. The students were motivated to research their topic, find out more about their own community and particularly enjoy the audio conference and following their ambassador.
The content and style of learning is so engaging for the children. Love the strong Science focus. It was a good field trip to compare local, national and global - it lent itself really well to discussion.
It provided further background for our ecology unit and class trip work. The field trip was appropriate for my class studying the wetland biome in New Zealand and we would use more of the resources next time, but this was a good beginning, looking at the videos and the photos.
Fitted in very well with our Term School focus of Kaitiaki and Science focus of Living World. Preparing for the audio conference extended our students thinking and created a whole new level of class discussions and understanding.
I feel it covered all areas of the key competencies - I used it to foster new learning relationships within our class, and it was an excellent tool to draw out my innovative thinkers. Due to the video nature of this field trip, the students were very engaged.
The children were fascinated by the virtual field trip videos. They learnt a lot of new ideas and words and talked about it for days. The field trip was effective as it showed our students that other people did what we do.
Students were asked about the KC's they used during this field trip and they unanimously said: Thinking, Relating to Others, Participating and Contributing, and Managing Self. They also said they enjoy the enthusiasm of the presenters, especially Andrew (the LEARNZ Teacher).