Education workshops taking broadband to community

Education workshops taking broadband message to community

The benefit of broadband internet access for rural schools and their communities is being highlighted in a series of 16 nationwide workshops during August and September, with the first two underway in the Bay of Plenty and Taranaki this week.

The Getting ConnectED workshops are led by the Ministry of Education (MoE) in association with Project PROBE – government’s multi million dollar investment in regional broadband infrastructure.

Murray Brown, MoE Information Communications Technology Manager says the rollout of broadband is critical to ensuring students and families, business people and community groups have the same opportunities in education and economic development, regardless of where they live and work.

“This infrastructure investment has the potential to bring enormous educational, social and economic benefits to businesses and the farming and health sectors in rural communities,” Murray Brown said.

“Project PROBE will see broadband networks extended to some 900 schools throughout New Zealand supporting the effectiveness of teachers and the learning achievements of students by giving them access to interactive and multi-media learning resources and video conferencing.

“Representatives from our local schools, business groups, the farming and community agencies such as libraries are attending the workshops so they can find out what high-speed internet has to offer in terms of learning and development opportunities.”

“At the workshops the broadband supplier representatives will give an outline of the packages and services available in our community so we can realise the social and economic benefits of this technology.”

The workshops, organised by the Telecommunication Users Association of New Zealand (TUANZ) on behalf of the MoE, are supported by the Project PROBE regional liaison group. Broadband supplier representatives will outline the packages and services available in each region.

Check out the times and dates for the workshops on the Project PROBE website: www.PROBE.govt.nz

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