Teaching Samoan via video conference

Talofa Lava. My name is Lalaosalafai Tu’ua and I’m teaching at Southern Cross Campus at Mangere. This is the first year our school introduces the video conference and yeah it’s a privilege for me to teach Samoan Level 3 using this new technology of teaching other students sitting from their own classrooms from other school.

I teach year, senior levels, from all NCEA levels, from Year 11 to 13.

So because I believe that this will also give the opportunities to Samoan students in other schools that there’s no Samoan language offered so they jump on the [Harbour] Net and use this as part of their options to take Samoan. So that’s, that’s a positive for Samoan language to develop around New Zealand because I’m pretty sure down Southland there’s hardly any schools taking Samoan but there are Samoan students but they want to take Samoan but there’s no teacher, they, they’re not offering at that school so they get the chance to, to enrol for our VC for our Internet.

It’s just like teaching in a normal classroom but the only difference, your students are not in, not present. So the students are either Pakuranga High School, Orewa High School or up north but you teach from here using video conference but I think this year the students develop their management skills because one hour is not enough a week. For level 3 it’s to develop their management skills, how to use their time wisely because it only one hour, one and a half hour a week, but most of the work you have to manage the work themself and, and develop their learning through that one and a half hour lesson.

Yeah they all seem to be engaged to one and a half lesson. It’s just like one on one tutoring but the maximum is eight so the advantages of them and the teacher will be a really good drive for the er, for their future pathways. I think our school is the first school in South Auckland to offer e-learning using the VCN but I’m pretty sure this is the way to the future.