The third DigiOps project got underway with the launch of Community Technicians’ (COMTEC) project in Christchurch recently. A highlight of the proceedings was the technicians getting to see their ‘tools of the trade’ for the first time.
Supplied by the technology partners’, goodies included laptops, cell phones, software and flash drives.
More official formalities were first with the Associate Minister of Education, Hon David Benson-Pope, speaking to the technicians and other invited guests saying the Community Technicians project would remove the barriers to technical support for rural schools, and in-turn would allow more children greater access to technology.
“The Community Technicians project recognises the growth of information and communication technology in schools, and it will go an extraordinarily long way to ensuring that young people in more remote areas have the same opportunities available to them as their friends have,” said Mr Benson-Pope.
COMTEC is a Ministry of Education (MOE) initiative and aims to help remote and/or low decile schools find and train local people to provide long-term technical support to schools in their area. The 18-month pilot is a mixture of practical IT work experience and tertiary study through the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology’s Diploma in ICT level 5/6 qualification. It involves 9 school clusters in the North Island and one in the South Island.
Also speaking at the launch was Paul Johnston, Managing Director of Renaissance Ltd, an IT supply company and technology partner to the project. Mr Johnston said that for many schools, the lack of technical support was often a barrier to the implementation of the IT strategy and minor technical problems became major headaches.
He went on to encourage the technicians “not be shy” about using Renaissance’s help line for support, and that he looked forward to seeing the benefits of rural schools having local technical expertise readily available to them.
IBM’s Business Development Consultant John O’Leary also spoke, saying IBM strongly believed in fostering the use of technology in education, and was delighted to be part of the project and supply laptops to the technicians.
Other technology partners include Microsoft, Telecom and Telstra Clear, who supplied software, cell phones, and high speed internet connections to support the technicians with the online component of their study.
