Dancing on the Shifting Carpet - Natural Hazards & Resilient Communities

Over the last two days I have attended the Natural Hazards Research Forum. Although quite a departure from my professional educational focus, there is still a lot in common with my blog themes 'Dancing on the Shifting Carpet' and dealing with uncertain futures.

I would say i attended, rather than participated. I would have liked to raise some questions during panel discussion, or in the case of many, make some statements that weren't really questions, but i felt very out of my depth professionally. So i left it to the scientists in the room and listened, took notes, will be following up on research links, and had quiet conversations with many people during the breaks.

I attended as an 'end user'. Though the terminology 'end user' was bandied about a lot over the two days, i felt the meaning was pretty fuzzy. I thought for many, the end user could be the organisation who had commissioned and funded their research, with specific purposes in mind. I felt qualified to identify as an end user, as the research and issues being discussed significantly affect me as someone living with Natural Hazards at Awatarariki Matatā.

So i was there to listen to what the best and brightest in Natural Hazards Research had to share about their work and what the implications could be to support our community at our time of need.
At the moment our community is being asked to consider managed retreat with an acquisition strategy that will be on the table for a short while (if at all - where is the money?) at the same time we are subject to a regional plan change request instigated through the Whakatane District Council that could result in our property rights being extinguished. This is 14 years since the debris flow event of 2005.

I was heartened to hear from many of the researchers that they are engaged in participatory research with high levels of community involvement and co-construction with affected communities. This was also quite sad to hear personally, because why hasn't this process happened for us?!
One of my hopes in attending was to extend my networks and identify potential experts who would be willing to look at our situation and work with us when we get to the Environment Court (i can't see where else this will go to achieve resolution). However, i wasn't brave enough to solicit this during my time there, as early responses were cagey, most worked for organisations that were already captured by our councils (meaning they had already worked with our Council, and therefore had a conflict of interest so they couldn't work with us), and some of the panel discussion about political risk highlighted the reluctance of some scientists to be bold and work with the hard issues 'this decision could be career ending.'

It was really interesting to hear of all the work going on, and be in a completely different professional space. How useful was it for me? It doesn't feel like it has been very useful at the moment, but perhaps in my notes are some gems that will make a difference when the time comes, or a connection made that will step up and be useful to us in the future.

Iain White, University of Waikato raises the points that it just isn't the hard science - social science is really important too. It's time that the hard conversations were had, instead of continuing to kick the can down the road. Iain is supervisor to PHD student Christina Hanna. Her work about Retreat should be available in September and we are looking forward to reading the chapter about Matatā.

There is a lot more work being done in this are $100 million in the Budget for this Research Stream. I will be definitely watching this space. Here is the twitter stream from conference, much more coherent than my notes.

Rural & Remote Schools Wellington Camp 2019

Another great camp with these cool schools and their awesome kids and teachers:

It's Official No Communities of Online Learning

Yesterday in Parliament the Education Amendment Bill (No 2) went through it's 3rd reading and was passed into law. This officially means there will be no CoOLs (Communities of Online Learning) in New Zealand.

Hon. Nikki Kaye argued to keep in place some provisions for online learning, and made an amendment to include a Review of Online Learning (which was not passed). Her argument was that you can't take this away without putting something in it's place. We supported this argument as we were working towards being a CoOL and relying on it to support the development of online learning moving forward. Yet the government counters that there never were CoOLs anyway, so why would you need to replace them, and that online learning has been happening successfully in schools for many years so therefore the status quo remains.


The VLN has been operating in schools for 25 years this year (10 for the VLN Primary). But for the last decade the VLN communities have been seeking a way to be sustainably and fairly resourced in schools, to grow innovative ways of learning online and to develop this really successful collaborative model further to be accessible for all NZ children. We looked to CoOLs to be the vehicle for this.

To assume the status quo will continue is not helpful to the work the VLN communities have been doing and undermines the potential of what they can contribute to NZ education if they were fully supported. The reality is, Secondary VLN communities are completely self funded through their participating schools. This is additional funding schools have to find to access this learning. This has been a challenge in enabling equitable access for secondary schools, in the disparity and inequity of funding given to Te Kura who provide similar services, and to the viability of regional clusters. Over the last decade several clusters have disappeared (CantaNet, AorakiNet, WestNet, TaraNet, CoroNet, BayLink).

The VLN Primary would not exist without partnership with the Ministry of Education. Our small schools can't afford to completely self fund this collaborative initiative. Over the last decade we have proved that there are important benefits for our children in collaborating to extend their learning opportunities. Yet, every year we have to go back to the Minister with cap in hand, to make a case for continued funding. Surely after a decade we need to get this right, get the funding right, get the framework right.

Some consolation, and its encouraging to hear Minister Hipkins say, that there is some work that needs to be done in this area, and with our recent consultation with the Tomorrow's Schools Review Taskforce, I am cautiously optimistic we will be able to move forward with online learning in a future focused schooling system. We will wait, and advocate, and be persistent about following through on any opportunities for our schools. I hope we can get there sometime in the next decade.

Finally to note, a huge thanks to Hon. Nikki Kaye who has been a champion of future focused learning and the VLN Primary over the years. Without her support the VLN Primary would not be where it is today.

You can read the whole of Hansard and video here. There is lots of discussion about VLN, Virtual Learning and Communities of Online Learning throughout.

VLN Primary Submission to Repeal of Communities of Online Learning
Future Schooling, Communities of Online Learning and Rural Education.
VLN Primary submission to Tomorrow's Schools