New gov’t funding for digital tools

<h2>A &dollar;6 million &OpenCurlyQuote;All Equity Fund’ aims to give less-advantaged students better access to digital tools&comma; skills and knowledge&comma; Education Minister Chris Hipkins says&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The Digital Technologies for All Equity Fund is one part of a &dollar;38 million Government funding package to make digital technologies more accessible for school kids&period; This includes around &dollar;24 million to help teachers and kaiako prepare to teach the new curriculum content&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The All Equity Fund is available for 12&comma;500 children a year over three years&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It’s really important that all children are given the opportunity to improve their digital literacy to prepare them for the modern workforce&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The fund is about ensuring that students who may otherwise have limited access to digital technologies aren’t missing out&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa &lpar;Te Papa&rpar; and Karrikins Group have been selected to partner with the Ministry of Education to deliver innovative programmes that captures students’ imagination&comma;” Chris Hipkins says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Karrikins Group New Zealand General Manager Michelle Kazor says its &OpenCurlyQuote;Digital Ignition’ programme will include robots&comma; 3D printing and coding and overall emphasise an ability to &OpenCurlyQuote;think digitally’&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Te Papa will partner with other museums and bring technology-rich learning to students&comma; who will be able to tell their own stories as they build their knowledge&comma; Te Papa <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;schoolnews&period;co&period;nz&sol;2015&sol;10&sol;new-chief-executive-for-education-council&sol;" title&equals;"Chief Executive" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Chief Executive<&sol;a> Geraint Martin says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The two different programmes will support learning in a culturally relevant and meaningful way and open up further options for children&period; Karrikins Group and Te Papa will work in partnership with schools&sol;kura across the country to achieve these outcomes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;