The Vintage Years of eLearning 
in New Zealand Schools 

INTRODUCTION The term 

"eLearning" has been used in a variety 
of contexts in New Zealand schools 
and has been described by a variety of 
different terms, e.g., "computers in 
education," "teleleaming," "telecommun­
ications," "distance learning," "open 
learning," "flexible learning," "online 
learning," "virtual learning." These terms 
are linked by a common purpose and 
desire to communicate with other people 
across time and space to enhance a range 
of educational opportunities. 

The birth of eLearning in New Zealand 
schools occurred when teachers began 
using computers in schools. This was 
when electronic mail was the prevalent 
interactive medium, well before the 
arrival of the graphical web Internet 
interface. This was a time of eLearning 
pioneering sprit, imagination, and 
innovation. A look back to events at 
this time reveals a wealth of rich 
learning experiences for teachers, 
students, and government officials. 

A LOOK BACK TO THE 19805 

AND 19905 

1980s computers 
common in New 
an enthusiastic 

During the early 
became increasingly 
Zealand schools and 
group of teachers, 

NOLA CAMPBELL 

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION I 
UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO 

HAMILTON, NEW ZEALAND 

predominantly men in the mathematics 
and science areas, began to explore the 
possibilities of using these tools in their 
classrooms. These computers were used 
as writing tools, instructional learning 
tools, or tools to explore computer 
programming. The Department of 
Education responded to this emerging 
trend and set up the Computers in 
Education Development Unit (CEDU), 
which began operation on 1 April 1984. 
The role of the CEDU was to provide 
training and direction for educational 
computing in New Zealand. 

In 1986 the Department of Education 
report The Potential Educational Benefits 
of Electronic Communications Technologies 
for New Zealand was released. This 
comprehensive document examined the 
range of telecommunications systems 
available in New Zealand, Australia, 
and Britain. The report also considered 
what was happening with electronic mail 
and included some recommendations 
for future development. The report 
emphasised that the Department of 
Education had an obligation to recognise 
the need for new technologies, something 
which had been happening since the 
late 1970s in Britain, where financial 
backing carne from both government and 
industry. After reviewing electronic mail 

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activity in five different schools, the 
report issued three warnings: 

1. The importance of teacher training 
was emphasised as being a crucial factor 
and a function of any organisation 
that lends its support to the use of 
electronic communication. 

2. If people were to see electronic 
communication as just an electronic 
pen-pal system, it would not maintain 
student motivation. 

3. New technologies were not 
automatically better by definition. Elec­
tronic mail, for example, had to provide 
a cost-effective service to education and 
be educationally justifiable. 

The report highlighted the advantage of 
New Zealand's education system being 
governed by one body so that any 
initiatives and commitment to electronic 
communication would be a national 
rather than a regional one. This was in 
direct contrast to education systems in 
Australia and Britain, which had a more 
devolved structure. A further difference 
became evident when it was observed 
that both Australia and Britain were in 
the process of investing in computer 
hardware and software. In contrast, 
computers in schools in New Zealand 
had been provided by the hard work 
of parents and a variety of fund-raising 
activities within each school and not 
by central government. Requests for 
funding for hardware and software 
would not be realised for many years, 
and this was often perceived as a 
barrier to change by some teachers. It 
could be argued however that the 
emphasis the government placed on 
teacher professional development was an 

important investment in eLearning for 
the future. 

NEW ROLE FOR CEDU The 
Potential Educational Benefits of Electronic 
Communications Technologies for New 
Zealand report (Department of Education, 
1986) recommended that the Department 
of Education, through CEDU, work 
in conjunction with education and 
curriculum officers, teachers, and 
students to establish specifications and 
recommendations for a New Zealand 
electronic mail system for schools. The 
result was the establishment of a user 
group called CDU on Starnet, an 
electronic mail system operated by the 
New Zealand Post Office. At that time 
it was operating as a communication 
network for government, industry, 
and commerce. Based on international 
standards and conventions of specifi­
cation, it allowed international mailing 
facilities. Ann Frampton, a CEDU staff 
member, was appointed as the system 
manager to oversee this email 
development in schools. CEDU was 
given the role of electronic mail teacher 
training, which complemented their 
role to provide national educational 
computing information and training. 

CEDU regularly sent newsletters to 
schools, and the first mention of Starnet 
was in newsletter 9, term 3, 1986. It gave 
details of the equipment required and 
where to get help, and stated the charges 
of an initial $30 per mailbox, $2 a month 
box rental, and 35¢ a minute online 
charge. It was stated that electronic mail 
and the exchange of word -processed files 
both nationally and internationally for 
both students and teachers offered great 
potential, but no mention was made of 
how this could actually happen. Teacher 

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Education Centres nationally were to 

join Starnet and it was hoped this yvould 

allow teachers to keep in touch with their 

local centres. 

Increasingly, New Zealand primary and 
secondary teachers and students were 
introduced to the use of electronic mail 
in classrooms. Utilising a telephone line, 
computer, and modem provided the 
opportunity for them to extend the 
boundaries of their classrooms and 
communicate with their peers in a 
number of countries around the world. 
CEDU strongly promoted the use of the 
Starnet system, and many teachers who 
had access to computing technology at 
that time were eager to leap on the new 
bandwagon. Initially, as teachers began 
to explore the world of electronic mail, 
the activity appeared to have a lot to 
do with the technology and more limited 
regard for students' learning needs and 
positive learning outcomes. On reflection 
this emphasis appears to be part of an 
evolutionary process, where teachers are 
encouraged to first learn to use the tools 
that they did not have when they were 
school pupils. 

In CEDU's Report on the Exploratory 
Studies in Educational Computing (1987), 
a statement was made about how: 

The teachers in both electronic 
communications studies believe 
that children have little difficulty 
in understanding and using 
this technology at an appropriate 
level. Students are clearly 
highly motivated to write when 
electronic publishing is possible. 
Teachers and students are 
excited about the opportunities 
for development of multi­
cultural awareness, afforded by 

international exchange of letters, 
stories and information of interest 
to the students. (p. 8) 

There was no mention of links with 
the curriculum, merely a refl�ction of 
the continued high level of interest. It is 
unfortunate that more detailed results 
from some of these electronic mail 
studies still remain unpublished, as the 
opportunity to review what actually 
happened for teachers and for learners 
and their learning has been lost. 

In January 1987 the Department of 
Education published Computer Communi­
cations in Education, as a result of the 
discussions of a working party at 
Hamilton Teachers' College. This 
resource booklet for teachers provided a 
valuable guide on how to get started, 
what was available, and information 
about some case studies. Any links with 
the curriculum were still not emphasised 
in this document. 

By 1989 the CEDU newsletter number 16 
was describing successful electronic mail 
projects to stimulate children's writing, 
such as the progressive stories exchange 
between W aihou Downs School and 
Brightwell School in England. This was a 
clear indication of the changes that 
were now occurring in some classrooms. 
Teachers and children were beginning 
to grow in confidence and take control 
of this new medium to interact with 
wider audiences. 

As the number of schools and teachers 
who were utilising the new technologies 
rose, the need for support became far 
greater than had been anticipated and 
support for schools was beyond the scope 
of CEDU. The result was that CEDU 
went out of existence on 30 September 

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1989 and support was then provided 
through the advisory services attached to 
the teacher education institutions in 
schools and colleges of education across 
the country. This had the effect of 
decentralising what had been a small but 
coordinated team who provided national 
guidance and leadership. Responsibility 
for providing training to such a large 
number of schools soon became a 
daunting task for each of the Educational 
Computing Advisors, just as it was for 
the CEDU staff. These advisors worked 
tirelessly as demand for their time and 
expertise far outstretched their resources. 

The demise of CEDU was also to 
signal reduced use of Starnet, as the 
Internet became more available. New 
opportunities promoted by a range of 
Internet providers signalled the arrival 
of business and industry as key players 
in the national eLearning scene, and 
this was to be a feature of development 
in the 1990s. 

CHANGE IN CLASS ROOMS 

A computer provided access to the 
global classroom but, as Chapple (1992) 
highlighted, it also provided the oppor­
tunity for learners to learn from other 
learners. He saw this. as being one of 
the most powerful ideas to be confronted 
by schools, and he observed that the 
role of teachers was changing. Traditional 
sources of knowledge such as the 
teacher or the library represented 
knowledge from an adult perspective 
and at best it was second-hand. A teacher 
who was prepared to fill the role of the 
facilitator and was not afraid of change 
could find electronic mail a powerful 
classroom tool, providing first-hand 
knowledge applicable to all areas of the 
school curriculum. 

Chapple (1991) described the importance 
of a bottom-up approach where teachers 
and students used the technology to 
solve a problem. Chapple warned that the 
mediun:;t could become the message, and 
stressed the importance of establishing a 
clear purpose for the contact, as well as 
the need to ensure expectations are clear 
and there is strong commitment between 
both parties as part of the communication 
activity. He suggested: 

Perhaps computer mediated 
communication is at last coming 
of age as educators themselves 
learn that it has a significant 
role to play in student learning, 
that it is not an end in itself but 
a means to an end. At last the 
technology has respectability. 
(Chapple, 1992, p. 147) 

Hugh Barr, in his 1991 article "Social 
Studies by Electronic Mail," believed 
schools had been slow to take advantage 
of electronic mail opportunities that had 
been available to them for more than 
five years. Barr, like Chapple, identified 
that the use of sophisticated pieces of 
technology does not in itself guarantee 
sound educational outcomes, particularly 
in learning situations lacking a clear 
structure or purpose. Barr (1994) believed 
teachers appeared too conservative or 
afraid to make changes from existing 
information-gathering methods, and he 
challenged them on this. If email had been 
first placed in the hands of social studies 
teachers who were, according to Barr, 
much more child and learning centred, 
then some pain..ful learning experiences 
may have been avoided. 

Barr's perspective and comments were 
important because, as a person who 
had vast experience in the field of 

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social studies, he was a relative newcomer 

to electronic mail. However, he had 

developed through his own research clear 

ideas about what electronic mail could 

do to improve a teacher's knowledge of 

a topic and in turn that of young children. 

The new curriculum initiatives emerging 
at this time were challenging the role of 
the New Zealand classroom teacher and 
placing them in a more facilitative role, 
giving them the. opportunity to validate 
creativity and the learning process in new 
and exciting ways. People like Chapple 
and Barr believed strongly that learner­
centred education could be enhanced by 
using an eLearning approach. 

NEW LEARNING NETWORKS 

DEVELOP While electronic mail 
was being utilised in schools, other 
telecommunications tools were gaining 
momentum. Bulletin boards like K12 Net 
and FidoNet were gaining in popularity, 
along with a host of online databases 
that provided access to information 
generally only available in schools as 
written text on paper. 

The K12 Net was a school-oriented 
bulletin-board system brought to New 
Zealand by IBM. Elizabeth Probert, an 
English teacher and the teacher in charge 
of the Library /Information Resource 
Centre at Pakuranga College, was a 
dedicated user of K12. She described how: 

I have used K12 at school in 
three ways-with junior English 
classes who write short 1 00 word 
news stories to post in Global 
Village News (GVN), with a 
fourth form class who wanted 
information about life for other 
14 year olds around the world and 

with the German teacher who 
used the German area with 
her German language students. 
(Probert, 1994, p. 34) 

The process of sending and treceiving 
information on K12 involved nightly 
downloads and uploads of messages 
ready for the staff and student the next 
day. These bulletin boards were carefully 
moderated and Probert described how 
in K12, "People sending inappropriate 
messages are smartly told off in no 
uncertain terms" (1994, p. 33). When 
describing her enthusiasm for using 
K12, Probert warned other teachers, "You 
may well become addicted and find 
that 3 hours can seem like 3 minutes 
once you get started" (1994, p. 37). 

Te Wahapu, a member of the 
International FidoNet Association, was 
launched in May 1991. Daphne Ropiha 
(1991) identified how Te Wahapu was set 
up for two specific purposes. Firstly, 
it was to provide a forum for exchange for 
teachers within the area of Maori 
language and education. Secondly, Te 
W ahapu would provide an interesting 
and stimulating environment for schools 
"to exchange creative and expository 
writing in the Maori language" (p. 47). 
It was also a significant eLearning 
development because of its use of 
Maori as the language for commands and 
system messages, and the fact that it 
provided access to a range of databases 
(Benton, 1994). Benton described how: 

Registered members of Te 
W ahapu whanau who agree in 
writing not to allow the material 
to be used for commercial 
purposes may download the latest 
version of the database, together 
with a program to enable them to 

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------------

search it on their own computer. 
(1994, p. 39) 

The response from Te Wahapu users was, 
according to Benton, very positive and 
"Native-speakers found the universality 
of Maori on the system both affirming 
and intriguing," as it had been difficult 
for some "to come to grips with 
supposedly English-based computerese" 
(1994, p. 39). The ability to download 
regular updates to the database and 
to link with other people in Te Wahapu 
was a groundbreaking development in 
eLearning in New Zealand and a treasure 
that was held in high regard by its users. 

Partnerships between schools and 
business were to provide resource 
benefits for schools, as in the 
CASATECH case (McMahon, 1996). 
Carol Moffatt took up the position as 
the principal of Oxford Area School in 
Canterbury in 1991 and was faced with 
falling senior school numbers. Her 
interest in information technology and 
her industry links enabled her to 
group six schools in the region and 
form CASATECH in 1994. They used 
new information technologies to enable 
teachers and students to communicate 
across the geographical barriers, 
forming regular online classes. In 1996 
CANTATECH was born when four 
other form 1 to 7 schools joined the 
group. This pioneering work by Moffatt 
with the CASATECH/CANTATECH 
online networks was to provide a 
successful model for online school 
collaboration and networking for future 
school eLearning clusters. 

THE AGE OF THE INTERNET 

AND THE 1990S The call from 
schools for government to recognise the 

need for a much more focussed and 
strategic approach was acknowledged 
in 1993 with the first of the Information 
Technology Teacher Professional 
Develop;ment contracts funded by the 
Ministry of Education. Later these 
were referred to as Information and 
Communication Technology Professional 
Development (ICTPD) contracts. There 
was a heavy emphasis on telecommun­
ications in the majority of early contracts, 
and this was due in no small part to the 
high level of sponsorship and support 
from Telecom New Zealand at that time. 
The Telecom Education Foundation 
established in 1993 facilitated the loan of 
equipment and resources to encourage the 
use of telecommunications in schools. 

The important issues that emerged 
from this period were, to some extent, 
accurately documented and predicted 
in the report The Potential Educational 
Benefits of Electronic Communications 
Technologies for New Zealand (Department 
of Education, 1 986). They were the 
importance of teacher education, use of 
electronic communications simply as a 
pen-pal system without cognisance of its 
teaching and learning potential, and the 
cost-effective uses of telecommunications 
education. These warnings were echoed 
in overseas experiences and reflected a 
period where schools were busy "doing 
computing" or "doing electronic mail" 
with few links with the curriculum. 

Another critical event that affected the 
eLearning landscape in New Zealand 
was the draft release of Technology in 
the New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of 
Education, 1 993). This draft document 
was released into schools for comment 
at the end of 1993, with feedback 
gained throughout 1994 and early 1995. 
The final version of the curriculum 

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statement was officially released and 

launched in late 1995 and gazet,ted in 

February 1999 as mandatory for all 

schools from years 1 to 10. A new 

term, "information and co:rrununication 

technology" (ICT), one of the seven 

technological areas in the curriculum 

document, soon became part of teachers' 

vocabulary. What was significant was the 

inclusion of the word "co:rrununication," 

as this signified the importance· of 

these tools to promote and enhance 

eLearning. The curriculum document 

highlighted the importance of using 

electronic networks for the collection, 

structuring, manipulation, retrieval, and 

communication of information in various 

forms. Technology in the New Zealand 
Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 1993) 

emphasised how ICT was part of 

a learner's technological knowledge, 
understanding, and capability to enable 
them to live and work more effectively 
in their society and environment. This 
document gave both ICT and eLearning 
a purpose and direction with their own 
knowledge base and a clear link with 
society. No longer was eLeaming 
something that was practised by the 
computing enthusiasts in some schools; 
it was to become a vital part of the 
curriculum planning and integration of 
all teachers. To support the integration 
of ICT, the Ministry of Education 
continued to provide support for ICTPD 
through an ongoing progra:rrune of school 
contracts, which have continued to affect 
the New Zealand eLearning environment 
into the twenty-first century. 

INTO THE NEW MILLENNIUM 

New Zealand is an isolated country 
geographically, but this isolation has been 
minimised to some extent by the efficient 
use of a range of eLearning technologies. 

For many students, the hardware has 
become transparent; it is simply a tool to 
achieve a goal. As a window ·on the 
world, eLearning allows students in 
New Zealand to take part in the global 
information world with new 1 partners 
among classrooms, teachers, students, 
and members of our communities. 

One of the strengths of teachers and 
schools in New Zealand has been the 
way in which they have responded to 
the eLearning challenge by examining 
their own practice and how this can 
be enhanced by the use of new and 
different tools. From the early pioneering 
activity in classrooms in the 1980s, 
there was generally a clear emphasis 
on teaching and learning and the 
beginnings of a new eLearning pedagogy. 
There was no centralised scheme to 
facilitate widespread dumping of large 
numbers of computers into classrooms 
and suites, leaving teachers numb with 
anticipation. There was no clear political 
or economic expediency to drive the 
change toward the implementation of 
distance modes of teaching and 
eLearning. The result was a situation 
where there were steadily increasing 
numbers of students and teachers in New 
Zealand classrooms becoming excited 
about what eLearning could offer them. 

The New Zealand approach to 
eLearning in schools has placed a 
strong emphasis on teacher support and 
the development of a pedagogy that 
can justify and sustain ongoing 
resourcing and development. While the 
1980s began a period of do-it-yourself 
eLearning, the 1990s saw a period of 
recogriition for the use of these new tools 
and practices with support from both 
government and the telecommunications 
and computing industry. 

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When speculating on the future of 
eLearn:ing :in New Zealand, it is possible 
to imagine new configurations of 
classrooms, schools, and the technologies 
they will contain. There is little doubt, 
based on what we have seen in the 
past twenty years, there will be some 
significant changes and the environments 
will be different in 2023. What we will 
hopefully still be able to recognise and 
identify with are learner-centred teaching 
practices that have been made possible 
by the integration of eLearn:ing, in 
whatever form that might be. Finally, 
the words of Ann Frampton, the CDU 
Starnet system manager and one of 
the leading pioneers of electronic mail 
in New Zealand schools, sum up what 
eLearn:ing educators will expect to see in 
the next twenty years: 

The application of electronic mail 
to expand the available audience 
for children's writing, and for 
sharing projects and research with 
children in another part of the 
world is well accepted these days, 
but the possibilities do not stop 
there. (1990, p. 45) 

REFERENCES 

Barr, H. (1991). Social studies by electronic 
mail. Social Studies Observer, 24(1), 10-11. 

Barr, H. (1994). Social studies by electronic 
mail. The Social Studies, 85(4), 170-173. 

Benton, R. (1994). Combining medium and 
message: An electronic communications 
network for Maori language and 
education. Computers in New Zealand 
Schools, 6(1), 38-46. 

Chapple, D. (1991). The good, the bad, and 
the ugly: Taking your pick. Computers in 
New Zealand Schools, 3(1), 42-45. 

Chapple, D. (1992). Gaining entry to the 
global classroom: The computer as a key. 
In K. Lai & B. McMillan (Eds.), Learning 

with computers. Palmerston North, New 
Zealand: The Dunmore Press. 

Computers in Education Development Unit. 
(1986). Newsletter 9, Term 3. 

Compute;rs in Education Development Unit. 
(1987). Report on the exploratory studies in 
educational computing. Wellington, New 
Zealand: Department of Education. 

Computers in Education Development Unit. 
(1989). Newsletter 16, Term 1. 

Department of Education, New Zealand. 
(1986). The potential educational benefits 
of electronic communications technologies 
for New Zealand. Wellington, New 
Zealand: Author. 

Department of Education, New Zealand. 
(1987). Computer communications in 
education. Wellington, New Zealand: 
Author. 

Frampton, A. (1990). World without speech. 
Computers in New Zealand Schools, 2(3), 
41-45. 

McMahon, T. (1996). Establishing distance 
education networks in New Zealand: 
Policy parameters. In J. G. Hedberg, 
J. Steele, & S. McNamara (Eds.), Learning 
technologies: Prospects and pathways (pp. 
99-101). Selected papers from EdTech'96. 
Canberra, Australia: AJET Publications. 

Ministry of Education, New Zealand. (1993). 
Technology in the New Zealand 
curriculum (Draft). Wellington, New 
Zealand: Learning Media. 

Ministry of Education, New Zealand. (1995). 
Technology in the New Zealand 
curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: 
Learning Media. 

Probert L. (1994). Telecommunications: Turn 
on and join the world. Computers in New 
Zealand Schools, 6(1), 33-37. 

Ropiha, D. (1991). He Punawaru-a-Tuhi - Te 
Wahapu: Maori education and language 
electronic network. Computers in New 
Zealand Schools, 3(3), 47-48. 

Nola Campbell is Senior Lecturer in Information 
and Communication Technology at the School of 
Education, University of Waikato. 

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