Graduation at Eltham 3/7/15

Karen and Mary congratulate our graduate 

Karen and Jane with graduates

Graduate Tyson excited to take his computer home

A letter from a Computers in Homes Student

20 June 2015

Hello Christina

This is Ngaire from the first term Thursday course Tongariro School. I thought i would let you know that i am taking another course up at the Literacy Centre Turangi and i have been so surprised at how much i have recalled from doing the CIH one.

I have been on the course with Dion for four weeks now with another six to go and enjoying everything that we are doing. I am looking at doing another course at the centre again after this one finishes.

So Christina i am just keeping you in the loop to what i am up to as i think i was the only one who never had any computer skills to talk about, but i now am feeling a lot more confident about it. ­­

Thank You

Ngaire

Dear Ngaire

Oh, that is so great to hear, Ngaire. Thank you for letting me know.

Do you mind if I put your letter on our Facebook page? It's such exciting news.

Regards,

Christina

Hello Christina

No i do not mind you putting my letter on our Facebook page as i feel there others like me who may be uplifted by my comments and carry on with the CIH course and know there are other avenues to continue learning about computers.

So Christina thank you for replying and it has given me an eagerness to carry on with gusto with my computer course.

Thankyou

Ngaire

Parihaka's Sustainable Energy project

Five of our Computers in Homes families will be taking part in a sustainable energy project being set up at Parihaka.

The sustainable energy project will be looking at where and how Parihaka residents use power in their homes, and researcher Josh Curd is using the internet to collect data over a 12 month period.

Ten Parihaka families will have a small device installed, which will then send incremental data to a central hub for collection and analysis.  Five of our families agreed to be part of the project.  They were chosen because they have an internet connection, which is part of their Computers in Homes experience.

Four of the other five houses do not have internet connected, so CIH Champion, Charissa Waerea put in a call to our Computers in Homes tech, Ian Andrew, to see if he had a solution to the problem:  "how can information be collected from homes with no internet?"

He did!  Ian took a look at the devices that Josh will be using, the map of the houses and the distance from house to house, and reassured Josh that his equipment is capable of transmitting data from those houses to the Education House where the central control computer will be, without the need for those families to pay for an internet connection that they don't want.

The project, called Taiepa Tiketike Sustainable Energy Research, is a collaboration between Parihaka Papakainga Trust, Te Puni Kokiri, Massey University, Otago University and PowerCo.  The data collected will help Parihaka decide how to best provide power to their community into the future.

Say NO to higher internet charges

This message from Spark was in my inbox:

We think broadband charges should be going down, not up. But the Commerce Commission is proposing to increase what Chorus can charge all service providers (including Spark) to connect you to the internet. These charges make up around half your monthly bill. If you agree with us and think New Zealanders deserve better value internet, go toBeCounted.org.nz to find out what’s going on and send a message to the Commerce Commission to reduce charges for broadband.

If you agree, click the link and BECOUNTED

New Computers in Homes classes in May

We are starting new computer classes in Hawera, Eltham and Opunake in the first week of May.

The Eltham/'Stratford class is full, but there are one or two places left on the Hawera class and about five left at Opunake.

Computers in Homes is for families who don't have an internet-capable computer at home for their children to use for homework, learning, surfing the net .... and playing games.

Computer classes are for the kids too!

Tongariro Area School held their Graduation at Literacy Turangi

Seventeen students graduated their Computers in Homes course recently.

It might have been April Fool's Day, but seventeen families from Tongariro Area School went home with a computer.
In a departure from the norm, Literacy Turangi partnered with the school to deliver this Computers in Homes course.  Families spent the last two lessons at Literacy Turangi where they were able to learn on their own computers, how to set it up, how to use a USB stick and more!

Some of the seventeen graduates and their whanau

Keynote speaker, Tongariro Area School Principal Steve Allen

Turangi-Tongariro Ward Councillor Maggie Stewart spoke to the graduates

Two Tutor/Technicians talking shop!

Dion Nurse - Turangi's tutor.  Very lucky to find this young man.

After accepting his mother's certificate, this young man perused all the computers to choose the one he wanted.  We made sure he got it!

Beautiful carvings on the wall above some of the Computers in Homes computers.

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So can we share things from Blogger to our facebook page?