Trial Programme Success

During Terms 3 and 4 this year we took up the challenge of running a trial delivering the Creative Forest framework into an experimental digital environment, whilst also endeavouring to recreate and further build upon the rich cultural context of the programme. The project involved seven schools in the South Island of New Zealand and was a partnership with NetNZ, a respected online learning provider. What did we learn from the experiment?

Previously Creative Forest had been running for almost ten years solely as a live classroom environment with a focus on project based learning in STEM. Many students benefited through engaging with the model, developing life skills and building their networks. In many cases, this led them into new adventures such as starting their own software businesses, commencing tertiary education or gaining employment with some of the coolest tech companies on the planet. So we began thinking about how we could scale this opportunity – so that more kids would benefit in the future.

Could we build a digital platform to fully deliver Creative Forest globally? Turns out, yes we can! But it’s a big project that we need to break down into chewable bites. Some would call that “eating your own dog food”, because it’s the same advice we give to our student creatives. We also learned from our trial that Creative Forest Connect goes best hand in hand with a live classroom setup. We found out that most kids and teachers love working with Creative Forest, especially with a live digital facilitator on hand to provide advice. So we got loads of great feedback on how we can support them even better in the future.

Creative Forest has already coached some budding inventors, movie makers and app builders this year and we are just getting started! In 2019 we’ll be once again working with our friends at NetNZ to roll out Creative Forest into more schools and to distance learners around New Zealand.

Want to join the fun? Contact Creative Forest.