RIGEL - Learning From Life - Communities of Learning via a Connected Curriculum

This conference presentation was delivered at the Microsoft Partners in Learning Regional Innovative Teachers Conference, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 27–29 May 2009. The author was one of five teachers selected to represent New Zealand at this competitive international conference. The presentation directly extends the findings of the author's 2008 Ministry of Education E-Learning Fellowship report [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19302276], presenting the RIGEL (Real-world Interactive Games and Electronics Link) mobile sensor platform to an international audience of innovative educators from across the Asia-Pacific region. The presentation documents the RIGEL system as a new ICT that takes computing out of cyberspace and back into the real world, enabling authentic cross-curricular science and mathematics investigations across primary, intermediate, and secondary levels. Key capabilities documented include: multi-sensor data logging; calculator remote control and data logging; wireless and wired networking; process control via the web; hearing and visual impairment accessibility through audio data sonification; and cross-curricular applications spanning biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, earth science, forensics, mathematics, physical education, robotics, game design, geography, music, and art. Quantitative findings from the 2008 Fellowship research are presented: 85% of Year 7/8 students changed their view of what scientists do or how they work; 85% learnt something new about science, technology, or themselves; 81% could identify four types of sensor and discuss their everyday usefulness. Results were equally successful across Māori and Pākehā ethnic groups and across male and female students — with no gender difference in engagement observed. Student voice is documented directly: "an experience like no other I have had at school"; "I never knew scientists did real things with real people outside a lab." The presentation introduces a connected classroom framework showing how RIGEL integrates connected communities, connected pedagogies, connected technologies, connected curriculum, connected applications, and connected assessment into a single coherent system. The Casio FX-9750G Plus calculator is shown in classroom use as a data logger and remote control device — an early documented deployment of what would later become the 2025 Casio calculator data logger system. The presentation also documents the author's broader community roles at the time of delivery: Taranaki Science Fair organiser, Teachers as Leaders professional development convenor, New Zealand Ministry of Education E-Learning Fellow, Pandemic and Public Health advisor, EnviroPower renewable energy project technical advisor and educational research consultant. International collaboration and consultation with educators in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Mexico, and India is noted. The closing section introduces the concept of ako — the Māori educational principle that the educator also learns from the student — as the philosophical foundation for reciprocal, culturally responsive learning communities. This framing is consistent with the Ka Hikitia alignment documented in the 2008 Fellowship report. This is the slide deck as delivered. The author's accompanying full paper and portfolio of evidence for this conference is separately listed in the publications record as: Fenton, M. (2009). RIGEL — Learning from life: Communities of learning via a connected curriculum. In Proceedings of the Microsoft Partners in Learning Regional Innovative Teachers Conference. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.