Collaboration and forging connections are important for our young people’s wellbeing.

At Ao Tawhiti, our digital collaboration project looks at the ways we can develop those connections within digital contexts.

Part of this is scaffolding and building skills in more familiar contexts. Sarah and Laura have been explicitly discussing ideas about hauora, using a waka metaphor. After identifying their individual specific wellbeing journey, students then collaboratively worked on their group waka.

In this task, students worked together to develop a common design aesthetic and to produce a waka that represented their group.

We were fascinated to see the way that students naturally took on roles as leaders, organisers, doers. They were able to identify and reflect on this.