West Coast CIH wins NCCG media award!

Our West Coast team won the chocolate fish media prize at the NCCG meeting last week. The prize goes to the region with the most media coverage in the months since the last meeting. The coverage of WestREAP's 30th Birthday really impressed the judges :)



Photos courtesy of National Coordinator, Di Das. Cheryl Jackson, West Coast's CIH Coordinator, in the meeting with other regional coordinators from Poirirua and Dunedin. Barbara Craig reads article from the West Coast Messenger.

A Wonderful Thank You

The following message was sent in from one of our students:

COMPUTERS IN HOMES!!
Wow, Computers in Homes has been GREAT!

My daughter and I have been writing letters to our family and friends. Rebecca has been writing poems. She is really talented!!! The day I got to bring the computer home was EXCITING because we have never owned a computer before.

We don't have the internet yet, but I'm sure when we do we all will have lots of fun. The course has shown me that there are some really lovely people in the community.

At first I thought that computers were scary and only smart people could use them but Jeannie has taught me so much and that any one can use them with confidence.

THANK YOU COMPUTERS IN HOMES... AND OF COURSE JEANNIE!!

Happy Birthday WestREAP!

On Friday, the 4th of November Westland Rural Education Activities Programme celebrated 30 years! The day kicked off with a Powhiri and cake cutting. Many special guests attended the different events that were held through out the day

Computers in Homes and Stepping up had display and a computer set up with a slideshow of pictures from the last two years of the course. Since 2003, CiH has supported the delivery of digital literacy, computers and internet to 415 west Coast families.

More Graduations!

The first Computers in Homes in Karamea has completed and the graduation will take place on Monday, December 5th.

The Ngakawau and Westport graduation will take place on December 6th at the Salvation Army Hall. Students who completed the Stepping UP program are also invited to take part and receive their certificates.

We are excited to welcome National Coordinator, Di Das back to the Coast for the celebrations!

New Copyright Act

The Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act 2011 came into force on September 1st. Many former and current students have contacted me about the new ‘3 strikes’ law.

They are targeting people who use P2P (peer-to-peer sharing) software like uTorrent, BitComet, FrostWire, Ares, LimeRunner, Bearshare and Vuze (this is not a complete list) to download copyrighted music, TV or movies. If you have one of these programs on your computer I would advise you to remove it.

The internet account holder is liable regardless if it was the kids or the neighbour that did the illegal downloading! So do take precaution. Talk to your family and friends. Make sure everyone knows the basics of the new law, especially anyone using your computer.

As an alternative, I am currently putting together some information about where you can download media legally. So stay tuned.


For information on this law please visit InternetNZ’s new website here.

You may also want to visit this article on the Stuff website.

Courses in Karamea

Other than a faulty keyboard and harddrive the Karamea courses have gone off without a hitch. Students have just signed up for Gmail accounts and are getting the hang of email. Word of mouth has spread news of the computer course and there is a lot of interest to get a second course going in early 2012.

Computers in Homes coming to Karamea

Westreap is happy to announce that Computers in Homes courses will be starting up in Karamea this term. This is the fourth centre in the Buller to take part in the program. The Karamea Community Development Coordinator, Rick Lucas, has been the main driver for bringing the courses to the area.

The courses will be given in the Karamea Area School’s computer lab, and principle, Bradley Roberts has been elected as the tutor. Courses start on Wednesday, August 10th. So far there has been a lot of interest to fill the 8 spots available.

To learn more about the Karamea Community, visit their website here.

Graduations Round 3

Buller graduations were held on July 26th. Students from the session which ended in May were invited back to celebrate their accomplishments. Although Stepping Uppers do not normally get to attend a graduation party, we decided to include them in our CIH celebrations, and hand out Stepping Up Certificates as well.

Murchison graduations were held at lunch on Tuesday. All but one of the 15 students was in attendance to receive their certificates. The Murchison CIH Most Outstanding Student award was given to Kelly Hocking, who was very dedicated to the course and was always willing to help her peers around her.

The Westport and Ngakawau graduations were combined for an evening event at the Salvation Army Hall. This term Ngakawau had 5 CiH graduates and 6 Stepping UPers, while Westport graduated 9 CiH and 11 Stepping UPers. Since it was the school holidays we had many families in attendance. Our Most outstanding student was Kim Aldridge, from the Westport course, who was very shy to start the course but was very keen to complete it. And in Ngakawau it was Sonia Allen, who it always keen to learn the new technology and her excitement was great to see.


Everyone enjoyed the nibbles and the yummy cake!

Congratulations to the Graduates!!

Flexi Computing for Hokitika

Westreap's Adult Community Education Coordinator, Cheryl Jackson, is happy to announce that they have paired up with the Tai Poutini Polytech to offer Flexi Computing courses from the Hokitika computer pod. This course is being offered to replace the Computers in Homes courses that will no longer be offered in Hokitika or Greymouth, as the project scales down to 50 students coast wide for each the next 2 years.

Flexi computing is, well just that, its up to the students to decide what direction the course will take, whether it be learning the basics, or building on knowledge students already possess.

The Monday morning course has proven so popular that a second course will also be offered later in the week.

Anyone interested should contact Cheryl Jackson, in Hokitika on 0800 927 327.

Buller CiH Popular

Computers in Homes courses remain popular as a waiting list of 65 people is being tackled to fill the courses that begin in July. A Computers in Homes and a Stepping Up course will be offered in each of the 3 centres, with room for up to 45 students. It is very nice to see that the program remains very popular after a year and a half of operation in the Buller.

It is unfortunate that the funding for Stepping UP will run out in December, as many Computers in Homes students come back to further what they have learned.

On the up side, we have also had two spin offs from the courses. Computing for Seniors has been offered in Murchison since March and will be starting up in Westport in term 4. Both programs are being run by Buller REAP in the CiH Pods.

Buller Computers in Homes has Outcomes

Merv Jury, a Computers in Homes student from Ngakawau, is featured in an Outcomes article on the National Computers in Homes website. Merv was awarded for most outstanding story at the graduations in January. View Story

Celebrations in Murchison

Students also celebrated their Computers in Homes success in Murchison last Wednesday. Family and friends gathered to see the latest 16 graduates receive certificates from the program. Anna Bourke was awarded Outstanding students, and Jo Harper received a new printer for the Best Story submitted.

A total of 30 families in Murchison benefited from the program in 2010.

Westport and Ngakawau Graduations

Students who completed the last two sessions of 2010 in Westport and Ngakawau, were all smiles as they received their Computers in Homes certificates last Tuesday evening.


36 students from Westport and 17 students from Ngakawau completed the course, to make it a whopping 108 students complete CiH in the Buller in 2010.

Special prizes were given for Oustanding student and Best Story. Donna Bennett took outstanding student for Ngakawau, while Emma Elliot was awarded the prize for Westport.

Many special stories were submitted for the Best Story award. Students showed off their new talents on the computer by composing a story about what computers in homes had done for their family. Merv Jury took the prize for Ngakawau while Donna Hillier from Westport, impressed us with the powerpoint slideshow she put together with her daughters.

Special guests at the graduation included Major, Pat McManus and CiH National Coordinator, Di Das.

Congrats to all the graduates!