A new educational resource co-created by children from Roebourne, in Western Australia's Pilbara region, that incorporates local Aboriginal history and culture has been launched.
NEO-Learning runs across 2-3 classes and inclusive of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures, literacy, numeracy, digital literacies and visual arts activities.
The program fulfils cross-curriculum objectives all by getting students to create their own character.
Wiradjuri woman April Phillips is the program's Creative Learning Producer told NITV News the program has been under development for almost a decade.
"NEO-Learning is a pilot project, a part of the Tech4good program with the Telstra Foundation [and] its part of our ongoing work and a great way to celebrate future-focused fun of the NEOMAD comic," Ms Phillips said.
The digital learning experience is aimed for years 3 to 6 students and is free for schools who want to use the program.
"At this stage, we are focusing on Primary school for the current unit however we do celebrate digital arts with high school students with live virtual workshops in digital drawing," Ms Phillips said.
Yindjibarndi woman Michelle Adams told NITV News Neo-Learning is an excellent opportunity to preserve Aboriginal history.
"The potential for what we have in Roebourne is a wonderful opportunity to use the digital media platform as a tool, a new way of learning that takes the world's oldest living culture," Ms Adams said.
"It's participatory learning. It's engagement, it's learning in action. It's not service delivery; it's community learning how it should be. It's socialisation too. Keeping Yindjibarndi stories alive, keeping Ngarluma stories alive," she said.
NEO-Learning is a pilot project by Big hART, supported by Telstra Foundation’s Tech4good program, and also Reconciliation Australia.
Teachers can register now to visit the virtual classroom of NEO-Learning, with free sessions with live educators throughout May
