my grandma she gave someone a second
chance in life her church they were
looking for volunteers for their adult
literacy program so they were looking
for volunteers for adults who would
teach other adults to read and my
grandma she had that same reaction that
all of us have when we’re asked to do
something that is outside of our comfort
zone and that’s kind of like panic she
had told me that she thought to herself
I’m not a professor
I’m not Elektra I’m not qualified to do
that but after she learned that they had
no other volunteers at all for the
program
she had thought well probably a little
bit of help from me as better than no
help her first pupil he couldn’t read
his own name he couldn’t read his wife’s
name and he couldn’t read the name of
his newborn baby girl he didn’t have a
driver’s license because to get a
driver’s license you have to be able to
pass a written test and not having a
driver’s license that meant that he
couldn’t get a promotion it has already
poorly paid job the first time that he
turned up at her house she had thought
to herself what have I gotten myself and
forth but she was determined she had
said that she would teach him to read
and that is what she would do so a whole
year passed and at the end of that year
he got that driver’s license and my
grandma she was the first person in his
entire life to have taken an interest or
had been excited about his education and
it was super inspiring to see my grandma
she actually was very sadly for me and
my family she passed away in February
this year and at her funeral there were
a number of these people that she had
educated and these people they were not
just her pupils these people had become
some of her very closest friends and
what an incredible legacy to have left
to have given these people her friends a
second chance in life and when I was at
school and at university just like my
grandma had I used to see people who
were struggling and I used to think
maybe I should do my best and I would
meet up with these students and we would
work through one-on-one each week
whatever would be the most helpful for
them and just like my grandma I wasn’t a
professor or lecturer and I felt like I
wasn’t really qualified to do that
and I would get that same sense of
Pennock that I would be asked a question
but I didn’t know the answer to all that
God forbid I might teach them the wrong
thing but research done by the Ministry
of Education here in New Zealand tells
us that for every five students four of
those students have no one at all to
help them with their homework
imagine that four out of every five
students have no one to help them with
their homework so for the people that I
was helping even though I’m not perfect
a little bit of help from me is a lot
better than no help but I started to be
asked to help their friends in the
friends friends and as you all know
there’s only so many hours in a day and
as much as I wanted to help all of these
students
I just couldn’t and I started to develop
a burning question and that was who was
going to help the thousands of students
in our country that have no one to help
them with their homework I got together
with the best person that I know and
that’s Dave Cameron and we were repeated
ourselves over and over again to
different groups of students and then
after a while we had a bit of an
epiphany which is why don’t we just
record ourselves on video and that way
our tutorials can be watched by any
student at any time from anywhere in the
country we kept our focus quite narrow
initially so we just focused on year 11
maths and the idea was that we recorded
20 videos and if you had been to know
classes all year we would start from
scratch it was fine we would teach you
everything that you needed to know we
put it on a website and we called that
website learn coach the website went
live six weeks before the maths exam so
two weeks passed and 70 students signed
up to our website we were stunned it was
awesome that means that the groups of
students that we were teaching had gone
online and they had told their friends
to also go online and watch math videos
and in over the next four weeks three
and a half thousand students signed up
to our website that meant that the
groups of students that we were teaching
who had told their friends who had told
their friends had then also told their
friends who told their friends to go
online and watch mess videos for me it
was the first insight that I’d really
had and how technology can break those
barriers of time and geography we were
teaching students at opposite ends of
the country but at the time that taught
that suited each of those students the
most without even realizing it we had
done a couple of things right so firstly
we had designed our tutorials to be
specific because as you know and the
information age that we live in when we
have Surrey and we can ask Siri anything
and get an answer literally within
seconds it’s not just access to
information that’s important the hard
part
as you know is searching through that
magnitude of information that’s
available online and trying to work out
what the heck is relevant and what isn’t
and secondly we had designed our
tutorials to be flexible these were not
one-time tutorials delivered by your
teacher at 10:30 a.m. on a Monday
morning these were not tutorials
delivered by teachers who through no
fault of their own have leased in two
minutes on teaching time on average per
student each day these were tutorials
that could be watched at any time of the
day or the night they
or tutorials that could be watched from
anywhere in the world from the dining
room table from a hospital bed from a
youth detention center
these were tutorials that could be
paused and that could be rewashed as
many times as was necessary without
having to feel stupid and without having
to worry if your friends thought that it
was lame or not to be studying but what
I’ve learned since then is their access
to flexible specific learning alone
that’s actually not enough let’s use
myself and my friend is an example so
let’s say we both start out at school
together but my friend she’s really
smart
she just sails through she enjoys it and
she passes everything and then at the
end of year 13 she leaves with full
school qualifications but for me even
though I start out here at the same
point that she does for me it’s hard and
it’s not it’s not really my thing and I
don’t really enjoy it and at the end of
year 10 I decide to leave and I have no
qualifications so research done by
Statistics New Zealand tells us that
compared to my friend I will have half
the average job options that she has I
will have half the average income that
she has and it is twice as likely that I
will be unemployed
you see those pieces of paper that she
has those qualifications that she has
that I don’t your life is very different
if you had them versus if you don’t for
me I wouldn’t be allowed to go to
university there are many jobs and
training programs that I couldn’t even
apply for life for me would become a
struggle but since then since then
imagine if students could get a second
chance so here in our country our
schools are set up like production lines
where students
you know have to turn up where they have
to keep up and they have to shut up and
because our teachers are responsible for
hundreds of students and teach up to 30
students at a time they can’t afford to
pause or slow down or even speed up that
production line for anyone
we still have exams that are set
nationwide by students all across the
country and there’s no flexibility in
that and there’s definitely no second
chances but what earth what if students
could have a second chance at exams
let’s think back to myself and my friend
so she still she still sails through she
still finds it easy
and she still leaves at the interview 13
with full qualifications and I still
struggle I still find it hard and I
still leave at the end of year 10 with
no qualifications but what if this time
if I can go away and when I’m really in
my own time get the support that I need
and then later online set the exams and
get the qualifications at anywhere at
anytime from anywhere in the country six
years after learn coach launched we have
now designed a program and been fully
accredited to give those second chances
if you failed your exams because you are
off school sick you can now have a
second chance if you failed your exams
because you only cared about sport and
you weren’t focused you can now have a
second chance if you failed your exams
because you and your partner had a child
and you were focused on caring for that
child you can now have a second chance
you can go online you can learn and when
you’re ready in your own time you can
set the exams and get those
qualifications at any time at any pace
when you’re ready so what if we lived in
a world where our schools and our
society embrace that I
of second chances that idea that even if
you’ve failed that as soon as you’re
ready all you need to do is give the
smallest inkling that you want to give
it a second chance and there will be a
whole team of people behind you ready to
give you that chance that you deserve we
would be bolder we would be less afraid
of failure and we would be more able to
try new things we would have more people
like JK Rowling who despite having her
Harry Potter script rejected ten times
went on to become one of the most
successful authors of all time we would
have more people like Walt Disney who
was fired from his job as the editor of
a newspaper told that he had no good
ideas and no imagination who then went
on to start the Walt Disney Company and
touch millions of people around the
world with his animations we would have
more people like the man my grandma
helped to read who went on to get that
driver’s license and get that promotion
at work you see when someone is given a
second chance that creates a ripple
effect that benefits not only them but
also their families and their
communities and that ripple effect of
second chances that’s something really
worth getting excited about thank you [Applause]
chance in life her church they were
looking for volunteers for their adult
literacy program so they were looking
for volunteers for adults who would
teach other adults to read and my
grandma she had that same reaction that
all of us have when we’re asked to do
something that is outside of our comfort
zone and that’s kind of like panic she
had told me that she thought to herself
I’m not a professor
I’m not Elektra I’m not qualified to do
that but after she learned that they had
no other volunteers at all for the
program
she had thought well probably a little
bit of help from me as better than no
help her first pupil he couldn’t read
his own name he couldn’t read his wife’s
name and he couldn’t read the name of
his newborn baby girl he didn’t have a
driver’s license because to get a
driver’s license you have to be able to
pass a written test and not having a
driver’s license that meant that he
couldn’t get a promotion it has already
poorly paid job the first time that he
turned up at her house she had thought
to herself what have I gotten myself and
forth but she was determined she had
said that she would teach him to read
and that is what she would do so a whole
year passed and at the end of that year
he got that driver’s license and my
grandma she was the first person in his
entire life to have taken an interest or
had been excited about his education and
it was super inspiring to see my grandma
she actually was very sadly for me and
my family she passed away in February
this year and at her funeral there were
a number of these people that she had
educated and these people they were not
just her pupils these people had become
some of her very closest friends and
what an incredible legacy to have left
to have given these people her friends a
second chance in life and when I was at
school and at university just like my
grandma had I used to see people who
were struggling and I used to think
maybe I should do my best and I would
meet up with these students and we would
work through one-on-one each week
whatever would be the most helpful for
them and just like my grandma I wasn’t a
professor or lecturer and I felt like I
wasn’t really qualified to do that
and I would get that same sense of
Pennock that I would be asked a question
but I didn’t know the answer to all that
God forbid I might teach them the wrong
thing but research done by the Ministry
of Education here in New Zealand tells
us that for every five students four of
those students have no one at all to
help them with their homework
imagine that four out of every five
students have no one to help them with
their homework so for the people that I
was helping even though I’m not perfect
a little bit of help from me is a lot
better than no help but I started to be
asked to help their friends in the
friends friends and as you all know
there’s only so many hours in a day and
as much as I wanted to help all of these
students
I just couldn’t and I started to develop
a burning question and that was who was
going to help the thousands of students
in our country that have no one to help
them with their homework I got together
with the best person that I know and
that’s Dave Cameron and we were repeated
ourselves over and over again to
different groups of students and then
after a while we had a bit of an
epiphany which is why don’t we just
record ourselves on video and that way
our tutorials can be watched by any
student at any time from anywhere in the
country we kept our focus quite narrow
initially so we just focused on year 11
maths and the idea was that we recorded
20 videos and if you had been to know
classes all year we would start from
scratch it was fine we would teach you
everything that you needed to know we
put it on a website and we called that
website learn coach the website went
live six weeks before the maths exam so
two weeks passed and 70 students signed
up to our website we were stunned it was
awesome that means that the groups of
students that we were teaching had gone
online and they had told their friends
to also go online and watch math videos
and in over the next four weeks three
and a half thousand students signed up
to our website that meant that the
groups of students that we were teaching
who had told their friends who had told
their friends had then also told their
friends who told their friends to go
online and watch mess videos for me it
was the first insight that I’d really
had and how technology can break those
barriers of time and geography we were
teaching students at opposite ends of
the country but at the time that taught
that suited each of those students the
most without even realizing it we had
done a couple of things right so firstly
we had designed our tutorials to be
specific because as you know and the
information age that we live in when we
have Surrey and we can ask Siri anything
and get an answer literally within
seconds it’s not just access to
information that’s important the hard
part
as you know is searching through that
magnitude of information that’s
available online and trying to work out
what the heck is relevant and what isn’t
and secondly we had designed our
tutorials to be flexible these were not
one-time tutorials delivered by your
teacher at 10:30 a.m. on a Monday
morning these were not tutorials
delivered by teachers who through no
fault of their own have leased in two
minutes on teaching time on average per
student each day these were tutorials
that could be watched at any time of the
day or the night they
or tutorials that could be watched from
anywhere in the world from the dining
room table from a hospital bed from a
youth detention center
these were tutorials that could be
paused and that could be rewashed as
many times as was necessary without
having to feel stupid and without having
to worry if your friends thought that it
was lame or not to be studying but what
I’ve learned since then is their access
to flexible specific learning alone
that’s actually not enough let’s use
myself and my friend is an example so
let’s say we both start out at school
together but my friend she’s really
smart
she just sails through she enjoys it and
she passes everything and then at the
end of year 13 she leaves with full
school qualifications but for me even
though I start out here at the same
point that she does for me it’s hard and
it’s not it’s not really my thing and I
don’t really enjoy it and at the end of
year 10 I decide to leave and I have no
qualifications so research done by
Statistics New Zealand tells us that
compared to my friend I will have half
the average job options that she has I
will have half the average income that
she has and it is twice as likely that I
will be unemployed
you see those pieces of paper that she
has those qualifications that she has
that I don’t your life is very different
if you had them versus if you don’t for
me I wouldn’t be allowed to go to
university there are many jobs and
training programs that I couldn’t even
apply for life for me would become a
struggle but since then since then
imagine if students could get a second
chance so here in our country our
schools are set up like production lines
where students
you know have to turn up where they have
to keep up and they have to shut up and
because our teachers are responsible for
hundreds of students and teach up to 30
students at a time they can’t afford to
pause or slow down or even speed up that
production line for anyone
we still have exams that are set
nationwide by students all across the
country and there’s no flexibility in
that and there’s definitely no second
chances but what earth what if students
could have a second chance at exams
let’s think back to myself and my friend
so she still she still sails through she
still finds it easy
and she still leaves at the interview 13
with full qualifications and I still
struggle I still find it hard and I
still leave at the end of year 10 with
no qualifications but what if this time
if I can go away and when I’m really in
my own time get the support that I need
and then later online set the exams and
get the qualifications at anywhere at
anytime from anywhere in the country six
years after learn coach launched we have
now designed a program and been fully
accredited to give those second chances
if you failed your exams because you are
off school sick you can now have a
second chance if you failed your exams
because you only cared about sport and
you weren’t focused you can now have a
second chance if you failed your exams
because you and your partner had a child
and you were focused on caring for that
child you can now have a second chance
you can go online you can learn and when
you’re ready in your own time you can
set the exams and get those
qualifications at any time at any pace
when you’re ready so what if we lived in
a world where our schools and our
society embrace that I
of second chances that idea that even if
you’ve failed that as soon as you’re
ready all you need to do is give the
smallest inkling that you want to give
it a second chance and there will be a
whole team of people behind you ready to
give you that chance that you deserve we
would be bolder we would be less afraid
of failure and we would be more able to
try new things we would have more people
like JK Rowling who despite having her
Harry Potter script rejected ten times
went on to become one of the most
successful authors of all time we would
have more people like Walt Disney who
was fired from his job as the editor of
a newspaper told that he had no good
ideas and no imagination who then went
on to start the Walt Disney Company and
touch millions of people around the
world with his animations we would have
more people like the man my grandma
helped to read who went on to get that
driver’s license and get that promotion
at work you see when someone is given a
second chance that creates a ripple
effect that benefits not only them but
also their families and their
communities and that ripple effect of
second chances that’s something really
worth getting excited about thank you [Applause]
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