The Indigenous Digital Excellence Program came to the Clarence Valley last week, giving local Aboriginal children access to ground-breaking technology.
The Aboriginal education officer at South Grafton High School, Kerry Skinner, said the program taught children from Grafton and South Grafton high schools and the Camellia Cottage program some of the basics of robotics and drone flying.
“We took the kids with the drone to Yamba on Wednesday to use the drone,” Mr Skinner said.
“We wanted to use it to show them a little bit about the river and how it is the source of life for the six Aboriginal communities on the river at Malabugilmah, Baryulgil, South Grafton, Grafton, Maclean and Yamba.”
The program was held at Gurehlgam in Grafton on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and Yamba on Wedneday.
He said the best thing about the program was the children were learning academic lessons while having fun and gaining valuable skills.
“With the Lego robots they were learning to operate, they were learning maths skills like working with angles, dimensions and distance,” he said.
“They had to make all these calculation without realising they were actually learning things. The kids absolutely loved it.”
The IDX project is a partnership between the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence and the Telstra Foundation.
Mr Skinner said the IDX Flint team led by IDX Flint Manager Grant Cameron were really impressed with the engagement from the community and young participants.
“What’s important is what we do next with it. We like to do more at the schools and also work with kids in upper primary.” he said.
“The Grafton facilitators really enjoyed the FLINT training today. Robotics was a hit and they really saw the benefits in the drone for land management and caring for country. Great first day for the Grafton FLINT activation.” IDX Flint Manager Grant Cameron.