Using culturally relevant game-based education strategy

Computer science education is increasingly becoming a compulsory part of schooling. In the United Kingdom, the government has recently changed Information and communication technology (ICT) education to computer science and New Zealand has recently decided to include computer science in the curriculum in schools from 2018. Therefore, students will be exposed to computer programming and its concepts at an earlier age than they have previously. This change naturally presents new challenges. Within the NZ context, there is the unique challenge of providing relevant teaching material and learning experiences for children with a Māori and Pasifika background. It is the perception that there is a lack of Māori/Pasifika material in this area and that eLearning tools (ranging from full courses to individual tools) based on Maori/Pasifika cultural concepts could be created to support and engage this demographic better. Also, the New Zealand government aims to increase the number of Māori and Pasifika students to engage with computer science engineering as a future career. Currently, Māori and Pasifika students are an underrepresented group in computer science engineering in universities across New Zealand. In order to encourage and increase their active participation, there is an opportunity to develop teaching and learning material that considers their cultural backgrounds.