ARC Linkage Project

Interactive Distance E-Learning for Isolated Communities: Opening Our Eyes

A/Prof Stephen Crump, Prof Peter Goodyear, A/Prof Juhani Tuovinen, A/Prof Brian Devlin

Partner Organisations: NT Department of Employment, Education and Training, NSW Department of Education and Training, SingTel Optus Pty Ltd

This project has been funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant.

The project will investigate people's use, and experience, of a new satellite-based communications system, being deployed for isolated communities in NSW and the NT. This system (IDeL) supports distance learning, using two-way video communications and interactive computer technologies. Our project will work at three levels: (1) gathering evidence about the experiences and new working practices of learners, teachers and others using IDeL; (2) seeing how different ways of capturing and sharing these local practices and experiences support the spread of ideas across the system; (3) understanding the dynamics of implementation and take-up of complex, highly-distributed systems of this kind.

This project was featured in UniNews (Vol. 37, No. 9, 19Aug05). Read the full article on the News site.

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