Q. Mike, what does VISE stand for and where do you fit in?
A. Vise is for Volunteers for Isolated Students' Education and I am both CEO and its founder.
Q. We here at 1RPH are heavy users of the Internet and some of us have our own home pages. So we are familiar with its advantages. Would you like to tell our listeners briefly how you see the Internet helping isolated families and communities the way it helps us?
A. By taking the distance out of distance education. For those who live far from cities and towns, internet communication offers the best of radio, telephone, the fax machine and good, old-fashioned parcel-post. And, in bringing them all together in the one package, the internet presents new and dramatically world-shrinking communication and information possibilities for outback dwellers and their children.
Applied to teaching, it has the 'groupiness' of open-channel radio chatting but combines this with the individual attention of the telephone; like the fax, it transmits words and pictures instantly - but with the big difference that resources are not limited in size or to what the teacher has at hand. Teachers and students alike have immediate access to a huge, worldwide library - and teaching materials don't even have to be photocopied!
Q. Saving finances and resources as well as time, Mike?
A. Yes, there's no more waiting (through fire and flood) for the bundle of teaching materials, exercises and assignments to arrive and then to be returned, on completion, to the teacher for comment. The big problem with distance education by post is that correction and explanation come three or more weeks after the event for the student - missing the boat educationally. Real learning needs to capture the moment. Through the internet it can all happen on the same day - the teaching, the exercise, the correction and the feedback. So that is what 'Internet to the Outback' is about and why Volunteers for Isolated Students' Education (VISE) - and its sponsors and supporters - are so keen to make it work.
Q. It is undeniable that the Internet will bring major benefits to outback communities, and only a massive injection by a volunteer organisation like yours will achieve the coverage that the people there are entitled to. So what sort of participation and dedication are you looking for in volunteers to promote it?
A. VISE has been sending volunteers to spend six weeks with families - as home tutors for the students and advisors to their parents - for eight years. Apart from food and lodging - and transport of the volunteer to the next home-stay destination in that neighbourhood - the six weeks of advice and support comes at no cost to the family excepting travel and board.
Establishing 'Internet to the Outback' will require a somewhat different team of VISE volunteers - people who know a bit about computers and the internet and have been specially trained to show families how to get the most from the technology in conjunction with the School of Distance Education in their area. The first of these have begun their training and will stay with outback families later in the year.
'Internet to the Outback' is a project coordinated by VISE and substantially funded through the Federal Government's $250 million 'Networking the Nation' program. 'Networking the Nation' has the goal of providing, over a five-year period, everyone in every part of Australia with access to the internet. A long time major sponsor of VISE - the Hyundai National Country Music Muster - is also a major contributor to
'Internet to the Outback'. The University of Ballarat is providing training for the volunteers and advice and support (both technical and educational) on the use of the internet in distance education.
Over three weeks in March, a tag-team of four undertook a whirlwind tour of many of the outback areas - through NSW, Queensland, the Northern Territory and South Australia - which are likely to be involved in the 'Internet to the Outback' program. The team is made up of University of Ballarat Vice-Chancellor, Professor David James, the coordinator of the 'Internet to the Outback' program George Murdoch, VISE volunteer, Iris Murdoch, and University of Ballarat technician and trainer, Arno Besse.
Professor James headed back to the University after day five, having visited several Schools of Distance Education 'back-o'-Bourke'. The rest of the party flew and drove around remote parts north, going as far as Cairns before heading west then down the long road through central Australia. Focus was on visiting distance education providers throughout that vast area - talking to them about 'Internet to the Outback' and ways in which VISE might help schools apply it to their teaching programs. Members of the group also talked with distance education 'consumers' wherever their busy itinerary permitted.
Q. We acknowledge the impact the Internet will have in the Outback, but it will have a cost, of course. How will families and communities connect to a service provider; are existing telecommunications facilities adequate; and what will their telephone bills look like?
A. The internet is a worldwide computer-based network that operates through existing national and international telephone communication systems. It allows individuals to communicate with other individuals or groups through their home computers or to gain worldwide access to huge and rapidly expanding sources of electronically-stored information on every imaginable topic. Text, colour pictures, sound and even moving pictures can be transmitted!
The technology means that, for the first time in history, people living vast distances from major centres of population have access to information resources directly comparable to that of their city cousins. By taking advantage of competitive after 7pm rates offered by different telephone companies, communication costs in using the internet can be kept quite low. Connection to the internet presents many opportunities for all the family. Electronic mail (or E-mail) opens new vistas for social contact across the home district, the region and the world - all at a fraction of the cost of a telephone call. Use of E-mail also allows people living in remote areas to study accredited courses with universities and TAFE colleges.
Q. Mike, what equipment will these folk need and who will provide it?
A. They will need a computer of 486 capability or better. We encourage them to buy a Pentium, and we have arranged a very attractive package deal with Harvey Norman that they can take advantage of.
Q. So, to summarise briefly: What is 'Internet to the Outback' in a nutshell?
A. 'Internet to the Outback' is a project which seeks to encourage and support the use of computer based information and communications systems in distance education, particularly through existing Schools of Distance Education. The project will train volunteers in the use of the internet as a medium in education and, more generally, as a source of information. These volunteers will then travel to stay with outback families in their own homes, working for up to a week with children and parents in learning to make best use of the system.
The first group of volunteers has completed its initial training and some of these are already in the field with the Alice Springs School of Distance Education. Volunteers for Isolated Students' Education (VISE) is coordinating the program.
Q. Could we have a little more of the background to your own organisation, VISE?
A. VISE was established eight years ago by a small group of retired teachers to support isolated outback families involved with distance education. Parents living in remote situations always worry that they are not providing the right kind of help and guidance in supporting their children's education - and there's no one around to give them any feedback or guidance on how they are filling their role.
There are now more than 250 volunteers (including many retired-teachers) in the mainstream VISE program. These volunteers spend six weeks each year in the outback, staying for a week at a time with about 600 outback families. They liaise with the district School of Distance Education to provide one-to-one tutoring with the students in their own home and fill a friendly advisory role on ways the family might best support the education of their children. Close friendships are formed between families and volunteers who delight in the fresh experiences of outback life.
VISE covers the volunteer's costs to and from a geographic cluster of outback families while the families themselves are expected to provide board and lodging and meet the volunteer's travel costs to the next family within the cluster.
Volunteers for 'Internet to the Outback' are a specially selected, new group trained for the specific task of introducing or guiding families in using of internet technology in their distance education programs.
The 'Internet to the Outback' volunteer program is an addition to the normal and continuing VISE support program for isolated families.
Q. And now a question of eligibility. Who is eligible to have 'Internet to the Outback' Volunteers visit their home?
A. All families with children being educated through Schools of Distance Education are eligible to receive visits from VISE volunteers from the 'Internet to the Outback' program. To make the visits economically viable, clusters of six families need to be organised - and we do understand that 'next door' in the outback can be over the horizon! Participating families will also need the minimum computer equipment and connection listed earlier.
Q. The 64 dollar question, Mike. Who's paying for 'Internet to the Outback'?
A. 'Internet to the Outback' is part-funded through the federal government's 'Networking the Nation' program - a $250 million initiative designed to give everyone, living anywhere in Australia, access to the internet at the end of a five year period. Substantial contribution has also come from the Hyundai National Country Music Muster, held annually at Gympie. The Gympie Muster is the principal sponsor of the mainstream VISE program.
The University of Ballarat is supporting the 'Internet to the Outback' program through the provision of training for the volunteers and technical support and advice, including visits during March to Schools of Distance Education in four states by a senior University technician.
Q. Thanks for coming here tonight Mike, and I hope you have a lot of success in recruiting volunteers. I would like to give interested listeners who may want further information two contact points for you:
First your phone number - 02- 6259 3030 and second your email address gmurdock@ tpgi.com.au