Northern Territory Report, October 2003.

This report is by no means a definitive statement on all the flexible learning initiatives currently being undertaken in the Northern Territory. The very nature of the beast that is the Northern Territory (Crowe, 2002), means there are undoubtedly pockets of innovation operating in isolation that offer a diversity of teaching approaches to Territory clients. In the Northern Territory, with its sparsely scattered population and remote aboriginal communities, there has to be flexibility or training and learning couldn't happen.

Therefore this report will offer glimpses into just some of the practical strategies and projects. Also included are the Northern Territory Department of Employment Education and Training plans for the future of flexible learning in the Territory.

New Practices: Online Learning for Healthy Communities

This project is being undertaken by the Central Australian Remote Health Development Service (CARDHS ) with funding from the Australian Flexible Learning Framework New Practices project. It explores the use of new flexible learning practices such as: web and email, interactive multimedia, music and theatre in remote Aboriginal Primary Health Care Services. This exploration will demonstrate the usefulness of these new learning practices in: remote areas across Australia; for Aboriginal communities; and in taking account of cultural diversity, language and literacy.

Governance in Remote Communities: A Financial Management System

This system was implemented at Titjikala within the Tapatjatjaka Council. The results so far have been very positive with people having a much better understanding of their finances and budgets and a feeling of being in control. The training model used to implement the system played a significant role in this.

The training was developed as a short course to best suit the council needs and was based on four units of competency from the Certificate II in Business Administration. The training was delivered using Centralian College (now Charles Darwin University) as the overseeing Registered Training Organisation in partnership with eNTITy1 and Ubique who were involved in the project development and training delivery. Funding to support the training came from the Northern Territory Department of Employment Education and Training Flexible Response Fund.

The workers at the Council received a good grounding in the Financial Management System and the issues that related to it, because theoretical background provided by Business Services units of competency was reinforced and put into context with the practical work from the project and their work. It is a model that works.

iLive Learning

iLive Learning is a startup company developed through Original IT, the BITS (Building on Information Technology Strengths) Incubator in Darwin. They have developed a very interesting software system for e-learning, especially for tutorial type learning scenarios or structured training. It consists of three sections, the delivery front end, the web based back end and the construction element which allows the integration of all media types very easily.

The software has built in capabilities to save time, both in the development of resources and the marking of results. The builder can save up to 80% of the time it takes to develop a question and answer-based tutorial and put it on the web with the results being sent to the back end database. It has wide application in training, corporate training and induction and education and integrates with other learning platforms such as Blackboard. http://www.ilivelearniing.com

Schools

Flexible Learning Leader: Norene Lahring

The Northern Territory Flexible Learning Leader for 2003 is Norene Lahring, a Senior IT teacher from the Northern Territory Christian Schools Association. Norene's plan has been to develop her skills in Instructional Design, online strategies, management and organisation development in order to develop a multi-campus approach to flexible learning with a remote Indigenous clientele emphasis.

Interactive Distance Learning

The IDL project will establish a shared broadband Interactive Distance Learning communications infrastructure for small rural communities and isolated homesteads in the whole of the NT and the Clarence, Murray-Darling and Dubbo areas of NSW. This infrastructure will deliver education services to School of the Air, Distance Education students and students in isolated indigenous communities. The NT has an allocation of 150 new two-way sites, 27 existing sites and 2 IDL studios.

The project will use two-way and one-way satellite technologies to deliver broadband IP services. The project will establish a new IDL satellite hub in Sydney, install backbone links to IDL teaching studios in Alice Springs, Darwin, Port Macquarie, Dubbo and Broken Hill. The technology will deliver real-time streaming video, high-resolution graphics, full duplex audio, two-way data interaction and application sharing capabilities. The school courses offered will cover primary, secondary and vocational courses, including courses that are currently difficult or impossible to offer in remote and rural settings. Training, professional development and professional support will also be able to be provided to teachers and staff in remote schools. Indigenous education courses will focus on literacy, numeracy, communication skills, ICT skills and key competencies. For further information about IDL in the NT, contact Tony Richards by email tony.richards@nt.gov.au or call 08 8999 3513.

LearnScope in the Northern Territory

There are 6 teams from throughout most regions of the Northern Territory undertaking a variety of professional development in flexible learning through LearnScope. Updates on the projects are regularly posted on the Framework Community by Northern Territory LearnScope Manager, Rosemary Carson.

Planting the seeds of Flexible Learning: Implementing Certificate III in Horticulture, a story from Waikan Employment and Training in Katherine.

Waikan Horticulture Trainer and 2003 LearnScope team participant Adriana Toohey delivers Certificate III in Horticulture to indigenous trainees at Kalano Farm, Katherine (300 km south of Darwin). In this story, Adriana explains how using the software package PowerPoint as a learning and assessment tool, for the competencies Harvest Crops and Implement Post Harvest, has added benefits to the students and their community.

The Kalano Horticulture Team: Robert Holtze, George Kruger, Adriana Toohey (Waikan Trainer) and Joshua Sariago.

Each trainee was stepped through the many different tools available including using the digital camera in the field and transferring the pictures and information onto PowerPoint presentations and burning to CDROM. While these presentations were used for assessment purposes, Adriana explained to the trainees, that their presentations could also be used at Kalano Farm for new employees not familiar with the tasks performed on a daily basis. Further she explained that as some new members were reluctant to ask questions, they would be able to view the CD without anyone bothering them and feel more confident when they join the group to go and perform the tasks required. The trainees agreed that developing presentations on CDROM would be a great learning tool and so set about collecting the relevant information.

Apart from achieving this learning guide for fellow employees at the farm, the crew members have also improved their own computer skills and are now working on layout plans for three different projects, using the Smart Draw, Excel and Word packages.

Adriana comments:

“When I first started working with these fellas, George and Robert were very reluctant to go near a computer, leaving a lot of the data entry to Joshua or myself. Now that they have completed their presentations, they are using the computer and are interested in learning how the many packages available may be utilized in conjunction with their support evidence for each competency.

People often like to be creative. They just need to be given the opportunity to do it without feeling pressured or intimidated.”

Charles Darwin University (CDU)

Charles Darwin University (formerly Centralian College and Northern Territory University) has received one of seven international grants awarded by Hewlett Packard for Applied Mobile Technology Solutions in Learning Environments. The grant of $200,000 will be used to improve teaching and learning environments through the use of mobile technologies in remote indigenous communities.

The University intends to trial three different learning models:

•  on campus teaching of IT

•  mobile education unit to service remote communities, and

•  supporting university programs for remote high schools.

The cutting edge technology will allow CDU to extend the reach, like never before, of university education and training to regional and remote communities, improving access to information and promoting the acquisition of knowledge.

Crocodylus World Practice Firm

The Charles Darwin University 's Crocodylus World Practice Firm has been honoured with the 2003 ECEF Award for the Best University Program for Australian National Practice Firms.

Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) Australia is part of the SIFE Global organisation of countries participating in the development of students and their communities through encouraging them to participate in ‘service learning'. It is a process that develops strategic links between students, their universities, their communities and both the private and public corporate sectors.

Crocodylus World Practice Firm is a member of the Australian Network of Practice Firms (ANPF). It simulates the real world environment of the business partner and sponsor, Crocodylus Park, a research and education institution located near Darwin, that is dedicated to the research, education and marketing of crocodile information and products. Students become employees of the practice firm and undertake a series of business competencies modeled on the business practices of the business partner.

Although no actual transfer of goods or money occurs, all other business transactions take place - orders are sent, invoices issued, financial records maintained, employees paid and web sites maintained.

Development of a Flexible Learning Strategy for the NT

The unique dynamic of the Territory's demography, geography and culture provide challenges that other state jurisdictions do not face in the delivery of training, which is significantly more costly in the Northern Territory ($19.73 per hour) than elsewhere in Australia (average $12.42 per hour). In addition, while the main thrust of training is to improve an individual's job-specific and general employability skills, in the Territory, training to increase individual and community capacity is essential.

These challenges have led the Department of Employment, Education and Training to grasp an innovative approach to training delivery and develop and implement the Territory's first Flexible Learning Strategy. The Strategy will identify the essential components of providing virtual industry and adult community education courses, in a culturally acceptable environment, while meeting the regulatory standards of delivery and content. The Strategy will look to include:

•  extended flexible learning services to remote communities across the Northern Territory

•  a remote community training system that can be utilised throughout the entire year by community residents interested in undertaking vocational education and training (VET)

•  a reduction in travelling time and costs for trainers conducting the training

•  a reliable ICT capability over which flexible learning services and processes can be communicated effectively.

The Northern Territory 's Employment and Training Branch will host the first flexible learning workshop in early December 2003, bringing together industry, training providers, academics, indigenous peak bodies and government agencies to draft a Flexible Learning Strategy for public discussion. Watch this space!

Laptops and learning – is this the future for the Territory?

Collated by: Melanie Burke, Research Officer for the Northern Territory Business Retail and Information Technology Training Advisory Council, Framework Communications Officer and Toolbox Champion for the Northern Territory and Flexible Learning Leader 2000.

References

Crowe, G. 2002, Flexible Learning in the Northern Territory, October 2002, The Knowledge Tree, Edition 2. Retrieved 20th October, 2003 from http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/knowledgetree/edition02/

Luke, B. 2003, ‘NTU's business practice firm program the best in Australia', Retrieved 20th October, 2003 from http://www.ntu.edu.au/newsroom/stories/2003/july/practice/

Steering Committee for the Review of Commonwealth/State Service Provision, 2003, Report on Government Services 2003, Productivity Commission, Canberra.

‘Transforming Remote Education', Knowledge Territory , September 2003, p. 18.