Just like HF radios replaced pedal radios, new technology is constantly being incorporated into the schools of the air. The Optus Interactive Distance eLearning Initiative had brought the SOA into the digital age. This initiative saw lessons being delivered via an interactive two-way broadband satellite network and covers some of the most remote areas of Australia, including all of the Northern Territory and parts of New South Wales.
The network comprises a satellite hub in Sydney and five teaching studios in Alice Springs, Darwin, Broken Hill, Dubbo and Port Macquarie. Satellite dishes and computers complete the network with 547 sites across New South Wales and the Northern Territory, including remote homesteads and properties, isolated schools and Indigenous settlements.
Using a video camera and an electronic whiteboard, teachers at the studio sites give lessons by satellite to students on the network who can watch and respond in real-time via a web camera attached to their computer. This provides for much more interaction between students and teachers. As well as providing two-way audio and video, students can email teachers and each other, interact with the whiteboard and answer pop-up questions. They can also hear their classmates and participate in group discussions.
This innovative use of new technology shows the way the SOA will operate in the future. Who knows, maybe one day we will 'see' students sitting in a classroom when they are really hundreds of kilometres away