Bridging the Digital Divide:

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Bridging the Digital Divide an Australian
perspective Mark Wigley Australian Commonwealth
Department of Education, Science and Training
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AUSTRALIA
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Australias Population
Australian Population20 million
Northern Territory
Queensland
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19
10
Western Australia
8
34
New South Wales
South Australia
25
Victoria
2
Tasmania
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Australias Federal Systemof Government

• Commonwealth Government
• 8 State and Territory Governments
• Responsibility for education policy and delivery
  is split between the Commonwealth, and State and
  Territory Governments.

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Commonwealth roles / responsibilities
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Commonwealths role

• enabler in providing substantial funding across
  all education and training sectors
• facilitator in providing for policy and
  operational frameworks for the effective delivery
  of education and training,
• partner with other levels of government, industry
  and the education and training sector

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Structure of Australian Education
Vocational Education
Schools

• voluntary
• work related education at the technician and
  para-professional level
• apprenticess and trainees
• delivery mainly through institutes of Technical
  Further Education.

• compulsory to age 15 or 16 (around Year 10)
• general education
• 2 extra years of voluntary senior secondary
  studies

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The Australian ICT Context

• 64 of households own or lease a computer
  (Australia ranked 2nd after Korea)
• 52 of households connected to the Internet (7th
  in world)
• 80 aged 16-34 have access to Internet
• 68 aged 35 have access to Internet (1st for
  equity of access between age groups).
• Source The Current State of Play, NOIE, April
  2002.

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Australian households with a computer
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Australian households with Internet access
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Improving education

• Improved education is seen as a means to embrace
  the knowledge society, remain competitive
  internationally and address digital divide issues
• Ensuring improved basic education for all a key

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Educational Attainment

• Over 70 completion of Year 12
• 60 of all school leavers proceed to further
  education and training
• 62 of all Australians have post-school
  qualifications
• 16 hold a degree (6 in 1982)

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Growth in participation in education

• 56 15-19 yr olds in full-time education in 1990.
  70 in 2002
• (20-24 year olds 12 to 20)
• Commencements in bachelor degree courses rose by
  49 between 1989 and 1999
• (post-graduate by 66)
• In 2001, publicly-funded VET providers delivered
  programmes to over 1.7 million students, or
• 13 of Australias 15-64 year old population
• (8 in 1991)

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Apprenticeshipsand traineeships

• 1995 - 1999 the number of apprentices and
  trainees grew by 31 a year
• In 2002, a record level (334,000) apprentices and
  trainees
• Recent growth reflects broadening of apprentice
  style training beyond the traditional skilled
  trades.
• Australias system, cf working age population
  ranks fourth in the world
• Australia is a world leader for adult apprentices

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Strategic Framework for the Information Economy
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Australian response to Information Economy

• National Government released a Strategic
  Framework for the Information Economy in 1999
• Education and Training industry was recognised as
  a key priority and fundamental to developing
  Australias competitiveness in the global economy

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National Goals for Schooling

• When students leave schools they should be
  confident, creative and productive users of new
  technologies, particularly information and
  communication technologies, and understand the
  impact of this technology on society.

www.curriculum.edu.au/mceetya/nationalgoals/index.
htm
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Agreement by all Ministers

• July 2001 all education Ministers
• endorsed a framework for national assessment and
  reporting of students ICT skills and knowledge
• authorised the development of assessment
  instruments and key performance measures
• agreed to 3 yearly sample assessments of Year 6
  Year 10 students commencing 2005.

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Education and TrainingAction Plan
www.dest.gov.au/edu/edactplan.htm
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Education and TrainingAction Plan

• A plan for the whole education and training
  sector
• sets out an analysis of issues and identification
  of key strategic priorities
• A set of action plans, one for each part of the
  sector, developed by the relevant constituencies
• 2000 - 2002

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Sectoral action plans
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Consultation How did we do it?

• Important to gain agreement across the country
  for a shared approach
• Developed by DEST in close consultation with
  representatives from all 3 sectors of education
  and training (universities, VET, schools)
• Endorsed by Federal and State/Territory Ministers
  of education and training
• Education Network Australia collaboration

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What does it say?

• Five action areas
• People
• Infrastructure
• Content, Applications and Services
• Policy and organisational frameworks
• Regulatory framework

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Joint National Statement

• Released by all education Ministers in December
  2000
• Provides a strategic agenda between 2001-2003 for
  all parts of the education industry to work
  together to achieve the outcomes of the Action
  Plan

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Joint National Statement

• Undertook to
• Provide learners with opportunities to develop
  their ability to use technology confidently and
  creatively and develop specialist skills for info
  economy
• Provide effective and affordable access to
  internet for learners regardless of location
• Promote collaboration in the development and
  dissemination of high quality digital educational
  content, services and applications

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Recent developments

• Australian Education Ministers meeting (July
  2002) endorsed the need for priority to be placed
  on the provision of high bandwidth services to
  schools covering urban, rural and remote
• July 2002 all Ministers agreed that a second
  action plan 2003-2006 be developed.

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Professional Development for Educators and
Teachers
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Teachers for the 21st Century
A national Commonwealth initiative to improve
teacher quality and increase the number of highly
effective Australian schools in order to maximise
student learning outcomes.
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Teachers for the 21st Century

• 159 m is available 2000 to 2005
• The bulk of the funding is provided to education
  jurisdictions to provide PD for teachers in the
  priority areas

• Literacy
• Numeracy
• Science

• IT
• Mathematics
• Vocational Education

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Quality Teacher Programme - ICT Projects

• 147 projects funded to June 2002
• 30 focussed on PD in ICT
• 30 of teachers choose PD involving ICT in the
  classroom.

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Quality Teacher Programme - ICT Projects

• Of 147 projects
• 19 classroom use of ICT
• 13 teachers skills with software
• 2 ICT skills of teacher librarians
• 2 ICT teaching at senior secondary level
• 4 ICT distance learning, videoconferencing
• 1 female participation in specialist ICT studies
  at senior level

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Making Better ConnectionsTeacher Professional
Development for theIntegration of ICTs into
Classroom Practice

• Current research and trends in pre-service and PD
  and mapped what is happening
• Models and measures of effectiveness

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Making Better Connections

• Analysed connections or lack of connections
  between key factors and barriers/success factors
• Developed a support network for teachers, school
  leaders, professional associations and PD staff
  within school systems
• Aimed to create a Community of Practice for the
  main influencers of PD for ICT

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Major findings

• Pre-service education
• student-teacher learning has been about ICT,
  but should include learning with and through
  ICT
• A challenge is facilitating opportunities for
  student-teachers to be immersed in school
  classrooms where ICTs are effectively used

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Major findings

• Online PD and Learning Communities
• not magic solutions
• should be an integral part of sustained
  school-based teacher inquiry approaches (ICTs
  support and extend local networks by offering
  connections and resources from outside the school
  or district)

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National Review of Teaching and Teacher Education

• Announced as part of the Australian Governments
  Innovations statement in 2001 Backing
  Australias Ability
• wide ranging brief to identify the skills needed
  by teachers to build a culture of lifelong
  learning and innovation in schools
• Focus on science and technology
• Due to report in 2003

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Review of Teacher Education

• The Review will develop an action plan for the
  school sector with a focus on technology, science
  maths that includes
• strategies to improve teacher education programs
  in universities
• strategies for equipping teachers to create an
  innovative learning culture amongst their
  students
• school exit outcomes necessary to equip school
  graduates for the knowledge society

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Raising the StandardsICT Competency Framework
for Teachers

• MCEETYA has established the Teacher Quality and
  Educational Leadership Taskforce
• A significant priority is to develop a National
  Framework for Professional Teaching Standards
• After consulting with key educational
  stakeholders, the Taskforce will present the
  framework to Ministers in May 2003

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Raising the Standards

• published by DEST in July 2002
• addresses ICT standards for
• pre-service teacher training
• accomplished teachers
• school leaders and teacher educators
• Proposed a framework which could be used by
  teacher education institutions, teacher employers
  and professional associations to develop ICT
  standards relevant to their purposes

www.dest.gov.au/schools/publications/2002/raisings
tandards.htm
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Initiatives addressing special needs groups
include the following examples

• Effective Use of ICT to Enhance Learning Outcomes
  of Disadvantaged Students
• Online Education and Support for Indigenous
  Educators
• Project to Investigate Improving Literacy and
  Numeracy Outcomes of Distance Education Students
  in the Early Years of Schooling
• Digital Indigenous Youth Network
• Improving IT Skills for Older Workers

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Improving IT Skills for Older Workers

• provides older workers with nationally recognised
  training in information technology
• designed to help low income, mature age job
  seekers gain nationally recognised skills in
  information and communication technology, in
  order for them to operate effectively at a basic
  level in the workforce
• 5.75m annually to provide 11,500 places each
  year for 4 years, from 2002-2003.

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Infrastructure

• All Australian State/Territory governments are
  pursuing strategies to increase bandwidth
  provision in schools. For example
• ACT/NSW progressive rollout of 2 Mbps to
  schools
• WA rollout commenced to provide 10Mbps to metro
  schools, 2 Mbps to regional schools and 2-way
  satellite to some remote schools
• Many governments are seeking opportunities to
  aggregate demand across industry sectors

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Vocational Education and Training

• Access to Bandwidth project end 2002
• Analysis of the bandwidth available across the
  VET sector
• Identify and collate good practices
• Will determine bandwidth requirements for the
  sector and explore business models to assist VET
  providers to source sufficient affordable
  bandwidth
• Will facilitate the consolidation of a national
  approach to establishing a business case and
  action plan to secure appropriate affordable
  bandwidth for VET

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Higher Education (Universities)

• Need for high bandwidth for academics to perform
  collaborative research with colleagues including
  grid computing
• Provision of internet access for large numbers of
  students simultaneously
• Development and delivery of online and distance
  education
• Broadband capacity for regional universities

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Higher Education (Universities)

• Australian Academic and Research Network (AARNET)
  provides the national network backbone, access to
  the national and international internet, and to
  the global advanced research education networks
• provides internet services to 37 Australian
  universities and CSIRO through its AARNET2
  network which employs high bandwidth ATM links
  and internet services
• GrangeNet Advanced Networks Project

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AARNet2 Network
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Innovative Bandwidth Arrangements for Education
and Training
www.dest.gov.au/schools/publications/2001/bandwidt
h/index.htm
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Computer Technologies for Schools project

• the Commonwealth is providing surplus
  Commonwealth Government computers and IT
  equipment to schools across Australia
• since 1998, approximately 21,000 pieces of
  equipment have been donated
• we are currently considering private sector
  involvement

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Content

• The Learning Federation initiative
• supports the large-scale, collaborative
  development of a national pool of online
  curriculum resources that
• address national priorities, support Australias
  cultural identity and nurture innovative skills
  in young people
• are quality-assured Australian online school
  resources
• contributes to the development of the technical
  infrastructure for sharing online curriculum
  resources across school systems.

http//socci.edna.edu.au
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Australian Flexible Learning Framework - Toolboxes

• The online product (Toolboxes) development
  project supports the online delivery of VET
  qualifications
• toolboxes
• have a strong focus on teaching and learning
  strategies
• are designed to be readily customised by teachers.

www.flexiblelearning.net.au/toolbox
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Challenges for Australia

• professional development of teachers and
  education of pre-service teachers
• provision of adequate infrastructure and
  bandwidth for education and training
• lack of IT skill and knowledge in some sections
  of the population
• development of Australian content
• complexity of the digital divide issue

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Thank You