distance learning

Offline distance education (already happening all around Australia) can be highly successful

May 4, 2020rural and remote education in Australiadistance education in Australia, distance learning, Natalie Downes, offline distance education, online and distance education, Philip Roberts, school distance education

As many of our children continue with their online learning, there is concern that those with limited access to technology will be disadvantaged. Access to online technology is indeed important, however Australia has been schooling children through distance education long before online connectivity was an option. As distance education teachers, we can reassure concerned families, and schools new to distance education, that offline learning can be very successful. In fact some of the best learning occurs in the offline component of distance education.

Getting the offline work out to students, given the sudden transition we are all experiencing, might be a logistical problem to some schools at the moment. However, with every passing day our schools are finding new solutions. In NSW schools are lending computers to students who don’t have them, other schools are arranging mail outs, or delivering paper copies of work and others are sending out USB drives with work uploaded.

What is offline distance education?

Distance education schools allow children who cannot attend a face-to-face school to stay in their own home while working with a teacher who is located at a physical school elsewhere. Students in these schools communicate with their teacher by post, telephone, and online platforms, and the teacher sends them lessons to complete each week with the assistance of a supervisor, who is usually a parent. This is similar to what happening right now in most of our schools.

While teachers communicate regularly with their students, the majority of learning in distance education schools is completed offline, with students and home supervisors using lesson guides sent by teachers. In the younger years of schooling teachers send scripted lessons so that supervisors can read these to their students.

In the higher years of schooling the students work more independently, relying less on the supervisor. It is important to note that like many parents at the moment, these supervisors are un-trained educators, and they are also managing day-to-day work, life, and childcare responsibilities.

One of the benefits of distance education is the valuable and productive collaboration it encourages between parent supervisors and teachers.

Our research – what works in offline distance education

Our research explored the experiences of parent supervisors of primary school

distance education students. We found the opportunities distance education can bring to schooling are important and should be part of the discussions we have when talking about distance education.

Instead of looking at what students are missing out on, we need to flip the conversation and look at what these children now have access to.

Although distance education schools are usually expected to operate as much like face-to-face schools as possible, supervisors report that the best results occur when they are flexible and make the most of incidental learning opportunities. Children are still able to learn the concepts intended in the lessons set by the teachers, but the supervisors adapt the lessons to meet the students’ contextual needs, building on their life experiences, and fitting in with their families’ life.

For example, one family described how they knew one of the lessons they would need to do involved teaching their children to count, so instead of doing it between 9-3 in the schoolroom they taught their children to count while mustering cattle. Another described teaching her children mathematical concepts while doing housework. In these examples, school and home became integrated, and learning became a part of day to day life of the children. The environment students had access to became a learning advantage, not a disadvantage.

Learning to count while mustering cattle is certainly not the way a face-to-face classroom would normally operate. It is teaching in a manner that is adaptive and responsive to the different needs of students and their families. But the outcome is the same, that is, the children now know how to count.

Those supervisors who reported trying to ‘do’ schooling in a manner similar to face-to-face school experienced problems. It was difficult to organise their children’s schooling between 9-3, around all the other expectations of working on remote properties. Supervisors were then finding they needed to make a choice between their farm/business, or their children’s education, causing large amounts of stress for them. Parents would also describe how their children struggled with the high volume of sedate work, and with content that did not relate to their children’s life experiences at all. The parents reported how their children would then become disheartened and disengage with school because they felt schooling didn’t value or understand their life experiences, and learning became a struggle because they didn’t understand the examples used.

What does this mean for the schooling in the current climate?

In the current circumstance, with schooling in Australia rapidly shifting to learning at home, the insights of distance education suggest that:

The intended outcome of the lesson should be clear to supervisors – that way parents can take incidental opportunities to help their children learn.
We need to think of education more broadly than formal face-to-face schooling.
Parents can restructure the day to fit the child’s rhythm.
We need to make sure we have breaks as well. Pick the opportunities to ‘teach’ and make other times just family time.

While the distance education mode of schooling was at times challenging to the supervisors in our study , they all reported they would choose this mode of schooling over any other option due to the benefits it provided.

Students don’t need to have access to all the things they did in face-to-face schools because of the wide-range of rich educational opportunities in their homes. We can choose to now rethink how we see schooling and embrace the experiences around us.

Face-to-face schooling in a classroom with a teacher from 9-3 doesn’t work for some children, and it shouldn’t have to. Distance education is a key example of this. It is already working for thousands of students every year.

Yes indeed, as many parents are now finding out, supporting older children to learn some specialist subjects can be daunting. But it’s no less daunting than, with the support and guidance of a teacher who is physically somewhere else, teaching a pre-literate or pre-numerate child to read and count. Parents do this every day in remote areas across Australia.

Philip Roberts is an Associate Professor (Curriculum Inquiry / Rural Education) at the University of Canberra and Research Leader of the Rural Education and Communities Research Group and ARC DECRA fellow at the University of Canberra, where he convenes units across the fields of Educational Sociology and Curriculum Inquiry. His major ongoing research focuses on place, the sustainability of rural communities, and the interests of the least powerful in our society. Philip’s work is situated within rural sociology, the sociology of knowledge, educational sociology and social justice and is informed by the spatial turn in social theory and sustainability. He leads the University of Canberra’s Rural Education & Communities Research Group. Philip is on Twitter @DrPhilRob

Natalie Downes is a research assistant in the Rural Education & Communities Research Group in the Faculty of Education, University of Canberra. Her research interests include rural distance education, rural-regional sustainability and the ethical working impact of working with rural people and communities. Natalie also works with the University of Canberra Widening Participation unit assisting with program evaluation and reporting and has previously worked as a Research Officer at the university. She has been an executive member of the Society of the Provision of Education in Rural Australia and editor of the Board of the International Journal of Rural Education. She has worked on projects with the Rural Education Research Student’ Network which focuses on supporting students, early career researchers and community members interested in rural education. Natalie is on Twitter @NatDownes10

We would like to acknowledge the knowledge and experiences shared with us by teachers and parents for whom this mode of learning is the day to day norm

Will mass schooling-at-home lead to the death of schools?

April 13, 2020COVID-19 and schoolsdeath of schools, distance learning, home schooling, Julian Sefton-Green, online schooling, schooling at home, schooling during the lockdown, schooling in the pandemic

All over the country families are trying to cope with the consequences of helping educate their children at home. The immediate short-term problems are trying to keep children engaged in learning activities provided by teachers, but already medium-term challenges are casting terrifying shadows. Centre-stage is the inequality around digital access which affects all of us but especially children in remote and/or indigenous communities who don’t have access to the screens and broadband which might allow them to participate in the range of education on offer.

Then there is the problem of examination results, completion of courses and the consequences for graduation for this particular generation with of course a concomitant knock on affect for enrolment at University. There are indeed too many problems to list from teacher recruitment and education for “next year”, whenever that is, regulating the conduct of adults and children online, back to the consequences of such a huge break in everyday school routines. Family life is yet another story!

I have characterised the consequences “after the pandemic” as medium-term in the sense that they are currently being formulated as a detour which will eventually lead back to the norm. However, this piece really wants to lay out some discussion of the longer term because the pandemic could have an extraordinary effect on the current institution of schooling.

Distance learning and teaching

Let’s start with distance learning. Teachers and lecturers are scrambling not just to become fluent across different platforms and programs, but with the pedagogical ramifications of impersonal delivery, changes in debate, discussion, feedback, encouragement, support and discipline.

Every element of the teaching and learning process is up for renegotiation and evaluation. Some will find this process challenging, others are going to find it an interesting way of questioning core principles and theories of learning. The effects will not be uniform. How teachers are supported, how they can work together, how different subjects and curriculum areas develop and how students of different ages respond are all going to be part of the matrix of change processes on offer.

Different technologies, differential cultural capital in homes supporting distance learning will be crucial parts of this equation. The reliance on digital technology will also raise two fundamental questions about: commercialisation and commodification of the curriculum; and the relationship of individualisation to theories of learning.

Legitimisation of commercial materials and tech company platforms

One immediate popular response to the current crisis has been a call for central government institutions, like the ABC, to provide high standard, common curriculum materials. These are imagined as temporary replacement for teacher-led and teacher designed classroom materials.

At the same time teachers and parents have drawn on the huge range of commercial materials available online. The economics of scale dictate that these are rarely going to be nationally appropriate and so form part of a global ‘universal’ curriculum. The maths “Khan Academy” is a good example of this. On the whole, the curriculum and pedagogy design of these kinds of materials involves relatively self-contained measurable exercises that allow students to mark progress.

In many ways both the idea of an ABC or a commercially provided curriculum mimic peoples’ expectations of how schools work, how curriculum is designed and how assessment is a stepped process of progression.

The crisis has framed parental responsibilities in terms of the ways that many people see school – as the imposition of discipline – but with the additional problem of it being the parent who has to act as the teacher but taking place in isolation in the home. Being online, it is also assumed is a new kind of isolation.

The question here is whether this model of curriculum delivery – of a set of self-contained packages that be can be consumed individually by a compliant student is a model of education that, it will now be assumed, could replace schools across society. In other words, has the crisis legitimated the new technology companies to disseminate more and more online platform-based learning experiences to replace teacher expertise, classrooms, and school as a learning experience?

Home as the new conduit

As I have already implied, the model of learning at the heart of the <platform – screen – child – feedback – progression> scenario is profoundly individualised. Not only is the child addressed in isolation, but collaborative and collective activities, (much more difficult to devise and implement) are set aside in favour of the fundamental principle of measuring progress to the next level. Such processes are central to this kind of platform pedagogy. Here, the crisis induced home-schooling or more accurately school-at-home has only taken to its logical conclusion the total centralisation of schools away from teachers, principals, State and local autonomy.

Whereas it could be argued that the school is the conduit for the national curriculum and national standards, now the home will simply be the new conduit for the school thus enabling all children to exist in an entirely individualised relationship with the state. That is a very particular and culturally specific definition of what we want education to do and certainly we need to ask whether that is an appropriate model for a post pandemic society.

Effect on curriculum and academic attainment

Indeed, this question will become only the more urgent in the face of what looks like a likely severe and painful economic downturn. This will be a new experience for Australia. The model of schooling with its emphasis on competitive achievement will also be exposed by the post pandemic world. What will opportunities for employment look like?

The emphasis on academic attainment as a route to social mobility will surely come under stress and require different kinds of curriculum policy, different kinds of ethical behaviours and different kinds of social imaginings – as indeed we have witnessed both with the fires and the best of community support over recent months.

Women and the home

One of the most frightening aspects to the home-schooling phenomenon has been the questions it has asked of women in the home, as school’s role in allowing women into the labour market has been thrown the spotlight. When families are struggling with their children’s education at home, it has been the working mothers who have been at the pointy end of conflicts and compromise.

In a future of contracting employment opportunities, will the home now be a viable “conduit” for centralised curriculum and individualised testing? Will parents become experts in ensuring that their children follow a range of Silicon Valley inspired platform-based learning programs? And why? Some families are discovering other forms of learning, other forms of social engagement, and other ways of relating. It will be interesting to see whether these become the basis for new versions for schooling in the future.

Julian Sefton-Green is Professor of New Media Education in the Faculty of Arts and Education at Deakin University. Julian has led research projects exploring learning in the home and out of school, focusing on the role of digital technology and changing pedagogies. He is interested in all things digital from a critical perspective. He has studied: classroom interactions, school life, curriculum change, creative media practices, youth community centres and out-of-school digital cultures over the last 30 years. He is particularly interested in forms of learning outside school, both in non-formal learning institutions and in everyday social activities; and how these might play a part in wider political projects of educational reform.

Online schooling and distance ed? Don’t be afraid, we’ve been doing and improving it for 100 years

March 23, 2020online learning and distance education, rural and remote education in Australiadistance learning, Natalie Downes, online learning, Philip Roberts, school distance education, school of the air

Amid all the concerns about closing schools and setting up online learning In Australia it is important to note that Australia is actually a world leader in school distance education. Indeed, distance learning is not only achievable for Australian students, but very normal for many students around our large island continent. In rural and remote regions of Australia, students have been learning ‘by distance’ since the inception of ‘school of the air’ in Alice Springs over 100 years ago.

We want to tell you about distance learning in Australia and how our nation’s experiences and development of distance learning can help as we move into closing our schools. We know parents are worried that their children will be disadvantaged, particularly those in the final years of schooling. Many parents worry that they won’t be able to support their children’s learning at home. Teachers are worried about how to develop and deliver lessons online

What is distance learning?

Distance learning in Australia usually involves students working remotely with their teacher who leads their class using a combination of ‘synchronous’ and ‘asynchronous’ learning. Synchronous learning is where children are learning in real time, often with other students who join in from their remote locations, and asynchronous learning is where learning is online but without real time interaction. While distance education originally involved communication via post and two-way radio, technological advancement now sees this occurring through more advanced forms of technological communication using laptops or computers, video conferencing and so on. This technology allows students to interact face-to-face with their teachers and with other students both in their remote school and elsewhere.

At present distance education schools are typically delivered to students who cannot attend the local school. This is usually because students are deemed to live too far away from a school to reasonably attend, have chronic illnesses, are travelling, or to make available subjects a school can’t offer due to lower numbers wanting to take them, for instance languages. School authorities expect these students to work in almost the same manner as children in a face-to-face school do, with set hours for schooling and a designated learning space. In the early years of schooling, teachers provide lessons that are scripted almost word for word for supervisors to implement with their students, and these are usually given to the supervisors weeks in advance.

The many ways distance learning is used in schools across Australia

Today most states and territories in Australia offer distance education programs. For example in NSW, the Access program offers a shared curriculum for senior secondary students across five clusters of isolated schools across the state. Small cohorts of students interact with each other and their teacher through videoconferencing and collaborative technologies. It has been operating since about 1990.

Within the Access program the Riverina and Northern Borders Access programs began in 1990 and in more remote areas the ‘Wilvandee’ Access program – linking Wilcannia, Ivanhoe and Menindee (initially) began in 1994. Schools within a vicinity share a teacher in specialist subjects, with the specialist teacher physically situated at one of the network schools. In this way schools are able to provide a breadth of curriculum access in the senior secondary years that would otherwise not be possible due to student and staff numbers.

Schools co-timetable to ensure students have half their lessons as live video conference lessons. The other half comprises of structured learning activities using a learning management system, such as Moodle or the newer Microsoft schools products. Students in Access programs attend their local community school for these lessons, even though they may in practice have no ‘traditional’ lessons at their school.

Also in NSW, in 2015 the Aurora College was established as a virtual selective high school to ensure rural and isolated students in NSW could access selective schooling (where enrolment is based on academic merit) regardless of location. Here students from all across the state, who have passed the selective schools test, learn in a virtual environment organized in a similar manner to the Access program. The continued success of Aurora College shows that online learning in Australia can extend academically gifted students as well as provide the usual curriculum.

While we have used examples from NSW, similar programs exist around Australia in other states and territories. For instance in large parts of Western Australia education is provided through distance education and school of the air.

It is also important to note that while online learning is an important part of distance education, it is not the only way students undertake lessons. Students also undertake lessons ‘offline’ using learning materials provided by the teachers to guide them.

What can schools and teachers learn from our distance education experience?

We have reviewed research literature about the use of technology to connect students to schooling and found there are five main types of relationships involved. Distance education teachers are working with these relationships, and we think they would be crucial to developing successful online or distance education programs.

Learner to teacher relationship

This involves how the learner and teacher are connected. What is the teacher-student relationship? What are the interpersonal experiences when the student is involved in face to face learning? Is the child engaged and motivated, connected?

Learner to learner (peer) relationships

How are peers connected? How is peer learning encouraged and supported? Is it moderated?

Learner’s relationship to the content

How do we link students to the content? Can they work with it outside face to face teaching? What type of content should be used? How does the content support knowledge building? What is the role of the learner?

Learner to system relationship

Using the right tools to engage the student with the content. How do learners interact with the technology? Is the navigation and pace of learning working? Structured v unstructured.

Vicarious interaction or social presence

What is the social presence of the child? Are they ‘being present’, feeling they belong, able to feel the support and presence of other children in the group from their remote access? Are they experiencing that ‘being at school’ sense?

While all of this might sound daunting to some, many isolated parents, with Distance Education provision, support their children to learn literacy and numeracy from kindergarten. Some parents describe this type of learning as more effective and connected to their students’ needs and interests, because of the flexibility it allows.

Distance learning is also not the panacea. There are many families, particularly in remote and other poorer communities, who don’t have access to the necessary technology or internet service. Others don’t have the experience or prior learning to support their children in online learning. This is one reason why programs like the NSW Access program that run through schools are valuable and shouldn’t be replaced by distance learning as the only option.

The future of schooling

Overall, these schools remind us that distance learning is possible, as long as we see that ‘school’ doesn’t have to mean numbers of children attending one setting together. In fact there are many advantages of this learning mode. For example, in the Access networks teachers know their students and contexts, which makes for richer learning when thinking back to basic education theory. Students in distance education or Schools of the Air have access to a rich learning environment in their day to day lives and backyards.

Importantly, having to do school online isn’t so much a revolution or cause for concern, it’s the everyday normal for thousands of children. The reaction to the closing schools brings into sharp focus the assumption that schooling is face-to-face when it is not for so many students in Australia. More so, it reminds us that rather than rural education constantly being framed as ‘disadvantaged’ it should in fact now be showcased as ‘world leading’.

This provides an opportunity to highlight a key equity issue beneath assumptions. Online learning can be as good as ‘real school’. It is for those communities, students and teachers for whom it is already their everyday reality.

We would like to acknowledge the knowledge and experiences shared with us by teachers and parents for whom this mode of learning is the day to day norm

For teachers wanting a little light moment in all of this. Here is Michael Bruening An associate professor of history and political science at Missouri University of Science and Technology, singing his ‘I will survive coronavirus version‘.