Volunteering with the School of the Air
This year, I’ve had for the pleasure of participating in the long distance Learning Assistance Programme (LAP) for the School of the Air in Australia. Every week (barring technical issues, travel breaks and school holidays) for one hour I have logged onto a special programme called Centra and communicated with a seven year old girl in central Australia. Because of our shared interests in travel, we have focused on geography. This meant learning a little of the language, landscape, art, architecture, cultural and social practices of a different place each week. Centra is an amazing tool – kind of like a combination of an interactive whiteboard, Facebook and Skype. It enables us to talk to one another and other people can join in, we can upload images and share them, make links to websites and write questions or simply illustrate things on the whiteboard.
The School of the Air (SOA) provides education for hundreds of children living on isolated properties in central Australia. Children who would otherwise have a limited education and opportunities for social engagements use various communication technologies to participate in school via the air. Begin in 1951 using radio, SOA now run their own ISP and utilise satellite technology. As a result, SOA’s history is a rich socio-technical chronicle of cutting edge technology adoption.
It is probably no surprise that SOA featured briefly in the intro to my PhD about innovative technology practices in Australia. It is a great example of an Australian world first that emerged from the fusion of available technologies, skills, isolation and challenging circumstances to meet basic needs. I saw it as emblematic of local knowledge, technical skills and the unique spatial character of the country and demonstrates the imperative to connect people across great distances. Despite the fact I had researched and written a little about SOA in my thesis, I had no real experience or contact with the service until March this year. Working as ethnographer for two months with Dr Genevieve Bell in her role as the 15th Thinker in Residence, our research lead us all over the state of South Australia. During this time we had the opportunity to visit a SOA office in Port Augusta where teachers work to teach their students online. We participated in a school assembly via Centra and Genevieve was interviewed by the Principal with input from students via voice and written questions on the shared whiteboard. It was then that I discovered LAP, run by the very supportive, super calm and time generous co-ordinator Vanessa Kirkham. With Vanessa’s help I cleared a Police check, was given access to and taught to use the computer programme and was matched with a student.
I have many notes of the rewarding experience of being a LAP volunteer (I’m an ethnographer of science and technology studies after all). I will post some of these over the next few months between school terms. I was also surprised on many occasions about the significant role the weather played in our communications. I was often (not unsurprisingly) unaware of weather conditions in central Australia and the effect it would have on our cross-hemisphere sessions. For instance, the massive dust storms that raged over central Australia in September this year and later hit the coast, covering Sydney with fine red dirt, resulted in cancelled lessons, and not just ours but literally days of school, as landlines and communication satellites were badly affected.
Temporal differences are also a unique aspect of my experience of LAP. All LAP volunteers, except for me, are located in Australia. Tonight for instance, because of the current 10.5 hour difference between London and South Australia (SA), the session for me starts at 22.30 which is 09.30 in SA. Earlier in the year, our sessions commenced at 7am London time which was 16.30 in the afternoon in SA. Tomorrow night is the end of year LAP morning tea which is an annual event to publicly thank volunteers for their commitment to LAP and students. I really want to attend this and I will even though for me it is not really morning tea time, but rather will involve midnight snacks.
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Update: A screen grab from last night’s SOA morning tea.
