Posted October 2004 Online Literature Festival 2004
		Carolyn Keighley Learning Place Mentor West Moreton District Students from Australia and overseas have interacted with authors and illustrators in one of the biggest online events ever staged in Australia.

Four years ago, the Ipswich District Teacher-Librarian network started to run online chats between students and children's authors. Everyone wanted more – but the technology they were using was limited and lacked security.

Carolyn Keighley, Learning Mentor, West Moreton District and Jim D'Castro, Learning Mentor, Ipswich District, went looking for a better way.

Carolyn and Jim found the Learning Place could supply the online communication tools the Network needed. "The tools were easy to use, and, most importantly, it was a secure environment," Carolyn says. "And there was support available from other Learning Mentors."

The online chats rapidly grew into the Online Literature Festival, offered through the Learning Place.

"The Online Literature Festival has been linked with the Ipswich Children's Literature Festival in 2003, and the West Moreton Literary Fest in 2004," Carolyn says. "But the online festival offers an opportunity for schools who can't physically get to a festival site to participate. Schools all over Australia and even overseas have taken part."

Students connect with authors and illustrators in online chats, comic chats and forums. They ask questions, and give authors input on future book titles and characters.

The Online Literature Festival is now one of the biggest online events staged in Australia. In 2004, more than 4700 students interacted with 64 authors and illustrators.

"Students, especially in remote areas, were able to talk to people they admire, and wouldn't normally get to meet," Carolyn says. "That experience can be life changing for some students."

Teachers had the opportunity to experiment with new technology in a highly productive, educational – and affordable – way.

In 2005, with the assistance of the Learning Place, the Online Literature Festival will expand to data conferencing and comic chat using specially-developed characters.

"The Festival puts so many individuals in contact with other people," Carolyn says. "It's opened up whole new avenues of communication."