Teaching across the great divide

Vol 18. Number 01, January/February 2009

In 1922, the Primary Correspondence School in Brisbane was established, heralding a more productive and efficient way of teaching children in remote areas.

By 1933, correspondence lessons had replaced the last itinerant teacher who was transferred to a state school.

A remote student talks to his teacher and classmates via wireless.

A week's supply of lessons on each main subject was sent to students with the aim of one set of lessons on the way, one set with the student and a set on the way back or being corrected.

When the mail arrived each day the children's exercise books were sorted in the mail room and brought to the teachers for correcting before they were sent back.

The advent of radio, then known as the wireless, was the first technological advance for distance education.
School of the Air lessons began in Queensland in 1960 in Cloncurry, north-western Queensland, in the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) building.

For youngsters in the bush, the School of the Air was more than a teacher's voice giving instructions on their correspondence lessons. It was a way to talk with their classmates, often hundreds of kilometres away.

Although they never saw their students, many teachers came to know them well through the exchange of personal letters once a month.

The Cloncurry School of the Air relocated with the RFDS to Mount Isa in 1964 and over the next decade schools were opened in Charleville, Charters Towers and Cairns.

New technology has transformed the way education is delivered to isolated children. Radio has been superseded by the telephone, videos, CDs, DVDs and the internet. Schools of the air have been gradually replaced with seven schools of distance education in Brisbane, Cairns, Emerald, Charleville, Charters Towers, Longreach and Mount Isa.

Cairns School of Distance Education principal Jim Buzacott said the school had embraced information and communication technology, particularly virtual learning. Students interact with their teachers and classmates in real time through online courses, chats, blogs, collaborative projects and teleconferences.

'With new web conferencing coming on line this year, it will open up a new world,' Mr Buzacott said.

For more on how Queensland education has overcome the tyranny of distancego to www.education.qld.gov.au/marketing/publication/edviews