The Largest Classroom in the World

Abstract

Even a top-performing nation can have problems. The results of the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) showed Australia near the top, but it has slipped since the first round of PISA in 2000. Indeed, its decline was the fifth largest among members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Of special concern was that its best-performing students had slipped compared to counterparts in other top-ranked nations, and the gap between highand low-performing students was as wide as ever. This gap was particularly evident in comparisons of students in different settings: urban and rural/remote, advantaged and disadvantaged, nonindigenous and indigenous (Aboriginal). The relatively low performance of students in rural and remote schools is not unique to Australia, but it presents special difficulties in this nation/continent, which has relatively large cities around its coast but otherwise has a highly dispersed population. Of the public schools in Australia, 25% have fewer than 100 students. A major difficulty is attracting and keeping top-class teachers and principals. Each state has offered incentives to work in these settings, but they have had little effect. However, two developments promise to help close the gap. Both provide a model for other nations with large numbers of students in rural and remote settings. Not surprisingly, one involves technology. The other involves new funding models for schools. The School of the Air The School of the Air supports thousands of students, each at a different location. It has been called the largest classroom in the world, serving an area of about a half million square miles. The School of the Air was established in Alice Springs in 1950. Today, it has 12 centers, with over 1,000 students in some of the most remote parts of the country. Until the turn of the century, the school used high-frequency radio to provide lessons. Most of the curriculum was covered through correspondence lessons mailed to students, with regular telephone conversations between teachers and students. Learning changed with the advent of e-mail, computer links, video, and the Internet. This new approach, piloted in 2000, used modern communications technology with about 20 students between 7 and 10 years old who lived on cattle and sheep stations across a landscape 50% larger than Texas. Students accessed online course materials and services, received immediate feedback on their learning, and addressed learning outcomes in social skills, literacy, knowledge of information and communications technology, and group and team skills. Indicators of success included improvement in reading and comprehension skills and observed changes in attitude toward study and behavior, as well as ease and frequency of access. In 2003, the School of the Air launched an AU $17 million, two-way, broadband satellite network that covered some of the most remote regions in the nation, including all of the Northern Territory and parts of New South Wales. …