Indigenous Engagement through elearning in NSW North Coast
In 2005 TAFE NSW’s North Coast Institute was awarded funding by the 2005 Australian Flexible Learning Framework (2005 Framework) to undertake and develop two sustainable pilot elearning projects aimed at building the learning and employment opportunities and outcomes for Indigenous Australians.
Through the development of a number of community partnerships, including the setting up of community based computer centres known as ‘ehubs,’ the project team was able to actively engage the Maclean and Yamba Indigenous communities in vocational education and training.
How it all started…
Our projects evolved from previous initiatives North Coast Institute Maclean Campus had undertaken with both the Hillcrest (Maclean) and Pippi Beach (Yamba) Aboriginal communities. We had worked with the communities on a number of practical, hands on courses including Aboriginal Arts and Cultural Practices, Conservation and Land Management and most recently a basic information technology course for the Hillcrest Indigenous community, in particular their elders, known as Goori IT.
In the Mclean area the Indigenous communities are deeply suspicious of local educational facilities due to a history of exclusion. The communities frequently spoke of the need to have some sort of education facility managed by the community, within the community. The Goori IT course generated an interest in how elearning could benefit their communities. They were hopelessly under-resourced in terms of skills and infrastructure. It was at this time we started to develop the ‘ehub’ concept and we were fortunate to receive funding through the 2005 Framework’s Indigenous Engagement Project to further the initiative.
Walking with the communities down an elearning pathway
Our underpinning objective was ‘to strengthen the role of Indigenous people and communities in shaping vocational education and training provision’. The best way the Project Group saw this objective unfolding was to begin walking with the communities down an elearning pathway. The pathway had to build appropriate infrastructure – access to a convenient, community managed elearning resource through the development of community ehubs, which are a bank of networked computers, with current TAFE software and support.
The project had to equip the communities with appropriate elearning skills while building in relevance and real life outcomes. Finally the pathway had to be just that – a pathway with the capacity to extend beyond the life of the project.
The other key factor was that we were delivering two projects, not one. We were building the elearning capabilities of the communities while concurrently engaging with local employers to ensure employment outcomes. There were more than the usual synergies between these two projects – one was integral to the other. The most tangible demonstration of the power of elearning would lie in the youth of both communities gaining employment because of it. Likewise, it would be impossible to sustain continuing employment without community elearning infrastructure.
Significant highlights, achievements and outputs
The creation of the two ehubs has been the most significant elearning connection with people’s lives. The possibilities for their use are extensive with learning modules and courses able to be provided from anywhere in Australia, and even overseas. They have become homework and education centres for the communities and provide ebusiness opportunities and links with communities Australia wide.
There were a number of keys to the success of people, especially the elders, in IT use. Some related to using a strategy of whole of community wherever possible. Another key has been to make elearning concrete and related to people’s real life activities. Other keys have been in the particular personalised, or blended learning approach the program has enabled.
One important feature was to negotiate the time, place and form of teaching - learning interaction. Certain days were better than others – people’s times set the timetable. Fridays, in particular, became a day when the Campus ran only Goori programs. We were able to help organise transport for people who had difficulty in getting to the Campus. Lunch was a significant part of the day, organised by the elders. Some days would start off campus, at the community, and then later in the day move to campus IT labs and resource rooms.
Teaching and learning was flexible and supportive. People could attend when they were able to, and leave when they needed to. We team taught as much as possible. We also utilised peer tutoring, cross age tutoring and mentoring. These were based on practices that the community itself naturally used – here they were applied in an elearning context. Usually there was also a team leader present – a younger person more familiar with elearning. Often young people and elders would be in the same place, the young people moving around, showing and helping.
We were flexible about time frames – people took the time they needed to take to complete things. Different people worked on different content, at different paces, with people doing a range of different modules at the same time. People selected tasks and content that was important to them.
We used and adapted people’s earlier work in an elearning context. It was important to place cultural knowledge and history, including elders’ stories and illustrations from earlier courses, onto material developed during the project including the Yaegl web page (see link below), which documents the history and stories of the local Indigenous communities.
There were a few unforeseen initial consequences of the ehub opening which required the community to set rules for its use and have helped to shape and strengthen the ‘ehub’ as a community learning facility. These events led to new understandings about practices and procedures in elearning while at the same time providing a powerful demonstration of group decision making.
Setting up the ehubs has involved extensive community involvement and contributions besides networking computers. Community ownership of the ehubs has enhanced the project and anchored the learning and TAFE in the life of the communities.
A ‘Whole of Community’ approach
It has proven to be critical to involve the whole of the Lower Clarence community in this project. A range of community stakeholders have been engaged formally and informally in the project. We have formed partnerships with both local communities as well as peak local Indigenous bodies including 
the Nungera Aboriginal Cooperative which owns and manages substantial business interests in the Lower Clarence, and is responsible for all Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) programs in the valley. The project also involved the local council, businesses and Job Network providers who have been vital in helping to achieve the employment outcome of our second project.
The project has achieved all its goals and we have received interest from other communities in the area, and interstate, who are interested in following our model of sustainable community learning. We hope that Hillcrest and Pippi Beach can be positive examples of how Indigenous communities can strengthen their role in shaping vocational education and training provision.
See also
Two-Way Learning, February eZine 2006
