New England Writers' Centre Youth Online Program

Mr RICHARD TORBAY (Northern Tablelands—Speaker) [6.37 p.m.]: One of the biggest problems facing country communities wanting to participate fully in the telecommunications revolution is actually gaining access to technology. In the area in which I live it is still difficult for many people to access anything other than intermittent dial-up services. However, fortunately, most schools in isolated areas throughout the State now have broadband connection. Today I bring to the attention of the House how this access has facilitated a very successful and popular program being run by the New England Writers Centre for some of the most isolated small schools in the State.

Our writers' centre has been very effective in bringing together writers in the region through workshops, visiting writers programs and other activities. Online programs for outreach purposes are available where face-to-face activities are not possible because of remoteness and isolation. The touring component of a youth online project, which began last year, took performance artist Miles Merrill to six schools to give workshops in writing techniques and performing written work. Four tutors took 10 online workshops to more isolated schools. A total of 408 children took part in the workshops, with 333 involved in the primary and secondary school face-to-face workshops with Miles Merrill. A further 75 primary children joined the online workshops with tutors Sophie Masson, Susan McMichael, Janice Burn and Lesley Sly, all published and accomplished local writers.

Schools taking part in the Miles Merril tour included Guyra Central, Glen Innes, Armidale and Duval high schools and the Armidale Waldorf School. Online workshops were held at the more isolated Chandler, Wytaliba, Yarrowitch, Blackville, Mingoola, Premer, Bendemeer, Nowendoc and Wongwibinda public schools. The ages of the students spanned from six to twelve years, with a maximum of eight children for each online session. The process involved writers sending material outline by email and students then writing their stories in class and emailing them back to the writers.
The writers edited the stories, made comments and notes and returned them to the students. Following that there was a 45-minute live chat to discuss the edited work and for the children to ask questions. Feedback from the schools was that the children were excited about their work being read by 'real' writers and they regarded it as quite different from writing essays in class. They saw the chat part of the session as giving them a chance to ask questions about becoming a professional writer.
Another benefit of this ongoing project is that it gives local writers paid work and the opportunity to develop their tutorial skills and potentially gives the New England Writers' Centre access to tutors outside the area and even overseas. Last year's program was supported by Arts NSW, Regional Arts Fund Australia, Telstra Country Wide with free broadband, the public libraries of New England, the New England Credit Union and the Department of Education and Training, which provided access to schools through its web services, a protected Internet site. Most of the live chats were delivered online although there were some phone conferences with six-year-olds. The centre now plans to look into video conferencing. Although Webcam is another effective delivery system, it requires participants to have fast computers and fast broadband to really work smoothly, and in the bush fast broadband is a problem, even with satellite.
I urge the government to continue its support for this very effective online project backed up by operations and program funding. The possibilities for delivering writing skills to youth in New England through this system are both endless and low cost. In the first half of 2008, the Writers' Centre is offering six online workshops and hopes to raise funding for more later in the year. I will finish by quoting from a letter from one of the teachers whose students participated in the online project:

The quality of work produced by the students is testimony to the importance of such an enterprise. Rural isolated students such as ours, benefit enormously from such services being delivered online. As the comments illustrate this has been a wonderfully motivational, enjoyable and educational experience for all students. The highlight for myself, as the classroom teacher, has been the opportunity to observe the students' progress, attitude changes and engagement with the writing process. How powerful it is to have an author valuing students' written work and providing students with positive suggestions, feedback and time! The springboard into new technology has been an added bonus for our school."

This is a very worthwhile project.