Collaborations

NT Christian Schools Association

Meeting with Andrew White, Project Manager NT Christian Schools Association

Present: Bryce Anbins-King, John Greatorex, Michael Christie and Lorna Murakami-Gold
Venue: SAIKS
Time: 9.30 to 10.30am
Date: 11th August 2006

Summary of AFLF
The homelands micro-business (AFLF) is part of ICT and Remote Capacity. It is a short, intensive project. E-learning suppose to be for adults and family level micro business. Better to focus on family networks rather than Community governance. Michael, Bryce and John are going to talk to Greg Moo, Department of Education this afternoon.

Andrew’s involvement with Gawa -
Jack Nicholson visits once a term. Andrew hasn’t visited but speaks to Marilyn monthly. Peter Green is the IT person responsible for setting up equipment in the eight schools across the association. Tried radio links but not successful due to corrugated iron and the steel frame, have a satellite.
About to rollout Dell computers that will use the same platform as LATIS (commonly referred to as Son of LATIS) and therefore will be stable. Envisaged that there will be one PC per four children, and they will be backed up regularly. Need to talk to Greg Moo about this.

Why was the school built where it is?
The Tiwi College was built on the present site because of the land agreement, this has just been signed. Obtained funding of $700,000 and will use volunteer labour to extend the funds to ? 1.4 million. Cor Kuhl is the man responsible for infrastructure. The kitchen is a permanent structure on school site and this would be a good spot to place the satellite dish.

Cost of access of internet could cost $200; it might be worthwhile checking with Greg Moo as it might need upgrading. it depends on what is required of the internet, there are a number of factors to consider
-how many people will be using this connection at once, although it is legal to share one account throughout the community as they can be considered as one family group, the bandwidth available currently on a Telstra satellite connection could make this a bit slow.
-what type of applications are to be used, if we are going to try to video conferencing or remote desktop access we will require higher upload speeds that the current 128kb/s
- what additional infrastructure needs to be incorporated into a system which will supply the community, ie directional wireless boosters, ethernet routers etc

We will talk to Greg about this (JG)
Way around the cost is to call it a Learning Community. It will bring the cost down to $30 per annum per computer. (AW)
Classrooms ? Desktop

Need to find out what software that will be uploaded. It is more economical to buy all the software instead of buying some because of the price. It is very frustrating for the user to operate the machine when there are relevant parts missing due to cost saving measures. this often happens when the education department buys computers on mass, as by taking out a little from each computer they can make substantial savings, however previous research (ikrmna) has shown the need for good quality software and hardware for indigenous users as they have a propensity for using image based communication over word based applications
Additionally the power needs to be consistent.
Talk to Greg Moo about getting solar array to get stable power for the IT (AW)
Need a map of Gawa (MC)
Can get a site plan of the buildings, can also get an aerial photo. Could sell this project as a useful pilot for DEET. (AW)

Other E-Learning Options happening
Tiwi College opens in February in Melville Islands. It will house forty eight children and those from Milikapiti will board. There have been ninety expressions of interests. It is a joint partnership between Tiwi Education and NT Christian Schools and is for five years.

What role does Andrew White play?
Peter Green? (who is he) There are three to four people who work with Andrew White in ?adult education. Christian Schools is a Registered Training Organisation that has scope to teach education and construction. Able to do teacher aide education 2 and 3. Wolf? is the person who teaches the course. The best person to talk to about the education course is Lesley Freak the RTO coordinator on 89454355 at Marrara.

At this point Michael Christie and Bryce Anbins-King left the meeting.
Meredith is doing Certificate 2 in Education at BITTE. Marilyn is overseeing the training and Meredith’s position is part teaching and part AFLF Indigenous Champion.
Mapuru has forty children attending
Gawa –
Donydji – 25 students
Approached NT CSA for financial models and human and material resources
The coordinating person needs to be located at homelands not at Galiwin’ku. Gawa has high costs and having someone there would decrease costs. The person could have a PD role, training delivery role and ordering educational equipment/resources. (AW)