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A National Strategy For Australian Education and Training to Maximise Opportunities Offered by High Capacity Communication Services

A useful futures paper must integrate the creative and the analytical, the visionary and the historical. 'If we have not the time to understand the past, we will have not have the insight to control the future; for the past never leaves us and the future is already here'.

Lewis Mumford, The Conditions of Man, 1994

FOREWORD

The Future is Already Here is a National Strategy for Australian education and training to maximise opportunities offered by the use of high capacity communication services. It provides a framework and strategic direction to those in education and training to make full use of the communication services environment, which is increasingly becoming part of the Australian way of life.

The Strategy will stimulate a substantial shift in how we manage the undisputed and inevitable changes taking place in Australian education and training as we become part of the global communications network. We hope the Strategy will enthuse and excite all involved so that a communication services - based teaching and learning culture becomes an integral component of Australian education and training in all areas and at all levels.

The Strategy is the result of an investigation, analysis and extensive consultation process. There are many innovative and exciting developments in the application of information and communications technology to teaching and learning. We need to build on these practices so that today's leading edge learning activities will move towards common usage and a new paradigm involving high capacity communication services.

Adoption and implementation of this Strategy will help us establish and maintain our place among the leading nations of the world, while making even stronger our already robust education and training systems.

This is a Strategy for the future, and the future is already here.

Julie Carr
Chairperson
Education Broadband Reference Group

INTRODUCTION

Australia's aim, as we move towards the 21st century, is for an environment that makes full use of high capacity communication services to improve learning outcomes. In order to move towards full participation in an increasingly competitive information-based global market and to maximise the potential of our highly skilled and educationally empowered community, our governments must engage in collaborative activity. Effective education and training development at all levels, and competition in the global market place, will be facilitated by a broadly agreed communication services strategy for Australia.

High capacity (or broadband) communication services will influence, significantly, the redesign of learning because they have the potential to:

• transform the pattern of delivery of education and training;
• enhance access to educational programs and resources that would not otherwise be available; and
• increase the amount, type and speed of information to allow synchronous (real time) and asynchronous (delayed time) learning.

Currently, a variety of low capacity (or narrowband) communication services are used in Australian education and training. We have a strong tradition of innovation in the use of computer and other technologies in teaching and learning. There is considerable, but until recently, ad hoc activity in all states and territories: providing access to the Internet, implementing professional development programs, developing curriculum support material and providing hardware. Low capacity networks have not reached their full potential in education and training because of high prices and very limited access to new digital communications infrastructures. Technical development has not been introduced uniformly. The technical capability that is available has tended to precede the capacity of educators to develop content, training and strategies as part of mainstream activity.

It is improbable that high capacity infrastructure will just appear, but more likely that low capacity infrastructure will evolve or migrate towards a service structure that increasingly provides high capacity communication services characteristics. The eventualities of this evolution, in respect to Australian education and training, are not yet in clear focus other than the reality that today's leading-edge innovations are moving towards common usage, and that a new paradigm involving high capacity communication services will evolve to supersede current practice.

It is essential to Australia's future participation in an increasingly competitive global information economy to recognise that the move towards high capacity communication services will be incremental and that governments must adopt and implement a Strategy that:

• assures easy, equitable and affordable delivery of education and training services to all Australians, regardless of location and circumstance;
• enhances access to education and training services generally;
• includes a training and development component to guarantee the availability of practitioners;
• encourages a culture of innovation in learning environments; and
• stimulates the development of content.

Effective incorporation of high capacity communication services into the education and training environment will require us all to accept the challenge to engage in a fundamental re-think of existing structures, organisation and activities related to education and training. Globalisation of information and communications technology requires that governments engage in unprecedented collaboration, nationally and internationally, in order to articulate their services and products to the requirements of a global market place.

This Strategy has been developed within the context of a set of guiding principles (Appendix 1). It has been developed by Australia's education and training community as a result of careful analysis and investigation. The report of the investigation is contained in a separate document, the Final Report.

The Strategy is presented in three sections.

In Section One, the role of the National Strategy is outlined. Its purpose is defined, its potential to add value to education and training is explored, its beneficiaries are identified, and its relationship to the Broadband Services Expert Group's strategy is explained.

In Section Two, the context of high capacity communication services for education and training is elucidated. Terms are defined and the relationship of low to high capacity communication services, explored. International and national directions are noted and pedagogical considerations are flagged.

In Section Three, eight key enabling factors, that have been identified as the pre-requisites for a successful transition to high capacity communication services environment in Australian education and training, are presented. Targets, that are necessary to the success of this transition, and agreed to by representatives of all sectors and systems, are delineated. Actions to achieve these targets are set out.

The eight key enabling factors are:

• equitable and affordable learner access to high capacity communication networks and services;
• conducive telecommunications regulatory frameworks;
• mechanisms to stimulate content development;
• training, development and participation of all education workers;
• internationalisation of Australian education and training;
• flexible and responsive funding models;
• fostering innovative practice, debate and understanding; and
• progressing, monitoring and reviewing implementation of the Strategy.

These are not presented in ranked order. They are of equal importance, complementary and interrelated. The first two factors highlight the necessity to get the technology infrastructure right; for without easy, affordable and reliable services the potential of high capacity communication services in education and training will not be realised.

• The Strategy will be used to:
• give strategic direction and focus;
• engage, enthuse, excite and stimulate those working in education and training;
• underpin the development of inter-governmental collaboration; and
• guide, at the level of principle, investment decisions of institutions, sectors, states and territories, recognising their autonomy and individual needs and characteristics.

In general, the terms 'broadband' and 'narrowband' do not feature in this document. The Strategy is concerned with the use of communication services to provide a transport mechanism upon which learners can access education and training programs, products and services in a reliable, equitable and affordable way. It is the degree of capacity that is the issue. Consequently, the terms 'low capacity' and 'high capacity' communication services are the preferred terms.

The work and benefits associated with high capacity communication services are a growing part of today's education and training culture and require ongoing development as part of our current mission, rather than as a preparatory step for some, as yet, undefined event in the future.

THE ROLE OF THE NATIONAL STRATEGY

What are the purposes of a National Strategy?

• The main purposes of the targets and actions described in this Strategy are to:
• enable learners to access educational resources not available locally;
• enable learners to interact with distant teachers and other learners;
• prepare education workers to work effectively in a changing environment; and
• create, in Australia, the conditions under which innovative and competitive education and training products, appropriate to the needs of Australian learners, can develop and flourish.

Significant cultural and socio-economic benefits to Australia can be achieved by:

• producing a highly skilled, aware and educationally empowered community;
• maintaining and reinvigorating regional and remote communities;
• maximising our opportunities in the global educational and training market;
• minimising the potential of an influx of international product that may challenge our cultural identity; and
• stimulating the local production and development of appropriate courseware.

The Strategy assigns to Australian governments primarily a catalytic role, recognising that market forces will inevitably play a key role in growing high capacity communication services in Australia, and that the private and community sectors each have a role to play alongside governments.

It assigns to governments additional roles in recognition of the potential for market failure and the inequities and inefficiencies consequent on such failure. These roles include a minimum, essential regulatory role and the role of monitoring the development of high capacity communication services in the market place.

The Strategy recognises the diversity of the Australian education and training systems and that the delivery of high capacity communication services for education and training is primarily the responsibility of individual institutions, states and territories, and sectors. However, it also recognises that such services cannot reach their potential in Australia without commitment by all governments to national collaboration and effort. A common purpose and a shared framework, provided by this Strategy, is the starting point for this collaboration.

How will use of high capacity communication services add value to education and training?

High capacity services are a range of communication services that use still or moving video, images, sound, text, and data singly or in combination.

High capacity differs from low because it increases capacity to communicate high volumes of information quickly; which, in turn, has the potential to impact on education and training by permitting various forms of interactive virtual learning environments and providing remote presence.

The application of high capacity communication services to education and training has the potential to build more effective approaches to learning and teaching through increased flexibility of program delivery, changed interaction between students and teachers, individualised learning programs and a new understanding of knowledge and learning. Our experience confirms that use of technology can assist learners with thinking and problem solving, encourage greater skill and control of learning activities, allow self-directed exploration and discovery, increase access to information, support creativity and imagination, encourage group cooperation and interaction, provide opportunities for self-assessment and testing of understanding, and enhance abilities to gather, collate, process, store, communicate and share information.

The gradual migration from low to high capacity communication services provides opportunities to trial and assess future trends within the education and training environment as high capacity services evolve.

Emerging high capacity communication networks and services must be harnessed in an intelligent and sensitive way to achieve and reflect the goals and principles of the Australian education and training systems and sectors. Their use offers opportunities for innovation to enhance learning outcomes, education and training delivery, and access to services.

Who benefits?

The principal beneficiaries of the Strategy are learners and, as a consequence, Australian society and economy must benefit. All Australian learners must be able to access and fully use opportunities for participation in global information technology and communication services so that their education and training opportunities are enhanced.

There are considerable benefits for education and training including:

• realising the potential of an open learning approach in collaboration with other sectors and industries;
• increasing flexibility and greater responsiveness to client requirements;
• increasing access to education and training generally;
• enabling access to information and educational resources that provide
• the opportunity for learner interaction and dynamic and innovative
• practices;
• offering benefits for educators and learners, since using high capacity communication services presents new challenges, experiences and enhances learning outcomes;
• collaborating and forming partnerships with other agencies in getting the right services at the right price from the infrastructure specialists, carriers and service providers;
• reducing duplication of effort, and building on shared information resources at the state and territory, systems and sector levels; and
• providing the means for greater articulation, life-long learning, credit assessment and recognition, and client focus.

How does his Strategy complement the Broadband Services Expert Group's strategy?

This Strategy is based on the central elements of the Broadband Services Expert Group's strategy for the development of a managed evolutionary approach to networked services, building on:

• opportunities offered by existing services and infrastructures;
• an environment in which participants can be brought together in the public interest;
• policies developed in response to changing technologies and services;
• balanced development of infrastructure and development of services; and
• leadership at the highest level within government and the community.

It is important to build on existing system and sector infrastructures and initiatives. The various achievements by Commonwealth, state and territory governments in this area in the recent past are recognised, but there are real concerns that they have not become sufficiently embedded in the education and training sectors to achieve maximum effectiveness towards improved learning outcomes.

This Strategy is the next step in the continued development of the use of technology in education and training. It represents a long term view of the development of education and training services using information technology and telecommunications.

THE CONTEXT OF HIGH CAPACITY COMMUNICATION SERVICES

Understanding communcation services

'High capacity communication services' is a general term that reflects the capacity to communicate high volumes of information quickly. If vision is incorporated with sound, text and data, an information package is created that needs high capacity data links.

High capacity services, are a range of communication services that transport still or moving video, images, sound, text and data, singly or in combination.

High capacity communication services offer the opportunity for greater transmission of data and interactivity than that available through use of low capacity services. This, in turn, has the potential to impact on education and training to permit various forms of interactive virtual learning environments and to provide remote presence. These have implications that require teaching, learning and organisational strategies conducive to a new educational paradigm, strategies that will be significantly different from present practices.

The major differences between high capacity (broadband) and low capacity (narrowband) communication services are the degree of interactivity arising from improvements in speed of data transfer, low delay and the volume that can be transferred.

The relationship of low to high capacity communication networks and services

Current low capacity networks support voice, electronic mail (e-mail), the World Wide Web and other low data rate services. While existing low capacity networks up to 64 Kbit/s (Kilobits per second) are able to transport and process information (but not at sufficient speed to fully support the image and video services that truly characterise high capacity services), high capacity networks are intrinsically capable of supporting all current low capacity services. High capacity networks will tend to be multi-service networks, and, from the point of view of users, high capacity communication services will tend to develop in an evolutionary way from current services.

The assertion by the Broadband Services Expert Group (BSEG) that communication services require a network that supports both high and low capacity is fully supported. The focus must be on interactive communication networks generally, regardless of whether they fit a particular bandwidth definition. In many cases digital narrowband solutions will evolve to broadband ones. In recognition of this, the BSEG has called for a managed evolutionary approach to the development of infrastructure and services.

It is crucial that there be wider availability of interactive communication networks at whatever bandwidth, to enable the skill levels of learners to rise to a level where they are comfortable in the use of services that will flow from the higher capacity of infrastructures such as ISDN.

In the context of education and training, this implies support for research and pilot projects to explore the potential of high capacity communication services and the development of appropriate courseware, training programs and new technologies.

Communications networks today

In the past few years, telecommunications have experienced a development from the conventional telephone network with analogue, voice and data services, into a digital transmission network, the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). ISDN can be used for the transmission of any kind of text, image, sound or data if the data rate available is sufficient for a 64 Kbit/s application or low multiples thereof. The set up and transmission of services to a digital network is a milestone in the integration of different applications into a common network. The further evolution towards high capacity communication services is taking place rapidly, enabling faster, more flexible and more reliable transfer possibilities.

International and National Directions

International trends

Industrialised economies such as the United States of America, Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Singapore, and Japan, are responding to the need to establish a strategic approach to the development of high capacity communication services to maximise the economic, social, educational and cultural benefits and opportunities for their people in a knowledge-based global society.

A number of common issues are emerging in these countries'/regions' assessments of their strategies and options to participate, adapt to and exploit emerging technologies and the opportunities they create. These issues include: private sector leadership and government facilitation in development, growth and innovation in entering the information age; issues surrounding universal access; education and lifelong learning; and owner rights to intellectual property, privacy and security.

A synopsis of education and training developments internationally, (OECD, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, European Union, Singapore, and Japan) related to the use of high capacity communication services, has been developed in the Final Report.

National trends

The National Board of Employment, Education and Training (NBEET) report, Converging Technology, Work and Learning (1995), noted that, in addition to the Commonwealth Government's major cultural policy statement, Creative Nation, there has been unprecedented interest, at the policy level, in information and communications technology in Australia.

The NBEET report set out a proposed basic strategy for improving the ability of Australia's education and training systems to equip the workforce and the general community with appropriate skills for converging technologies. As NBEET's Employment Skills Formation Council pointed out: 'If Australia does have a competitive advantage in the inherited quality of these institutions, it will quickly be lost without adequate upgrading to meet future demands'.

A synopsis of national, state and territory, and sector strategic developments, projects and investigations related to the use of high capacity communication services has been developed in the Final Report.

Establishment of Education Network Australia

Education Network Australia (EdNA) is a cooperative initiative of Commonwealth, state and territory governments and non-government education authorities. This reflects a process of consultation and cooperation in the use of information and communications technology in Australian education and training. EdNA will use existing and emerging communications technology to provide an accessible, affordable and flexible learning resource for Australian education and training.

EdNA is establishing a national on-line directory structure enabling users to find and access educational products and services, and to create a managed environment for the network's range of users. EdNA will provide a forum for communication, locally, nationally and internationally.

Because EdNA is designed to converge existing technologies with new developments, the potential for its use is high. In time, the network will use high capacity communication networks to invite services such as interactive voice and videoconferencing for easy, affordable local, national and international communication.

The distinguishing features that characterise the EdNA initiative are:

• achieving the highest possible use of electronic interactive services for learning activities;
• a comprehensive and controlled nature;
• cooperative development across all levels of education and training and government and non-government education authorities; and
• cooperative Commonwealth/state/territory development.

These features position EdNA at the forefront of national education information technology initiatives worldwide.

EdNA represents the basis of a strategic partnership between education sectors and between Australian governments. The needs of the education sectors encompass all the major bandwidth categories-high capacity for universities; widely dispersed for schools; community access for adult and community education and vocational education and training (VET); business wideband access for VET; and home access for all sectors. For both financial and educational reasons, the cross-sectoral nature of EdNA provides it with a high level of comparative (and cooperative) advantage, and therefore national and international leverage.

Governments in Australia are experimenting with a number of network formats, including regional/community networks, state whole-of-government wide area networks (WANs), and sectoral networks at federal level. The success of EdNA is, in part, dependent on its ability to work within this distributed regional and sub-regional framework, which is a response to sectoral and state/territory needs and initiatives.

Pedagogical considerations

Ubiquitous technical and social innovation in the workplace and the wider socio-economy, and the dynamics of the knowledge economy are making the ability to learn and apply that learning increasingly important.

A global knowledge economy raises new learning challenges in dealing with vastly increased flows of information, with its infrastructure of digitised electronic text combining print, image, graphics and voice via many-to-many interactive channels. This is supporting a significant shift in pedagogy from teacher-directed learning to discovery-based, student-centred learning.

Without appropriate pedagogy, use of high capacity communication services cannot provide significant improvements in learning outcomes. In general, it is the pedagogy that provides for learning, not the technology or the software alone. The services provided by high capacity electronic linking, including provision of software types such as interactive multimedia and the Internet, can assist and expand opportunities for teaching and learning, but without appropriate learning concepts and teaching practices, their potential will not be realised.

Low capacity services have given us a great deal of insight into the value of software in educational terms, as have the use of computer technologies generally in education and training over the past twenty years. These provide not only teaching and learning resources, but also strategies.

In the Final Report a range of pedagogical issues is considered, taking into account the possibilities, impact and projected consequences of high capacity communication services. A summary of these is presented as Figure 2 to illustrate their use as an enabler, as well as a change agent, and to show the relationships between them. It is also useful in establishing current practice and actions necessary to support future activities.

Communications Services and Australian education and training

There is a range of applications for information and communications technology in education and training and this range will be extended and enhanced considerably by high capacity communication services. Applications include:

• active teaching and learning
• shared common curriculum components and expertise
• administration and management
• provision of support services
• access to resources
• research activities
• commerce and financial transactions, and
• social/entertainment purposes.

Each of these areas of application has a special set of techniques associated with the effective application of interactive technologies. We can only speculate at present what the impact of high capacity communication services might be on teaching and learning based on experiences with low capacity services.

One way to illustrate what the use of high capacity communication services will mean to education and training is to provide examples based on known experiences.

Currently, one conventional telephone line, up to ISDN, gives a school access to one line out to the Internet for e-mail and access to the World Wide Web, with some technical and a lot of organisational limitations. Such a situation requires teachers to go through all kinds of strategies to simulate on-line access or to act as an intermediary.

A higher capacity connection to this school, provided the school has the required internal infrastructure, would grant every staff member and student simultaneous access to the whole range of e-mail, the World Wide Web, interactive multimedia and live videoconferencing from their workstations. This makes the use of on-line resources much more feasible in terms of all students getting adequate and easy access.

With whole class access, teachers can use strategies not feasible with low capacity communication services, including individualisation of the curriculum to meet specific student needs. For example, remedial and enrichment learning activities, and teaching of languages can be much more effectively implemented. A number of schools and all universities have already established internal infrastructures, local area networks (LANs), using cable or optical fibre for low capacity access, and are in a position to migrate to high capacity access-indeed the process is already underway in the university sector.

There are two ends of the spectrum to the use of high capacity communication services in education and training.

On the one hand is the approach that considers the use of technologies generally as peripheral to teaching practice. Opportunities offered by communication services are perceived as providing another resource to be used in the same way as existing resources; they are seen as influencing, rather than replacing existing methods of delivery and teaching and learning environments.

On the other hand is the approach that visualises the use of high capacity communication services as an integral component of teaching practice that will fundamentally change teaching and learning, replacing specific elements of common practice within an evolving set of infrastructures.

The former approach predominates at present, while the latter is an approach of the future. The way to the future involves a managed, evolutionary approach to change through a cooperative National Strategy for education and training.

For some time there will need to be a mix of these approaches, and continued provision of a level of conventional learning arrangements as well as the opportunity to use new arrangements to enhance learning outcomes.

KEY ENABLING FACTORS

Research and wide consultation have identified eight key enabling factors as the pre-requisites for a successful transition to full use of high capacity communication services in Australian education and training.

The eight key enabling factors are:

• equitable and affordable learner access to high capacity communication networks and services;
• conducive telecommunications regulatory frameworks;
• mechanisms to stimulate content development;
• training, development and participation of all education workers;
• internationalisation of Australian education and training;
• flexible and responsive funding models;
• fostering innovative practice, debate and understanding; and
• progressing, monitoring and reviewing implementation of the Strategy.

These key enabling factors have informed the development of targets to ease the transition. They have been considered by representatives of all sectors and systems in Australian education and training, and form the basis for actions to manage the change process.

The key enabling factors are not presented in ranked order. They are of equal importance, complementary and inter-related. The first two highlight the necessity to make technology infrastructure appropriate, for, without easy, affordable and reliable networks and services, the potential of high capacity communication services in education and training will not be realised.

Equitable and affordable learner access to high capacity communication networks and services

• All learners must be able to access global information resources easily and cheaply, as a mainstream activity regardless of sector, location or personal circumstances.
• This will require adjustments in current funding strategies and formulae, reflecting shifts to networked, distributed environments.
• Access to education and training through use of high capacity communication services is particularly significant for people experiencing various forms of disadvantage and isolation.
• High capacity communication services can provide enhanced access to a wider range of learning materials to all of the Australian population.
• All education and training providers need access to high capacity communication services as soon as possible to ensure research and development of relevant courseware.
• Costs and complexity in high capacity network access and use must be minimised through economies of scale and interoperability.
• Connectivity must be any to any; that is to say, with no inhibitions in the way of delivery programs from any location to any other location.
• ISDN will not be replaced in the next few years by the faster cable services that will become available. However, it is a vital but expensive link for regional Australia, and one that can provide a transitional platform for more equitable access to high capacity communication services.
• Communication services need to be at an affordable price to be attractive to the education and training sector. At the present time, costs of higher capacity communication services remain prohibitively high, and will remain high, while their price structures are based on multiples of low capacity services.
• Without provision of equitable and affordable access to high capacity communication and network services, Australia will lag behind other countries, particularly in terms of education export potential, with adverse consequences for our balance of trade figures.
• Without attention to equitable and affordable access to high capacity networks and education and training services, there will be continual disenfranchisement of remote, regional and disadvantaged communities.

Targets

• By the end of 1997, provision of ISDN digital access services or equivalent to all schools, VET providers and universities.
• By the year 2000, access to high capacity communication networks and services by all education and training providers at a fair and reasonable price.
• By the end of 1997, an Australian standard for the design and production of hardware and software for equity of access by people experiencing forms of disadvantage.

Action

• Commonwealth to mandate universal availability of ISDN digital access services or equivalent, through the Telstra Future Mode of Operation roll-out, so that all exchanges are digitised by July 1997.

Responsibility: Commonwealth

• Commitment to provision of ISDN digital access services or equivalent to all schools, VET providers and universities.

Responsibility: Commonwealth, States and Territories, systems and institutions, as appropriate.

• Identification of good practice funding models and strategic planning processes that address network access and reception infrastructures as current funding items, for the consideration of states and territories.

Responsibility: States and territories through MCEETYA.

• Negotiation with carriers and Austel to establish:
  • improved access to education and training for all Australians for tariffing and operation across networks, and
  • arrangements suitable for users to allow development of high capacity communication services.

Responsibility: Commonwealth in association with carriers, Austel, Australian Telecommunications Users Group (ATUG).

• Provision of expert advice on all aspects of technical requirements for education and training use of high capacity communication services.

Responsibility: Commonwealth, state and territory governments, OLTC and industry service providers.

• Development of an Australian Standard for design and production of hardware and software for equity of access to a wider range of people.

Responsibility: Standards Australia Committee.

Conducive Telecommunications regulatory frameworks

• Development of high capacity communication services in Australian education and training systems requires an agreed set of standards for telecommunications carriage, for media formats, and for platform technologies. These standards will provide the national "grid" though which:
  • learners can have uniform and equitable access these services;
  • the market for Australian education and training communication services products and services can develop and flourish;
  • products and services can move easily between systems and sectors and also globally.

• Without the necessary telecommunications regulatory requirements in place, there will be duplication of effort and services and a complex variety of standards (based on current experiences). This, in turn, has ramifications for cost and effective cooperation across state, territory and sector divides.
• Many of the standards are set, de jure or de facto, in international forums and ratified by the Commonwealth. As such, the Commonwealth must position itself to have a proactive role.
• The Commonwealth has constitutional responsibility for telecommunications infrastructure and service development policy.
• Deregulation in mid-1997 will result in a plethora of service providers offering a range of telecommunications carriage options requiring basic interconnectivity and network interoperability.
• States and territories must work with the Commonwealth and its regulatory and licensing bodies to facilitate telecommunications interoperability.
• Education and training reception equipment should be matched to learning requirements.
• Minimum quality standards and design protocols must be developed, based on generally agreed education and training needs and community standards, and encompassing regulatory requirements.
• Without cooperation, collaboration and coordination of government efforts, there will be costly duplication, inconsistency in approach in the development of regulatory frameworks, fragmentation and decreased and limited diffusion of services.
• Without recognition of the education and training sectors and systems as major users of telecommunication services, the needs of the particular states, territories and sectors will not be catered for and important equity and quality measures will be compromised.

Targets

• Full Australian participation in international telecommunications standard-setting forums on an on-going basis.
• Ratification and promulgation of appropriate international standards and agreements as soon as possible after accession of standards.
• By mid 1997, agreement on minimum quality standards and design protocols for high capacity communication services for education and training.
• By the year 2000, adoption and ongoing maintenance of a set of network access and reception equipment standards for education and training.

Actions

• Education and training representation on the new Information Policy Task Force (IPTF).

Responsibility: Commonwealth to ensure state and territory representation.

• State and territory education and training representation on the Commonwealth/state On-line Government Council (OGC).

Responsibility: Through the Council of Australian Governments (COAG).

• Development of minimum quality guidelines and design protocols for education and training, taking into account sector, state and territory and systemic needs.

Responsibility: Commonwealth, states and territories.

• Continuous review of reception equipment requirements through the EdNA process.

Responsibility: States and territories.

Mechanisms to stimulate content development

• For educational, cultural and economic reasons, mechanisms are required to identify and to stimulate the Australian production of appropriate content in a learning environment that incorporates use of high capacity communication services.
• Stimulation and development of content for internal and external markets are vital for Australia's future well-being. They will enable us to:
  • enhance both learning and teaching;
  • maximise opportunities in the global education and training market;
  • make a contribution to Australia's balance of trade;
  • build up a strong local industry for the production and development of courseware;
  • produce a highly skilled community to compete in the global market place; and
  • ensure quality product which conforms to agreed educational standards.

• As international telecommunications costs fall, Australia can become a site for the development of education and training products and services, which will be accessible all around the world, generating export income.
• Governments have key roles to play, through policy and resources, in creating the conditions under which a robust market in content, appropriate to the needs of Australian learners, can emerge.
• Education and training could be pivotal early adopters of high capacity communication services, and thus key sources of early demand. This demand must drive Australia's electronic services industry to build up a critical mass of intellectual and technological capital.
• Australian education and training requires a cohesive production system where curriculum agencies cooperate in the production of content for delivery using high capacity communication services. There must be:
  • incentives for cross-sectoral collaboration in content production;
  • incentives for joint ventures between public and commercial providers and industry partners;
  • agreed education standards that identify minimum obligations (regulatory) as well as acceptable design standards; and
  • guaranteed minimum Australian content.

• There is an urgent need to focus on the design and development of content, so that products carried by communication services are designed to recognise the environment in which they operate and that maximise interactive potential for a variety of learning styles.
• Courseware produced at present for low capacity delivery should be designed to adapt to high capacity delivery, with a minimum of effort.
• Australia must be able to respond to the need for:
  • modularised learning, mixing and matching; and
  • a move to brokered and franchised education and training.

• Australian education and training requires national distribution mechanisms, incorporating a costing, pricing and transfer system between sectors, states and territories, to allow products to be more widely distributed.
• Australian education and training requires information about the market in high capacity communication services, including:
  • information to suppliers about demand
  • information to users about supply, and
  • systems to allow users to convey needs quickly to suppliers.

• To maximise potential and efficiency, Australian education and training requires a national system for monitoring the development of the market.
• Stimulating and developing products and services for use in a high capacity communication services environment will require partnerships between education suppliers and across media/publishing, computing, communications and marketing sectors.
• A legal framework must be agreed upon that actively promotes innovative partnerships, including systems to manage intellectual property, and joint ventures between governments and between governments and the private sector.
• Copyright issues must be clarified to ensure there are no legal impediments to collaboration and learning.
• There is a need to stimulate content development to ensure that the potential for producing quality content materials, designed to maximise learning, is achieved.
• Without stimulation of content development, there are clear indications that there will be an influx of international product which may challenge our cultural identity.
• Without collaboration and partnerships, there will be unnecessary duplication of effort with associated cost implications.

Targets

• By 2001, an increase in Australian education and training products and services suitable for delivery using high capacity communication networks.
• By 2001, a significant increase in courses delivered using high capacity communication networks.
• An increase in locally produced education and training material for export, by 2001.
• Stimulation of joint ventures between Australian public and private providers and between Australian content producers, to develop and produce products and services for education and training.
• Existing products and services to be made widely available to the education and training community.
• By the middle of 1997, mutual resolving of intellectual property issues and copyright.

Actions

• Establish an Education Electronic Communication Services Consortium of key stakeholders, with a life span of three years to:
  • stimulate Australian production through funding, research and development, and innovations;
  • stimulate joint ventures between public and commercial providers, to develop educational product and services;
  • broker partnerships between Australian content producers;
  • broker partnerships with appropriate overseas institutions and providers;
  • monitor the domestic market for product; and
  • coordinate a cross-sectoral clearinghouse, building on those already established in the sectors, states and territories.

Responsibility: OLTC

• Curriculum Corporation and the Standards and Curriculum Council to identify areas where joint production of high capacity communication products and services for education and training would be mutually beneficial.

Responsibility: Commonwealth, states and territories and the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA).

• Establish good practice mechanisms to manage intellectual property issues and copyright matters.

Responsibility: States and territories, in consultation with Curriculum Corporation, ANTA and the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee (AVCC).

• Encourage the Cooperative Multimedia Centres (CMCs), as part of their vocational focus, to undertake the development of high capacity communication product and services for education and training that maximise interactive potential for a variety of learning styles.

Responsibility: Commonwealth, states and territories.

Training, Development and participation of all education workers

• The application of high capacity communication services to education and training has the potential to drive significant changes to the roles of all education workers (teaching, researching, managing, administrative and technical personnel). Governments, systems, and sectors will need the active support and participation of all education workers for a successful transition to a high capacity communication services environment.
• The training, professional development and participation of education workers are vital in maximising the potential of high capacity communication services for learners.
• Good practice principles for training and development of education workers ensure that training and development:
  • support the strategic and business plans of the organisation;
  • are linked and paced to roll-out of high capacity communications networks;
  • meet the current and future needs of the organisation, the work team and the individual;
  • are provided for all education workers - managers, teachers, researchers, administrative and support personnel;
  • are cross-sectoral where possible;
  • are competency, discipline and professionally based;
  • are delivered in the workplace;
  • incorporate equity and promotes diversity;
  • form a prerequisite for entry to and progression through the teaching profession;
  • are career long; and
  • are accredited, with provision for recognition of prior learning (RPL) and recognition of current competencies (RCC).

• Training and development of education workers must be fostered by an investment in a nationally accessible bank of learning modules suitable for local customisation and delivery.
• Education workers express their views through participation in professional associations, and workplace and industrial associations. Each of these forums has a role to play in fostering an environment that supports the speedy take-up of high capacity communication services.
• Without a workforce, skilled and competent in the use and application of high capacity communication services for education and training, Australia will not be in a position to maximise the opportunities these services offer.
• Without a national cross-sectoral approach to, and provision of training and development for education workers, training programs will have to be imported and a valuable industry base will be by-passed.
• Without nationally consistent action, Australia's education industry will not achieve a strong, competitive position in the global market place.

Targets

• By the end of 1997, a national framework of competencies in the use of information and communication services across the education enterprise, capable of being customised to the needs of individual systems and institutions.
• By the end of 1997, training in the use of information and communication services for 20% of the existing education workforce.
• By 2001, competence in the use of information and communications technology as a pre-requisite for entry to the school teaching profession.
• Representation of education workers, (not only managers) on bodies established at any level to stimulate the introduction of high capacity communication services in publicly funded education and training, on an ongoing basis.

Actions

• Review existing flexible professional development courses against the good practice principles set out in the Strategy and develop incentives for institutional, sectoral, and cross-sectoral collaboration in development and delivery of them.

Responsibility: Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) Chief Executive Officers' Forum, Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee (AVCC) and Conference of Education System Chief Executive Officers (CESCEO), through the MCEETYA process.

• A national summit of representatives of employers, unions, professional associations, peak bodies and teacher training institutions, to identify roles and responsibilities in the roll-out of high capacity communication services into the education and training workplace.

Responsibility: MCEETYA.

• Deans of Education at their meetings to identify and discuss the implications of high capacity communication services for pre-service teacher training.

Responsibility: AVCC.

Internationlisation of Australian education and training

• Inter-governmental initiatives and the formation of global consortia have led to the development of national and trans-national networks, thus enabling and ensuring a global market place for high capacity communication services.
• Australia has taken an increasingly active role in the global market place for education and training, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. The widespread application of high capacity communication services to education and training will increase, significantly, this global market. Australia will need to position itself strategically in this changing market place.
• Substantial human and financial resources need to be concentrated to create the user bases that are required to generate viable returns from investment in education and training markets for broadband markets. A coordinated approach is required to bring together these resources, to achieve early and best market access, and to build quality market positions, including the capacity to achieve prices that justify continued investments.
• Quality positioning for Australian products and services in the Asia-Pacific region will be generated through government-to-government liaison and in multi-lateral forums such as APEC, SEAMEO. In many cases, market requirements and conditions for market access will be generated from discussion in these forums.
• Success in internationalising Australian high capacity communication services in the Asia Pacific region will be tied, in part, to success in negotiating acceptance and esteem of Australian formal qualifications by foreign governments, professional associations and employers.
• Education and training delivery using high capacity communication services needs to be woven into a coherent strategy for public and private investment in content production and development of substantial user bases off-shore.
• To be competitive internationally and secure our international market share, Australian education and training stakeholders must develop alliances and partnerships within and across the sectors and systems, with other government agencies and with private enterprise.
• All product and service development must meet international standards in terms of carriage capability, content and application development. There must be careful attention to quality assurance and an emphasis on international good practice in all aspects of product and service development.
• Consistent with international market requirements, education and training products and services should reflect and promote appropriate 'Australian' attributes.
• One of the major benefits of the internationalisation of education and training is its potential to increase overseas trade and contribute to Australia's balance of trade. At the same time, Australia will be perceived as a reliable provider of high quality education and training products and services.
• Without a concerted, collaborative approach to internationalisation of education and training, Australia will miss out on export dollars and will lose its global market share.

Targets

• By mid 1997, accurate determination of international product and service requirements.
• Appropriate marketing strategies for industry linkages, essential to developing education and training products and services using high capacity communication services, to be woven into the Australian International Education Foundation (AIEF) strategy to 2001, and the AIEF Country Business Plans for key members in 1996/7.
• Off-shore delivery of education and training services, including high capacity communication services, to reach $300 million per annum by 1999, and to grow at 25% per annum from that base (source, DEETYA 13 May 1996).

Actions

• Build on work by the AIEF to bring together export-oriented players in education, training and industry sectors, to collaborate in the development and implementation of an off-shore marketing strategy, including needs analysis and market research for education and training products and services using high capacity communication services.

Responsibility: MCEETYA, Austrade, International Development Program (IDP) and the Australian International Education Foundation (AIEF) and other appropriate market facilitators.

Flexible and responsive funding models

• We cannot accurately forecast the costs of using high capacity communication services in education and training. Even at current cost points, many education and training providers are already using interactive multimedia, ISDN and wideband networks. Dropping price points in telecommunications will increase the cost-push, as well as the demand-pull factors.
• There are arguments supporting the need for substantial development costs, particularly in infrastructure, content development and production, and training costs.
• There are arguments supporting substantial cost savings in some sectors, in, for example, capital works funding, over time.
• The difficulty in determining the total costs of high capacity communication services in education and training is compounded by the difficulty in measuring enhancement in learning outcomes and establishing cost benefits. These difficulties need to be overcome.
• Currently funding models are not necessarily geared to the use of information and communcations technology in the delivery of education and training. Usage of communication services, low as well as high capacity, is forcing all organisations (not only education and training) to review current funding mechanisms, models, and outcome measures, and to look at ways of allowing budget flexibility (often referred to as re-engineering of funding). This will become an even stronger imperative with increased use of high capacity communication
• services.
• Development of high capacity communication services for education and training requires collaboration between all stakeholders, through partnerships and strategic alliances.
• In addition, it requires that all Australian governments deliver to taxpayers maximum value from their investment in high capacity communication network services. This will require national commitment to sharing resources and investment costs and rationalising investment.
• Such rationalisation of resources will result in reduction of duplication, avoidance of fragmentation, economies of scale and more rapid and wider diffusion of services. There are opportunities to include health, social services, correctional services, defence, police, emergency services and other government agencies.
• There is a need by governments, systems and institutions for policies on cross subsidisation to ensure equity across all sectors, particularly where there is disadvantage.
• To maximise the potential offered by the use of high capacity communication services, Australian governments and individual institutions will need to:
  • review current funding mechanisms, models and formulae at all levels and review the creation of a more flexible and responsive funding base;
  • review funding arrangements for product development to ensure full recognition of commercial competitiveness;
  • review current public finance rules to ensure the capacity for effective partnerships between public and private sectors;
  • establish mechanisms to encourage full exploitation of public investment in education, including commercial development and distribution;
  • undertake collaborative investigation into the cost-benefit of high capacity communication services in education and training; and
  • support pilots, trials, research and evaluation, including the educational effectiveness of using high capacity communication services.

Targets

• Evidence of rationalisation of high capacity communication network support infrastructures and maximisation of resources development at Commonwealth, state and territory governments levels, on an on-going basis.
• By the end of 1997, research output on education and training funding formulae appropriate to support a high capacity communication services environment.

Actions

• Agreement on principles to guide national collaboration on the rationalisation of investment in infrastructure and services to support high capacity communication networks.

Responsibility: MCEETYA and MINCO through Council of Australian Governments (COAG).

• Review of current funding models for education and training at all levels of government and within systems and institutions, to assess their appropriateness flexible and responsiveness in a high capacity communication services environment.

Responsibility: All education and training systems, institutions and government departments through the MCEETYA and MINCO process.

• Development and implementation of a strategy for re-alignment and possible increase of funding to facilitate the roll-out and take-up of education and training products and services using high capacity communication services.

Responsibility: Commonwealth, state and territory governments through the MCEETYA and MINCO process.

• Establish investment incentives for the telecommunications industry for research and development in the application of high capacity communication services to education and training.

Responsibility: Commonwealth, state and territory governments through MCEETYA and MINCO.

Fostering innovative practice, debate and understanding

• This Strategy and the supporting Final Report are the result of a lengthy investigation representing the views and opinions of a wide range of groups and individuals at all levels and from all areas of Australian education and training.
• An important part of the change process is widespread community understanding of the relevance of high capacity communication services to education and training and specific strategies to encourage innovative practice at all levels, especially in the classroom.
• Equally important is debate, especially at the local level, to foster understanding about the potential of high capacity communication services to enhance education and training opportunities for all Australians.

Targets

• By the end of 1997, 100% increase in access to identified on-line material associated with education and training using low and high capacity communication services.
• Evidence of increased funding support for innovation in the use of low and high capacity communication services in education and training, to be on-going.

Actions

• Dynamic and effective action to bring the issue into public focus, including preparation of material for wide, national dissemination to key stakeholders, based on this advice.

Responsibility: OLTC.

• Development of a national dissemination of information strategy targeted at professional bodies, systems and institutions.

Responsibility: MCEETYA.

Progressing, monitoring and reviewing implementation of the Strategy

• Use of high capacity communication services in education and training is a rapidly evolving environment and the National Strategy will evolve with it. It represents a long term view of the development of education and training services using telecommunications and information technology to improve learner outcomes.
• The implementation of the Strategy will need to be managed, progress will need to be monitoried, and the Strategy will need to be adjusted to take into account the changing environment.
• Thus, there is a need for a small coordinating body to progress the Strategy to ensure that use of high capacity communication services in education and training is not just another item on the agenda of decision makers and that their decisions are based on comprehensive and coordinated information on costs involved, and action plans to progress achievement of targets.
• Regular reporting on progress of implementation of the Strategy will enable Ministers to monitor the extent to which systems and sectors are using high capacity communication services, informing the further implementation of the Strategy.
• The risk of duplication will be minimised and an innovative culture will be encouraged if information is shared about:
  • innovative projects and good practice in teaching and learning using high capacity communication services;
  • progress towards collaborative arrangements;
  • the progress and findings of research programs; and
  • measurement of educational outcomes.

Targets

• A detailed plan and costing of implemention of the Strategy.
• Monitoring of the progress of the implementation of the Strategy by the next MCEETYA meeting.
• Regular reports on the progress of implementing the Strategy, from each state, territory and system.
• By the end 1996, an established space on EdNA, for sharing information about progress in implementing the strategy and the development of a high capacity communication environment in Australian education and training.

Actions

• Establish a consortium of stakeholders to form a small coordinating body to progress and monitor implementation of this strategy. Tasks would include, negotiating a business plan and funding proposal to develop further and progress actions outlined in this strategy.

Responsibility: MCEETYA to commission.

• Ensure mechanism is set up through MCEETYA Secretariat for regular reporting process.

Responsibility: MCEETYA Secretariat.

• Set up space on EdNA for information exchange.

Responsibility: OLTC.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1

Principles for change

The transition to high capacity communication services in education and training, where access to curriculum and support is simplified and the tyranny of distance is broken, is guided by seven fundamental principles:

• Promote a learning culture of continuous improvement.
• Ensure maximum benefit for the widest possible range of users.
• Enhance the social and economic well-being of all Australians.
• Pursue a culture of partnership in production and delivery of education services on a high capacity infrastructure.
• Reinforce Australia's evolving cultural values.
• Funding commitment to equity of access.
• Enhance Australia's participation in the global information economy.

These principles underpin the targets and actions outlined in this Strategy.

APPENDIX 2

 Education Broadband Reference Group membership

Mr Kim Bannikoff
Australian National Training Authority

Ms Sharan Burrow
Australian Education Union

Ms Julie Carr, (Chair)
Open Learning Technology Corporation Limited

Mr Bob Cox
Northern Territory

Mr Ian Gillespie
New South Wales

Ms Lynne Hackwood
Queensland

Mr Neil Jarvis
Western Australia

Mr Jerry Skivinis
Conference of Education System CEO's