Conference Papers
Session IT1.2. Access and Delivery
1.Crighton Nichols and Wanda Eugene: Inter-generational cultural learning through connected XO laptops: A partnership between OLPC Australia and Ourgunya Women’s Incorporation
OLPC Australia is an independent charity that aims to enhance learning opportunities for the 400,000 children, aged 4-15, living in remote Australia, by providing each one with a connected XO laptop as part of a sustainable training and support program. Ourgunya Women's Incorporation is a local NGO based in Brewarrina in north-western NSW that operates a refuge for women and children. OLPC Australia and Ourgunya Women's Incorporation began discussions at the 2010 AIATSIS Conference on Information Technology and Indigenous Communities to introduce a Community controlled program that would see 10 children and their parents from across the entire Community use the XO laptops within a culturally appropriate framework. By working with Elders and Senior Women’s Circles, Ourgunya designed, developed and implemented a framework that seeks to encourage local youth to learn the XO laptop technology within a culturally significant context, alongside family. The focus is to share, care and respect Identity, Family, Country and Community in all its diversity. In this way, the XOs have been introduced to our children through a place-based learning environment that encapsulates Country and Culture, and allows the children to learn with family. The Ourgunya OLPC team organised visits to cultural sites, such as our river system and mission sites, and also performed a range of activities at Ourgunya’s premises. This paper will present the key learnings and findings from this program, and discuss how it has informed the development of the community engagement and localisation program at OLPC Australia.
Author bio: Crighton Nichols manages the Community Engagement and Localisation program for OLPC Australia and is a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney. Crighton is a firm believer that the best solutions are locally designed, implemented and supported. His PhD research will provide better understanding of the design of technological innovations at the cultural interface – the contested space where cultures and knowledge systems meet – which will help inform policy and guide investment in remote First Australian communities that will enhance their capability to design sustainable solutions. There is considerable overlap with Crighton’s PhD research and his work with OLPC Australia. Crighton joined OLPC Australia in August 2009 to help ensure the deployment model respectfully considers the diversity of First Australian cultures and knowledge systems, but due to resource demands he spent most of the first 18 months managing the Education and Research program. Prior to commencing his role with OLPC Australia and his PhD research, Crighton spent a decade in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) industry throughout Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle-East and North America. During this time he held a variety of leadership roles covering the full spectrum of the ICT industry including executive strategy, research and development, professional consulting, and sales and marketing, with projects ranging in size from small non-profit organisations and commercial start-ups to some of the largest ICT projects in the world with leading multi-national organisations.
2. Peter Radoll: Factors that influence Aboriginal household Information and Communication Technology uptake in a rural context
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the home is recognised as an essential tool in levelling the playing field particularly in the area of education. Both the 2001 and 2006 Australian Census data demonstrate that Indigenous Australians are 69% less likely to access the Internet at home than the rest of the population. Evidence demonstrates that there are six primary influential factors that drive the Indigenous household ICT adoption process. These include engagement in education, having employment, and wanting to research culture and family history. Other key factors include having children in the home and having family and friends with ICTs in their home. This paper discusses the importance that ICTs play in the maintenance of contact between families and generations and how this in turn drives Aboriginal household ICT uptake. The theoretical lens draws on Pierre Bourdieu‘s theory of habitus to develop a practice perspective of household ICT adoption established through the habitus concepts of structures and agency also known as society and an individual’s free will.
Author bio: Peter Radoll is Director of Tjabal Indigenous Higher Education Centre at the Australian National University. His PhD examined the adoption and effective use of Information Communication Technologies in Australian Indigenous Communities. Prior to commencing at the Tjabal Indigenous Higher Education Centre as the Director, Peter taught Information Systems in the College of Business and Economics at the ANU. Peter's research interests include Information Systems, Information Technology adoption and Information Technology development projects in Australian Indigenous Communities. Before commencing further study Peter worked as a systems support officer at AIATSIS and a Business Analyst/Programmer in the Department of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs.
3. Darlene Hoskins-McKenzie: The National Broadband Network: Transformative Technology for Aboriginal Peoples or Just Another Accessibility Glitch on the Super Information Highway?
The transformative nature of the Internet has most recently been recognised by the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur, Frank La Rue’s Report on the ‘Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression’ (June 2011) which ‘explores key trends and challenges to the right of all individuals to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds through the Internet’ (United Nations Human Rights Council 3rd June 2011). In particular in Chapters IV & V La Rue emphasises the right of the individuals to two aspects of Internet access (i) access to the physical infrastructure and (ii) access to the content. This paper will explore the policy issues affecting Aboriginal peoples’ right to have equal and same access to the physical infrastructure of the National Broadband Network (NBN). In light of La Rue’s report, this paper will examine the anticipated increasing digital divide in the wake of the NBN roll out. As the global information infrastructure grows, and as the global society is increasingly dependent on the ‘creation, accessing, sharing and manipulation of information’ (Fahey 1999), the disparity between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ becomes more and more apparent. Yet Australia’s self-identification as a ‘knowledge society’ presupposes that all its citizens have equal access to ‘information’ through well connected ICTs and the new highly sophisticated physical infrastructure (NBN) that underpins the communication highways of Australian society. This could not be more further from the truth for Aboriginal peoples and their communities. The recognition of issues of social responsibility and social justice for this disparity, whilst registering in the socio-economic, political and educational paradigm of Australian policy-makers, does not play out in the delivery of funding for ICT infrastructure in Aboriginal communities.
Author bio: Darlene is an Aboriginal woman of Eora (Bidjigal, Ganangara & Dharuk clans), Yuin, Anawain, Biripi/Worimi and Dunguttti descent. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Technology, Sydney, and her thesis is about Aboriginal ways of using information technology in community to create educational pathways for Aboriginal peoples. Darlene grew up on the La Perouse Aboriginal Reserve, Sydney, and later on the South Coast of New South Wales. Darlene is a member of the Tranby Aboriginal Community College, Glebe and also a member of the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council. Darlene’s family have been long been involved in the struggle for the rights of Aboriginal people in NSW, in particular the 1938 Citizenship Campaign and the ‘Day of Mourning Conference and Protest’ in Sydney, where her great grandfathers were active members of the Committee for Aboriginal Citizenship Rights.