E-learning 'key to indigenous education'

Language barriers at remote Aboriginal bush schools can be overcome with digital learning, local teachers say.

Technology also helps to build the confidence of the most disadvantaged students, most of whom have reading and writing skills significantly less than mainstream children of similar age.

Ken Kincade, a teacher at the Elliot Community School in the Barkly region, said the new generation of digital learning tools also helped bridge the skills divide within classrooms.

"With this technology, I can equalise them," said Mr Kincade.

"A child who is working at prep level can produce a piece of work that could be equal to that of a fellow student working at year eight level."

Two mobile trucks stocked with computers have been visiting bush communities along the Stuart Highway from Alice Springs to Darwin, trialling the latest in learning technology.

The road-show was organised by Charles Darwin University (CDU) and the NT Education Department and uses e-learning software that connects the cultural values of local communities to the education process.

Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard acknowledged last month the government faced a massive challenge to improve education standards for indigenous children, after tests showed they lagged well behind the rest of the country.

According to the National Assessment Program in Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), the NT has the highest number of students falling below the minimum standard across each year level in all areas of reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy.

CDU researchers Ruth Wallace said the e-learning software was proving to be an effective tool in the education of Aboriginal children.

"Traditionally, indigenous learners would have to start with a written text not in their first language," she said.

"Now with e-learning, they can actually start with something that looks more relevant.

"Their own world and their own lives become the centre of learning where they can represent all the things they already know about, so it becomes a way of sharing who they are."

Ms Wallace said e-programs would help to breakdown the language barriers that held Aboriginal students back.

"It's about bringing in content that's relevant to the indigenous learner's world and connecting them with other worlds that may be similar or of relevance to them," she said.