Leonie Daws

Rural Telework: Case Studies from the Australian Outback

This paper examines the effects of infrastructure and isolation on rural telework, and the potential of telework for rural communities. It draws on findings from two Australian case studies: a government initiative and a community-initiated training project. Differences between the experiences of rural and urban teleworkers are highlighted.

Problem‐based Learning within a Post‐modern Framework: a process for a new generation?

Abstract Acceptance of the legitimacy of post‐modern theories on education implies a need to reconceptualise the professional development of graduates in the area of educational leadership. This paper reports on the first year of an innovative professional doctorate programme focusing on educational leadership at the Queensland University of Technology. A problem‐based learning approach was integrated with and underpinned by post‐modern imperatives such as the valuing of the self‐empowerment of students, the acceptance of multiple realities as reality, and a view of knowledge as arising out of interdependence and contextualised by discontinuous change. The focus of this paper is on students’ and teachers’ views of the development of individual empowerment, processual competencies and interdependence in the first cohort of students. 1The term ‘generation’ does not refer to the traditional meaning of a time-bound cohort of people. It is used here to identify a growing body of people of all ages who have a p...

More than Just an Internet Connection: Building Rural Social Capital through Public Access

Abstract Public access points have become potentially important community resources in rural communities. Governments and other organisations are leaning gradually more towards webbased service delivery, and information and support relating to core life concerns such as health and education are increasingly to be found online. In this environment, lack of access has significant equity implications. The exclusion of more marginalised members of the community deepens the digital divide and decreases community stocks of social capital. In exploring ways to maximise the potential of public access points to equitably provide Internet access across rural communities, we drew on a theoretical framework that emphasises the role of soft technologies, social infrastructure, and a partnership model of community development as key elements in building community social capital. Social capital is, in turn, an enabler that further facilitates community development and, specifically, in the context of this paper, successful implementation of a public access point.

Creating opportunities: good practice in small business training for Australian rural women

Abstract While social and economic changes have altered the conditions and structuring of womens employment in rural areas, the opportunities for women to respond to these changes have been hampered by problems of isolation. The Small Business Skills for Rural and Regionally Isolated Women Projectwas an Australian project undertaken to address the resulting problem of low participation and completion rates of isolated rural women in vocational education and small business training programs. This article identifies the particular training needs of isolated rural women, explores barriers to their participation in vocational education, and provides a matrix of good practice elements for small business training programs aimed at this target group.

Not Just Another Dose: The BridgIT Response to Rural and Remote Internet Teaching

Abstract This paper examines the issue of rural women’s training in the use of information technology using the experience gained from a collaborative project conducted in 1996–1997 in Queensland, Enhancing Rural Women’s Access to Interactive Communication Technologies.1 The project’s aims were to facilitate rural women’s access to communication technologies (particularly email and the Internet), to enhance access to online information and services, to encourage new small business opportunities, and to provide rural women with a ‘voice’ to policy and decision makers. The project used communication technologies, particularly an email discussion group called welink, to create successful and close partnerships between women in rural communities, service providers in government and industry, and the Queensland University of Technology research team.2 The project clearly demonstrated the opportunities and potential new communication technologies could have for rural communities. However, this potential is limited by another finding of the project – that significant gaps exist in the current delivery of information technology training for women in rural areas. The purpose of this paper is to identify these gaps and the critical factors necessary for the successful take-up of communication technologies by rural women. Furthermore, the paper describes the way in which the challenge to address these gaps has been taken up by the Queensland Rural Women’s Network through the BridgIT program, a

Community capacity building: Starting with people not projects

2 million Networking the Nation project which offers localised information technology education and training to people in rural and regional areas. 1 The Rural Women and Interactive Communication Technologies Project was an Australian Research Council Collaborative Research Project based at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. 2 Members of the research team were Dr Leonie Daws, Dr Margaret Grace, Ms June Lennie, Dr Roy Lundin, Ms Josephine Previte, Ms Lyn Simpson and Associate Professor Tony Stevenson.