Virtual Excursions into the Past

Videoconferencing is becoming an intrinsic part of educational programing for many museums and galleries in NSW. The Australian Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and, in the regions, the Western Plains Cultural Centre and Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum are embarking on virtual excursions extending the reach of their syllabus-linked learning initiatives. These programs provide content as part of Connected Classrooms, a State government project equipping every NSW public school with video conferencing facilities to enhance collaboration between students, teachers and institutions. 



Key to the success of Connected Classrooms is DART (Distance and Rural Technologies), a team built by the NSW Department of Education and Training to provide direct and immediate connections and support for the schools and institutions delivering educational content. DART connects approximately 2,500 schools, TAFE campuses and administrative offices around NSW with broadband and 52 remote schools and 235 isolated home sites with 2-way satellite services.

Around twenty months ago, the Historic Houses Trust, with a generous grant from the HHT Foundation, decided to invest in VC technology, and since that decision they have produced three programs of lively presentations associated with their properties. Sian Morgan Hall, from the HHT, spoke with M&G NSW about the process.

What was the original reason for HHT choosing videoconferencing?

HHT’s market is NSW and while there are many students passing through the Hyde Park Barracks and other properties, there are also many for who, because of distance and costs of travel, the properties are inaccessible. Many schools can’t afford the cost, and they can’t afford the time so videoconferencing offers them the opportunity to connect with us and our programs.

Can you tell me how you chose your first VC program?

Going into the VC market, HHT wanted a flagship product that really established them in terms of research and education. One of HHT’s most popular programs is based on the convict story of Hyde Park Barracks (the onsite visitation is about 20,000 per year – mainly school students). All agreed that we should base our first VC on this tried and tested program with its strong links to the school curriculum.

What went into the development of A Convict Story?

The program itself took about twelve months to develop, coordinating all the departments involved: Marketing, IT, Education, and the different properties under the HHT banner that are the custodians of the stories.

While Mason Dean conducted technical research into the videoconferencing equipment, I wrote the script and then reviewed it with John Lamzies, an Education Officer with a keen interest in theatre, and we quickly discovered things that didn’t work or needed to be tweaked for the videoconferencing format. In the physical visit, the kids are taken around by a convict overseer, they make a brick, and they sleep in the hammocks. To translate this experience for videoconferencing, we opted for a theatrical delivery whereby the students get a chance to meet a convict as though they were talking to a real person. The children start with a guide, with whom they go back in time via a theatrical device, the “Mind’s Eye diary” and the guide transforms into a convict.

With distance classrooms, interactivity is key. So instead of simply sitting on the floor, the presenter gets the children to put on an imaginary convict outfit, or sing along with a ballad, and there’s always plenty of Q and A. We are careful that A Convict Story doesn’t leave the children imagining they are still back in the past because kids are quite capable of remaining there unless you return them to the present.

After we work shopped the script, we began a three month testing process offering the program to schools for free in return for feedback. Along with the valuable feedback from schools, HHT curators and guide educators watched the presentation, debated facts and fine-tuned the experience.

During this process was there a network of support? Other organisations going through the same thing you were?

There was, and is, a fantastic network. Vanessa Barrett, who was working out of the Australian Museum, and more recently Karen Player coordinated the NSW VC Working Group: a network that includes several large Cultural Institutions such as the MCA, the Australian Museum, Sydney Opera House, and the State Library of NSW. The Working Group is collaborative and very open; everybody is learning and everybody shares their information,

As well as the VC Working Group, DART’s support is crucial. DART does the marketing, the bookings, and lends technical support for HHT. But the DART remit is currently only for public schools in NSW and this means independent schools are disadvantaged. I cannot stress enough how valuable it would be to have an organisation like DART operating nationally on behalf of all schools both public and independent. This would mean that the HHT would then be able to deliver A Convict Story and other videoconference programs nationally to all schools.

Tell me about the other programs such as The Home front: wartime Sydney 1939-1945

Because The Home front VC is targeting the secondary school audience it is a very different, simpler but still effective model of connecting students with visiting experts in the field of WWII Home front history. History students in years 9 and 10 are self-selecting and don’t need the theatricality of the A Convict Story presentation to keep them engaged – the excitement for them is being able to interact with experts.

Along with historians, we are inviting the designer, curator, loans registrar and project manager of The Home front Exhibition to come in and talk about the A-Z of Exhibition planning and implementation.

What are the limitations and advantages of video conferencing?

The opportunity to connect students with experts at a secondary level is important. It’s not just what the expert is saying; the students are learning to interact and interview using deeper communication and research skills. The program prompts reflection on the sort of questions that should be asked of an expert, not simply a substitute for interaction with a book or Googling. We discourage students from asking any questions they could answer through online research. Instead, they ask the speaker about his or her opinions, engaging issues of historiography and perspective.

Many detractors would argue that videoconferencing is a poor substitute for a physical visit. I would argue that sometimes you see school groups in museums and there are four children clustered around a glass case who can see clearly, but there are fifty behind them who cannot see at all. During our VC presentations we are still using images and artifacts, and they’re appearing magnified on a large screen. The feedback we have received indicates that the students really do feel engaged during a VC.

So you don’t get the “oh wow” factor of walking through the barracks but when HHT talks with teachers about the VC, the students say they met a convict, they didn’t meet someone pretending to be a convict and this is achieved through the theatricality of the video conferencing program. During one videoconference a kid asked; “Did you know my great, great, great Grandfather?” So the children really engage in the world, and willingly suspend disbelief.