The Education of Children in Geographically Remote Regions Through Distance Education

Australia is a vast sparsely populated land and from an early date this createdproblems in terms of providing educational facilities. As part of the solution thenation has had a long tradition of using distance education methods to providean education for its isolated primary and secondary school students. WesternAustralia epitomises the problems inherent in having a large land area with ahighly urbanised population and a small but scattered rural one. Initially, theState established a Correspondence School in 1918. There have been variousdevelopments since then, culminating in the establishment of the Schools of Isolatedand Distance Education (SIDE) in 1995. Since then the staff at SIDE haveinvestigated and developed ways of providing their students with innovative educational materials in an effort toensure that the best possible services are provided.Despite its innovative nature, very little research has been conducted on SIDE. The research project reported inthis book is one contribution to rectifying the deficit. It had three main aims. The first was to develop an understandingof the emergence of SIDE. Secondly, an understanding of the key functions of SIDE was sought. Thethird aim was to develop an understanding of the issues which present themselves for those working at SIDE..Implications for policy, practice and future research in relation to the education of children in geographicallyremote regions through distance education are deduced, and not just in relationto the state of Western Australia, but internationally.