Introducing AOLIN: Australian Open Learning Information Network |
AOLIN is an inter-institutional, self-supporting educational network of people with a common interest in the use of information technology for teaching, research and administration. Members communicate with one another using an Australian public electronic messaging system called Keylink T (known previously as Telememo, the North American equivalent of which is Telemail).
It is currently managed by a committee of people drawn from different organizations, e.g., Deakin University, University of New South Wales, Orange Agricultural College, Armidale College of Advanced Education, La Trobe University. These people do not receive renumeration for their work but their Keylink costs are partly subsidized by AOLIN.
AOLIN provides an umbrella service to educational institutions but operates independently of Telecom Australia and all educational institutions. It is about to be incorporated as a non-profit-making association in Australia. Any revenue derived from membership fees and national services are reinvested into the Network for development and consolidation of new services and support of research projects submitted by its members.
AOLIN has three simple objectives:
To facilitate personal development in information technology. To act as a clearing house for information technology research news and literature. To support systematic evaluations of information technology.
Since its official inception in September 1986, AOLIN has provided assistance to the following projects:
Other investigations under consideration are concerned with communications education, adult and rural education, and the legal ramifications of computer communications.
The Network is still young and there has been no campaign mounted in Australia or overseas to recruit members. Nonetheless, there are now 120 educators from 45 institutions, including all but four of the universities, and the number is growing steadily through the word-of-mouth recommendations of its satisfied members. Current members are predominantly academics from tertiary institutions, but there is now a Network policy to expand into the rural, technical and further education area, and to link up with technology researchers and technology development officers in federal and state departments of education and councils of adult education.
An institution can either take out a general membership in its name or in the name of a nominated staff member, or it can take out an associate membership in its name but ask for multiple Keylink mailboxes for its staff or students.
For common interest groups, there is the CHASA model initiated by the Dean of Architecture at Deakin University. CHASA stands for the Council for the Heads of Australasian Schools of Architecture. Each head of architecture joins in either his/her name or the name of the institution, but all are accommodated in a special subdivision with their closed bulletin board for confidential messaging.
There are some overseas members on AOLIN, e.g. from Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and New Zealand. They dial in to the Keylink T international number of 05052366200000 through packet switched networks.
The philosophical concept of an electronic meeting place for educators was first proposed by Paul Bacsich of the Open University and Angela Castro of Deakin University at an information technology workshop organized by Deakin University for the Australian and South Pacific External Studies Association (ASPESA) on 14 March 1986. Electronic mail was perceived as complementary to existing, conventional communications methods, and not as a replacement.
Australian educators have access to many forms of electronic mail offered by the public telecommunication utilities as well as their own institutions. For example, over 300 computer centres, departments and faculties in institutions and research organizations in Australia are well-served by dial-up access to the ACSNET (Australian Computer Science Network), a cooperative UNIX network using the SUN III software developed at Sydney University, or the CSIRONET administered by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. The ACSNET gateway, in particular, enables international exchange of mail, files and news. Unfortunately, educators are often unaware of this resource at their institutions. Even if they were, it seems that they seldom have the time or perhaps the desire to learn how to use it. For the few who have managed to learn the basics of electronic mail on the ACSNET or the very new SPEARNET, they soon find that there are not many kindred spirits to communicate with because most users on these systems are from the computing and mathematics areas. A lot of would-be users of ACSNET and SPEARNET also finds the addressing and routing of international messages so difficult that they are put off from making full use of their vast potentials.
What AOLIN is trying to do is bring educators together by using a publicly available, easy-to-use system like Keylink T and provide them with a small but lively range of services managed by experts. Its primary objective is not just one-to-one private messaging between two members but also the encouragement of sharing of views and news by as many educators as possible who are freed from the constraints of time and place. The electronic transmission costs are slightly higher than those charged by ACSNET and SPEARNET because Keylink T is a commercial service, but there are no system maintenance or other hidden costs for participating institutions.
This new computer-mediated communications system of AOLIN is particularly welcomed by the smaller colleges of advanced education and community colleges of adult education which often do not have good central computing facilities or resources to connect to the ACSNET, or which are located in remote areas with few opportunities of finding out what is happening in the metropolitan areas. AOLIN thus serves as both a meeting venue and a window to the whole educational community.
Members exchange electronic mail and telexes on national public systems, and a new development in 1988 and 1989 will be interconnection to other X.25 networks, including those which operate computer conferencing systems and database services.
AOLIN places great emphasis on cooperative development of services by its members. For example, some current services which have been developed include:
One of the services in which AOLIN is investing a lot of resources is computer conferencing. A number of adult educators on the Network have been invited by Deakin University, host of the UNESCO Meeting on Distance Higher Education to be held in September 1987, to take part in a computer conference on AOLIN on the theme of "Continuing Education by Distance Education" without actually being on site. This conference will be the forerunner of a national hire-a-conference service to institutions and common interest groups in Australia in 1988.
General membership: once-only registration A$20, annual membership A$50. Associate membership: once-only registration A$50, annual membership A$250 (for Keylink mailboxes) or A$500 (for 50 Keylink mailboxes). Registered members are sent monthly accounts for their Keylink usage; there is no basic monthly charge at all.
Membership enquiries
Individuals and institutions wishing to know more about AOLIN are invited to write to Angela Castro at her following electronic addresses:
Keylink T AS.Castro/AOLIN
ACSNET, EAN & JUNET angela@charlie.oz
BITNET angela%charlie.oz@<gateway>
JANET angela%charlie.oz@uk.ac.ukc
UUCP seismo!munnari!charlie.oz!angela
For North American enquiries, please contact Dr. Roger Boshier, Professor of Adult Education at the University of British Columbia, 5760 Toronto Road, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 1L2, Canada. For European enquiries, please contact Dr. Paul Bacsich or Dr. Keith Harry at the Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, United Kingdom.