You could have mistaken our Prime Minister Julia Gillard for the new Dr Who as she materialised on a TV monitor at the University of New England last week, travelling at scintillating speeds from Seoul in South Korea where she was attending the World Nuclear Summit, not in the Tardis but courtesy of the National Broadband Network.
During her visit to Seoul the Prime Minister visited Gyeseong Girls Catholic School where she observed and took part in a videoconference between O’Connor Catholic College and Gyeseong as they discussed the topic of Famous Australians and Koreans.
On hand to witness the power of the NBN were students from O’Connor Catholic College, Duval High School, Ben Venue Public School and Armidale City Public School.
Tom and Sophie from O’Connor Catholic College presented a short talk to the students from Gyeseong.
“Do you know about cricket? Not the insect but the sport,” said Tom from O’Connor.
This was met with laughter from the girls from Gyeseong.
The students discussed famous Australians including burns specialist Dr Fiona Wood, cricket legend Donald Bradman, olympian Cathy Freeman, actor Heath Ledger, children’s entertainers the Wiggles, musician Jessica Mauboy and Australia’s only Catholic Saint, Mary Mackillop.
Not that they wanted to get one up on Australia, the girls from Gyeseong were quite proud that they had just a few more Saints than Australia, 103 to be precise!
The Gyeseong students replied, discussing famous Koreans including Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, figure skater Kim Yuna, Mancester United soccer player Park Ji-sung and relief worker Han Biya.
The Prime Minster addressed the students, highlighting the significance of the National Broadband Network for regional Australians.
“Regional students don’t have to think any more that students in the city are getting a better education and access to more things than you do,” said the Prime Minster.
“The Broadband Network means that you can access those things.
“It has been great to be able to see all your faces and to all the girls here in Korea, thank you for making me feel so welcome and taking such an interest in Australia.
“I know this is an ongoing partnership between the schools and everything that you do now to get a bond between our two countries means that in the coming years you will be the generation that makes a stronger friendship between the two of us.”
Member for Northern Tablelands and Chancellor of the University of New England Richard Torbay, who was on hand to witness the video link, described the NBN as distance-eating technology that delivers state of the art, highly relevant education.
“I am really excited to see it, you do feel a bit like a dinosaur. It’s my birthday today and at 51, I really believe the future is going to be so different for our next generation of students,” said Mr Torbay.
“The NBN, particularly for institutions like UNE, schools and medical facilities, is ground-breaking; you can’t argue in any other way – the improvements, particularly from a regional perspective.”
O’Connor Catholic College has been involved in a video conferencing program, Australia-Korea ConneXion, run by the University of New England. This Program has allowed students to undertake cultural exchange through a video link with Gyeseong Girls Catholic High School, Seoul, South Korea. Dr Myung-sook Au, School of Education Lecturer at UNE, has been awarded external grants for research on topics of “videoconferencing in schools’ and arranged this engagement. Her research investigated the pedagogical potential of videoconferencing in Australian and Korean schools and students’ quality learning outcomes from their videoconferencing experiences.
Story: Jo Harrison
