A Prisoners\u27 Island: Teaching Australian Incarcerated Students in the Digital Age

While incarcerated students have always faced many obstacles to full and effective participation in university study, the global shift toward paperless e-learning environments has created new challenges for prisoners without direct internet access. Based on prison focus groups with Australian incarcerated students and direct participant observation while tutoring tertiary students within four Queensland correctional centres, this paper explores the obstacles and constraints faced by incarcerated students in light of the increasing digitisation of materials and methods in higher education. This paper also reviews the outcomes, limitations and challenges of recent Australian projects trialling new internet-independent technologies developed to improve access for incarcerated tertiary students. This paper argues that technology-centred approaches alone will not adequately address the challenges of access for incarcerated students unless such interventions are also informed by an understanding of the sociocultural nature of learning and teaching within correctional centres

Intolerance

Non-fiction by Susan Hopkin

Ghosts in the machine: incarcerated students and the digital university

Providing higher education to offenders in custody has become an increasingly complex business in the age of digital learning. Most Australian prisoners still have no direct access to the internet and relatively unreliable access to information technology. As incarceration is now a business, prisons, like universities, are increasingly subject to economistic pressures and priorities. Historically Britain’s penal colony, (post)modern Australia is following the United States toward a post-Welfare Penal state. Without specialised support and materials, incarcerated students may pay the price of converging neoliberal reforms. This paper aims to raise awareness among Australian academics of the challenges faced by incarcerated students in changing socio-political and economic climates

Lessons learned through reflecting on a classroom observation

Using non-participant structured observation of classroom teaching as a method of collecting data was experienced; during a one hour session, the researcher noted who was speaking at 5-minute intervals.  Preparation of a chart for 7 expected students became unwieldly when some 20 students attended, which was not anticipated.  It soon became obvious that 5-minute intervals were too long, as many students spoke up but not at the points where speaking was recorded, so the final chart was unrepresentative of the classroom behaviour being observed.  In addition, the researcher became involved in answering a question themselves, something that should not occur when using a non-participant approach.

Facebook and the fast-track to better futures for disadvantaged youth

The Tertiary Preparation Program Intensive School for Year 12 school leavers offers young people from low socio-economic backgrounds an alternative pathway to university, a second chance at tertiary entrance and ultimately for some, a fast track to a better future. By adding Facebook and other social media to the teaching toolkit, opportunities expand for the students from non-traditional backgrounds to transition to university culture and to expand their social networks

Digital narratives, social connectivity and disadvantaged youth: raising aspirations for rural and low socioeconomic young people

This paper explores the role of digital narratives and social media in promoting social integration, enculturation and expressive self-reflection within an enabling tertiary preparation program designed to raise the aspirations and widen the participation of economically and geographically disadvantaged young people in higher education. The program combined Digital Storytelling assessment with the use of social networking site Facebook as a learning management system. Students from rural and low socioeconomic backgrounds with low secondary school results, low aspiration and little opportunity for matriculation to universities, benefited from intensive intervention strategies which focused not only on academic preparation but on the social and cultural obstacles underlying inequality in higher education participation. Combining face-to-face teaching, mentoring and pastoral care with integrated digital platforms may provide a non-traditional pathway which facilitates not only academic and technological competence but the opportunity for non-traditional students to become more connected, confident and visible in higher education

A prisoners' island: teaching Australian incarcerated students in the digital age

While incarcerated students have always faced many obstacles to full and effective participation in university study, the global shift toward paperless e-learning environments has created new challenges for prisoners without direct internet access. Based on prison focus groups with Australian incarcerated students and direct participant observation while tutoring tertiary students within four Queensland correctional centres, this paper explores the obstacles and constraints faced by incarcerated students in light of the increasing digitisation of materials and methods in higher education. This paper also reviews the outcomes, limitations and challenges of recent Australian projects trialling new internet-independent technologies developed to improve access for incarcerated tertiary students. This paper argues that technology-centred approaches alone will not adequately address the challenges of access for incarcerated students unless such interventions are also informed by an understanding of the sociocultural nature of learning and teaching within correctional centres

Domestic violence and Facebook: harassment takes new forms in the social media age

Domestic violence is now widely recognised as a national crisis. However, there are significant gaps in responses to the intimate violence enabled by social media platforms like Facebook

Digital learning for prison students: the state of play

Education is seen as one of the puzzle pieces in any strategy to improve reintegration and reduce recidivism. However, education providers are increasingly turning to the online provision of course materials and activities. This excludes prisoners from participating in transformative education as the internet is often prohibited. Given this fundamental mismatch between online education and access to internet in prisons, universities are increasingly looking for ways to ensure effective digital delivery of their courses. This paper outlines innovative solutions from two higher education institutions on opposite sides of the world, both with a track record of providing higher education to prisoners. The OU's 'walled garden' and Open Educational Resources with the UK's Virtual Campus and the Australian internet-independent LMS coupled with tablet computers, are just some of the technologies being trialled which could be repackaged for other contexts and countries