E-Nabling NT Roadshow

Starting out from Alice Springs on the morning of 20th October, 12 relative strangers embark upon a trip to demonstrate e-learning to the teachers and students of the NT. We took 2 big MALUs (Mobile Adult Learning Units)

We stopped at Ali Carung, Elliot, Katherine, Jabiru and Darwin Convention Centre. My role was to setup the laptops inside the trucks, and create a connection between the satellite dish on the back of the trailer, and the Optus

 Satellite. I had to tune the dish as best as I could, then call Syd

ney Optus and with their help, fine tune the dish further to receive clear transmissions via the NT DET School of the Air network.

Ali Carung - the visit itself was a test run for all of us, our first 

"show on the road". There was also a grand final to be played in the community as a fight the previous Saturday morning had

 postponed the game. Umpire (rather large) stood in the middle and blew his whistle, didn't move from that spot for the 5 minutes we watched. One player in jeans and work boots!

Then off to Tennant Creek for a rest for the night.

Day 2 was up to Elliot. Stopped outside the School, set up th

e satellite dish for over 2 hours,

 finally connected to the

 School of the Air Studio in Alice Springs and could see the Discovery

 Channel as clear as can be. Hot work, drove to Daly Waters for another well earned rest.

Day 3 was a strange day. We "paused" at Larrimah, "paused at Mataranka and then set up at the Katherine Training Centre campus. Compared to the pre

vious two days this was a fairly easy day for me. 

Day 4 was spent driving to Batchelor after a video conference in the morning from Katherine

 Campus. Batchelor was about 40 degrees 

with pretty high humidity. Can't say there was much of my clothes that were dry. We connected into Darwin and Alice Springs campuses of CDU,

 although the connection wasn't the best and we only had some short discussions. Pr

oved that it worked though.

Day 5 was a presentation at a conference on Darwin Campus, and then the final roadshow

 presentation at the Convention Centre by the wharf.

Trip home was interesting for me as we had to drive the satellite dish back to Alice Springs. We planned a few stops on the way and I visited Palmerston, 

Kather

ine Rural Campus and Mataranka Station (all part of CDU) for the first time. Some truly original characters in that lot!