From: kerrb@magill.unisa.edu.au
Newsgroups: aus.education
Subject: Nexus: social injustice
Date: 15 Aug 92 06:27:04 GMT
Organization: University of South Australia - Magill

NEXUS: TECHNOLOGY OF SOCIAL INJUSTICE
Bill Kerr, 14th August 1992.

Submitted to the SAIT Journal for publication
SAIT = South Australian Institute of Teachers
** comments welcome, including critical comments **


NEXUS: TECHNOLOGY OF SOCIAL INJUSTICE

ALL PUBLICITY IS GOOD PUBLICITY

What is Nexus? 

Nexus is the electronic bulletin board owned and operated by the Education Department of South Australia. If you have a computer, a modem, communications software and a phone line you can access Nexus on 347 0822. By all means use Nexus. It has some features not found on other bulletin boards. But that is not the end of the story ...


MADNESS
Nexus is expensive

Nexus is now more expensive. Nexus charges by the amount of time on line and the rate is increasing. The charge is now 10 cents per minute peak rates for metropolitan users, more for country and interstate users. This is a disincentive for use. It is like being charged for walking up and down the aisles of a library!! 

The disincentive applies more to poor schools and country schools. Time charging is a social justice issue. 

It is a disgrace that the ED has set up Nexus infrastructure so that the main benefactor is Telecom.


SANITY
Decentralisation

There is a viable alternative. A bulletin board system (bbs) that made newsgroups (interactive conferencing) and electronic mail the centrepiece could be decentralised. This means that a number of nodes (computers) could be setup around the State in strategic locations designed to avoid Telecom AUSTPAC or STD charges. News and mail would then be relayed from one computer to the next and the next and so on. In this way news and mail could be accessed by most users, including those remote from Adelaide, for 



t
he cost of a local call. 

It is self evident that a cheaper system would be used more often and be more accessible to the poor and remote. The users would benefit rather than Telecom.


SANITY
Enhanced interactive communication

Of all things in the world, people are the most precious. Computer mediated communications means using computers to enhance communications between human beings. Newsgroups can be set up on all manner of topics and whoever is interested can contribute.

What is the big deal? How is it better than the fax or the phone?

First, potentially it is cheaper. 
Second, prolific international links - the global classroom - becomes a viable reality.
Third, you meet new people with common interests -something that doesn't happen on the phone or fax.

One more thing: electronic mail is better, quicker and much more convenient than sending mail through the post. 

Computer mediated communication could be used to do great things, things that have not been done before in education.


MADNESS
Nexus is insular 

There is a big electronic world out there but, in the normal course of events, you will not learn about it by being part of Nexus. Unlike other bulletin boards, the Nexus management does not promote, does not inform its members of this big electronic world. 

Those who log onto Nexus enter a small, relatively barren fishbowl. Without knowing it they miss out on the diverse and manifold interactions beyond the fishbowl in the rich oceans of the wider electronic world. 

As educators we have no right to promote one fish as the best when there are many varied fish in the ocean. 


SANITY
1 million plus users!!!

The dynamic international network is called USENET. There are more than 10,000 computers and more than a million users linked up internationally in USENET. Nexus is a very small fish in a remarkably rich and diverse pond. The SA school community is not going to discover the remarkable joys and frustrations of the USENET for as long as Nexus retains its insular approach. We have a right and a duty to access the USENET as a harbinger of the future world communications system. It is time to put our toe in the



 
big ocean rather than perpetuating a parochial big fish in a little pond mentality.

Nexus management says that they have been discussing "for over a year" plans to join the USENET. My public query about the nature of the holdup has remained unanswered to date.


SANITY
Try some other bulletin boards. These are part of the international Fidonet chain which employs store and forward technology:

The Electronic Oracle, Ph: 234 0791
(carries the Fidonet international education conferences in all curriculum areas - not available on Nexus because Nexus is not part of Fidonet)
Adam, Ph: 370 5775
(600 users per day!)


MADNESS
Alienation
Nexus has alienated young experts 

When time charging was introduced on Nexus a couple of years ago the youth protested, they asked questions, they lobbied and when all this failed they left Nexus and went over to the cheaper (flat rate), more sociable bulletin boards such as Oracle, Adam, Coffee au go go, Country Club,  etc. 

This in itself indicates that there is something wrong about Nexus. The inability of Nexus to hold onto young experts is a damning indictment. 

Not so according to those who control Nexus. They do not even see the departure of these young experts as a loss. 

SANITY
The human factor

Computer education ought to be approached as a medium for personal development and empowerment. When the medium becomes the message, when we enthusiastically plunge into the medium, then more learning and more empowerment occurs than by any other means. Quite a few young people have used computers and their own initiative to empower themselves. They are self taught and have formed an autonomous, collaborative learning community. Tyros turn into enthusiasts and enthusiasts turn into experts. This used to ha



p
pen on Nexus II before time charging was introduced and still happens on other local boards that do not time charge. These young enthusiasts could have been an advertising and seeding resource for the future growth of Nexus. They could have become the most valuable resource of Nexus.


MADNESS
A preoccupation with data bases

Dialogue  with the Nexus manager, Ralph Leonard, has revealed that he sees the creation and use of data bases like AAP, Census, Weather, SAGE, People and Places as the main purpose of Nexus. He acknowledges that interactive conferencing has its place but that this is a secondary purpose. 

Don't get me wrong: I acknowledge that data bases have their place in the serious curriculum. However, the philosophy that data bases ought to be the centrepiece is profoundly wrong for these reasons:

1) The human factor
Most real people prefer and learn more from interactive human exchanges. Data bases are a dry, low excitement resource and the stress laid on them by Nexus underestimates the potential of this medium. 

There are alternatives that bring the human factor and human communication to the fore - the above mentioned newsgroups and electronic mail. 

2) Money 
If data bases remain the centrepiece of the system then costs will remain high and poor and remote people and schools will continue to be excluded. Data bases ensure that costs remain high because:

a) the data bases themselves are expensive - the agencies that supply them demand usage costs that must be passed onto the users under present ED policies.

b) because of their size large data bases are more difficult to decentralise and hence very expensive Telecom AUSTPAC or STD charges cannot be avoided. 

SANITY
CONCLUSION

To liberate computer communications so that human to human communication comes first we need:
a) an alternative philosophy of computer mediated communications that brings the human factor to the front by making newsgroups and electronic mail the centrepiece of the system
b) an alternative decentralised organisation of computer mediated communications that by passes expensive Telecom charges and makes the resource more accessible to all, including the poor and remote users.


SOCIAL JUSTICE
Is this a social justice issue?

Ever since I have linked the present reality of Nexus to social justice I have been told, again and again, by a few members of the ED hierarchy that I don't understand the meaning of social justice. 

So, just to make my meaning crystal clear:
1. Computer literacy is very important in today's world - 90% plus of the population agrees.
2. Education dollars are scarce. No argument.
3. These suggestions if implemented by the ED would mean cheaper, more extensive, more global, more interactive and more interesting computer communications for all users
4. This would bring computer communications within the reach of many poor and remote users who presently cannot afford it, including the main targetted groups of the current ED Social Justice Action plan (eg. school card and aboriginal students)
5. End of argument
Newsgroups: aus.education