Webquest
Middle years

TEACHER NOTES

BAND: Middle Years

LEARNING AREA(S): Society and Environment

TOPIC / CONCEPT: Telecommunications Webquest

http://www.connectingthecontinent.com/
ctcwebsite/ctkids/ctkids.htm

This webquest has been developed as part of Connecting the Continent, which is an exciting major online event between 18th June - 1 July 2001 for Centenary of Federation SA.

Students develop an understanding of the role telecommunications play in everyday life and manipulate different roles/characters in the actual time when the telegraph line from Pt Augusta to Darwin began planning and construction.

To use a webquest effectively, teachers need to:

• contextualize the problematic situation presented in the webquest
• engage in the process as co-investigator
• model and coach effective group work
• assess learning throughout the process and in a variety of ways including student self-assessment

TIMELINE: 5 weeks (3 x 45 mins lessons per week)

Further details and assessment can be found at the URL http://www.oac.schools.sa.edu.au/webquest/

SACSA information

STUDENT TASK:
The Connecting the Continent webquest will transform you into a different role/character in the actual time when the telegraph line from Pt Augusta to Darwin began during the 1870s. You will need to conduct research into the Overland Telegraph Line and Federation to help you develop your chosen role and background knowledge before solving problems of the time.

Who are you? .... What do you do?... Consider some of the options below or negotiate another with your teacher.

1. A new settler - station owner
2. Indigenous perspective or viewpoint
3. Charles Todd
4. male perspective
5. female perspective
6. a Journalist reporting on the project
7. a worker on the team who planned and built the Overland Telegraph Line
8. Alice Todd at home with the children in Adelaide
9. free-choice option to be negotiated

Research such topics as:

• Who are you?
• What do you do?
• How wealthy are you?
• Who are your friends and family - are they in Australia?
• Where do you live?
• What transport do you use?
• What involvement and contributions did you have with Connecting the Continent?
• What yarns or stories have you to tell?
• What impact did the Overland Telegraph Line have on the quality of your character?
• What employment opportunities did the Overland Telegraph Line give to women especially? In the 1870 census of a total population of 99,328 there were 46,475 females.
• Consider social, environmental, financial, health, transport, communication, work, flora and government issues of the times.
• Compare a typical day in the life of your character in the past (1870's), present and in the future.

You will need to conduct research into the Overland Telegraph and Federation to help you develop your chosen role of the 1870's to solve problems. Small groups will be formed to develop future predictions and solve problems.

Some of these problems include:

• What impact did the development of the Overland Telegraph Line have on the Aborigines? Could you suggest any ways this could be changed or improved? What do you think would have happened as the construction team came across the first tribes?
• The workers come across a large, very thick forest which the telegraph line was planned to go through. If they go round the scrub land they may need further supplies. However, time is also important as they are near completion. What would the group advise as a strategy for the workers on where to go, how to do it, what extra costs might be involved and how long it may take.

You can create and present a multimedia project on the computer using software such as PowerPoint, Hyperstudio or publish a website to deliver your views to the rest of the class and world.

Remember you must also investigate the Question. Your answer to this question can be submitted to the organisers for prizes.

Do you think Australia's telephone systems would have been different today without federation?

Headstone of Charles Todd