Alex

Alex (right) and Janet

I did Japanese by distance education for four years. The subject simply wasn't offered. While the Southern Cross Distance Education centre was fabulous the isolation was inevitable. I was the only person at my school studying the subject and one of only two in the entire region. I spent so much time alone in my school library getting increasingly frustrated. A large part of the subject is speaking and I didn't have peers to practice those skills with like you would have in a traditional classroom situation. When I was struggling it was often difficult to get help. The hardest thing was not knowing how I was progressing. With no one to compare my progress to it was easy to assume I was miles behind everyone else. This wasn't true. But the anxiety was a nightmare. Being able to connect with others would have been invaluable.

Talisha

Hi my name is Talisha and I am 16 year’s old.

I have three brother’s and one sister.

I’m from Fregon community which is in the far north west corner of South Australia.

This year has been a really fantastic year for me because I wrote a story about my grandfather that he passed onto me. I always ask him about what they was doing in 1970s or 1980s and I like to spend my day’s with him. And I won the Heywire competition!

Babli



Babli (right) and a local celebrity



Hi I’m Babli Rawat. I’m 21 and I’m from India. I have been in  Australia just  2 years when I came to Australia I couldn’t  English it was so heart for me and then I did my English course I did my  English course from Wollongong TAFE. I finished year 10 in my country and I did my beautician course. 

I spent one year in High School and one in Wollongong TAFE. It was so hard because when I was in India I only had one English subject and I couldn’t write and read. It was difficult moving backwards in my education and having to start again. I started to learn English and now I’m quite good. Education is the most important part.

I think being able to talk to other students in a similar situation would have helped me. I’m very proud I’ve been chosen to be part of Heywire. My teacher helped me a lot. Her name is Miss Dus. At the moment I’m studying computers and business.

Fregon Anangu School Parent and Community Engagement Program

Dana

My name is Dana and I am from Eaton, situated on the coast of Western Australia, around 7km from Bunbury and 150km from Perth. I am one of the winners of Heywire for 2011and co-developer of this blog, URS.

We feel that blogging and social networking is not accepted by teachers in Australia because it is not understood. Blogging has the potential to unite and we feel as though blogging would work as an educational tool to help those isolated students in regional/rural Australia connect and share thier stories.

Going through high school, our French class only had four students. We didn't have a fantastic teacher and at times we wondered if other students were going through the same circumstances. If this type of forum was available, we would of had the oppertunity to ask other students how they were coping, post up our work to see if what we were writing was correct, share useful websites and find out about what life is like in other parts of Australia.