June 2009     A leading English expert in the design and implementation of on-line programs for disaffected youth will meet leading educators across the country this month to promote what could be a new type of learning for Australian teenagers.

Dr Jean Johnson will meet leading government education officials in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and the ACT - with an NT representative joining the SA meeting – between 14 and 20 June.

In South Australia, the interest in Ms Johnson’s programs is such that she will meet Department of Education and Children’s Services CEO Christopher Robinson.

Visiting Australia at the invitation of Education.au Chief Executive Greg Black, Dr Johnson will discuss how her on-going work with her most recent project, Notschool.net, is resulting in thousands of UK teenagers turning their lives around.

Notschool.net enables young people who have given up on traditional schooling to reconnect with learning, by identifying areas of interest they can develop on-line. Through those areas of interest – and particularly through the use of multimedia tools in areas such as animation and music production – the participants (or “researchers”) also develop literacy, numeracy and other abilities that advance their life and employment skills.

By 2007, 96 per cent of the participants had reached and achieved some level of accreditation. Mr Black says Notschool.net provides a model that could be adopted in Australia to help improve retention rates and to help young people otherwise lost too early to the learning process discover the joy of learning through the methods and subjects of their choice.

“Ms Johnson is the ideal person to show us – and key people involved in managing Australian programs for students at risk - how the Notschool concept could work in this country,” Mr Black says.

“Her visit will be instrumental in our efforts to develop a version of Notschool that best fits Australian conditions.”

For more information about Ms Johnson and to see how Notschool.net has succeeded in transforming the lives of English youth, visit Notschool

From a media release by education.au, June 2009.

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