Pacific Magazine > Magazine > January 1, 2002

PREL

Pacific Resources for education and learning

PREL Provides Distance Learning Programming for the Pacific.

By Jim Bannan

Throughout the school year, virtual science field trips are available to 4th to 8th grade students in remote areas of the U.S.-affiliated Pacific and throughout the U.S. through a series of KidScience Distance Learning Specials. Available via Ku-band satellite, these programs integrate live video, Internet interaction, and student activities and projects for exciting learning experiences.

Produced by a partnership that includes Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL), the Hawai‘i Department of Education, and Hawai‘i Public Television (KHET), these specials fill a need for science resource programming that features the islands and cultures of the Pacific. Information on past and future programs can be found on the KidScience website (www.KidScience.net).

The fall series of KidScience Distance Learning Specials focused on American Samoa. The KidScience video crew and television teacher Patty Miller spent two weeks this summer interviewing and videotaping there. The three one-hour programs feature the different ecosystems found in American Samoa: the reef ecosystem, rainforests, and lowland forests. The programs address the structure of the ecosystem, its importance to the islands, factors that impact the ecosystems, and what is being done to protect them.

Preparation of food to be cooked in an umu, or Samoan outdoor oven.

During the live broadcasts, Dr. Namulau’ulu G. Tavana from Samoa and Ms. Lisa Mapu from American Samoa joined Patty Miller to host the program, while students from Sunset Beach Elementary School in Hawai‘i demonstrated the activities that students would perform in classrooms around the country. Students in Hawai‘i and across the continental U.S. can take part in the KidScience specials by accessing the KidScience website during and/or after the programs. Lisa Mapu remarked that she herself had learned a lot from the program. “It made me realize how interdependent all living systems are,” she said. “I was glad that the students were made aware of this.”

This series was unique in that a second student group participated live on air directly from American Samoa through videoconferencing. This activity allowed the American Samoan students to demonstrate some of their cultural practices, such as the Sua presentation and games such as Aki. Robert Soli’ai, PREL’s field-based program specialist for American Samoa, assisted the film crew during their visit. He commented, “We hope that what they have captured on film will enable others who are not here to experience the Samoan way of life.”

American Samoa was a good site for the television series because of the work that has been done to establish a technical network there. Four years ago, the American Samoa school system applied for and received E-rate funding to install and equip an island-wide Wide Area Network (WAN) and Local Area Networks (LANs) in the schools. With assistance from PanPacific Education and Communication Experiments by Satellite (PEACESAT), Internet access was vastly expanded from a few dial-up connections to the Internet to a full-blown fiber network linking all of the schools with a full T-1 Internet connection back to Hawai‘i within a few months.

Preparing palusami with taro leaves and coconut milk.

PREL’s PRELSTAR program has assisted in expanding the network to include videoconferencing in 8 of the 29 public schools. It has also provided two units for use in the department of education. This capability allows for low-cost communications between classrooms in American Samoa, Hawai‘i, and the continental U.S. Teachers have been able to join their peers in Hawai‘i for professional development workshops and attend meetings at a distance. Prior to the expansion of the network, participation in such events was available only to a few teachers because of the high cost of trips between the territory and Hawai‘i.

Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL) provides educational video programs throughout its service area through PRELSTAR, a U.S. Department of Education Star Schools grant. The project serves Hawai‘i and the Pacific entities of American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. For more information, contact PREL at (808) 441-1300.

Children playing Aki, a Samoan version of jacks.

Jim Bannan is the Associate Director for Distance Learning for the PRELSTAR program at Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL). He can be contacted at bannanj@prel.org.

CONTACT INFO

Pacific Resources for Education and Learning 1099 Alakea Street, 25th Floor Honolulu, HI 96813 Phone: (808) 441-1300 Fax: (808) 441-1385 Email: mailto:askprel@prel.org

This product was funded by the U.S. Department of Education (U.S. ED) under the Star Schools Program, grant number R203A970016 (CFDA 84.203A). The content does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. ED or any other agency of the U.S. government.