Webcam and Instant Messaging

These ‘chat’ systems are an extension of e-mail. A tutor can set up a class on a particular time and date and have students all over the world join in, in what is called real-time mode. Companies have used this facility for quite a while now to reduce the cost of running meetings and this familiarity is now a major reason for its use in distance-learning.

Distance-learning via webcam and instant messaging is widely used in rural areas. Australia has used schooling in this way for a long time where access to a tutor in far flung areas is impractical.
CISCO operates systems like this to deliver to the 160 countries under their tutelage to great effect.
The problem with this in the prison service is primarily that the interaction would have to be only one way as the unrestricted ‘broadcasting’ of prisoners would be a security nightmare. Each of the PICTA prisons now have Interactive Whiteboards and projectors that could be used as a means of delivery of training via Webcam. We ourselves have looked at this option when we had a student wanting to undertake a qualification that my prison could not supply but another PICTA prison could.