This paper reports on a project that was first introduced to World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning attendees in 2012, the PLEIADES project (Portable Learning Environments for Incarcerated Adult Distance Education Students) and discusses how this project evolved into two separate projects; one each from the two technologies originally trialled. PLEIADES introduced a version of an internet-independent version of the Learning Management System (LMS) called Stand Alone Moodle (SAM) and eBook readers to incarcerated students in a correctional centre in Southern Queensland. The Triple ‘E’ Project (Empowerment, E-Learning and E-Readers) using eBook readers similar to those trialled in the PLEIADES project, were rolled out to a further four correctional centres. This paper explores the issues and challenges involved with deploying eBook readers to incarcerated students through the PLEIADES and Triple ‘E’ projects.

1. Taking eBook Readers to
Prisons: A Tale of Two Projects
Dr Helen Farley, Dr Angela Murphy
Dr Tas Bedford, Dr Susan Hopkins
University of Southern Queensland

2. Assumes connectivity

3. What happens when
universities go paperless?

5. Our students
• Low socio-economic status background
• Females prisoners do not see the value in
education
• Younger prisoners (under 25 years old) are less
inclined to study
• Older prisoners (over 25 years old) are most
inclined to study
• Considerable peer pressure not to study
• Prisoners from non-English speaking backgrounds
• Generally low literacy or numeracy skills

6. PLEIADES

7. Stand Alone Moodle
• Interactivity and
access to
multimedia
• Proof of concept
• Too labour intensive
• USQ shifted from
Moodle 1.9 to 2.1
• Shared server
• Issues with training

8. eBook Readers
• To supplement Stand
Alone Moodle
• Incarcerated students
spend 2 – 3 hours per
week in computer labs
• Conversion of materials to
ePub
• Copyright a major issue

9. From Access to Success
• From Access to Success:
Improving the Higher
Education Learning
Experience for Students
without Internet Access
• OLT-funded $217,000
• Finishes May 2015
• Automation of key
processes including
installation of SAM

10. Triple ‘E’ Project
• 5 correctional centres
• BeBook Pures
• 47 participants (male
and female)

11. Data collection
• Focus groups at the beginning and end of every
semester
• Initially surveys with education officers and
students
• Interviews with education officers
• Interviews with stakeholders
• Reflective diary of tutor
• Student results
• Project team notes

12. Issues and challenges
• Technical
• Issues at correctional centres
• Students concerns
• Digital literacies of the students
• Digital literacies of the education
officers
• Copyright

13. What the students thought …
Student 1: I use mine every day... it’s portable so it’s
really good, you can use it lying down or sitting up.
Student 2: It’s the way of the future. I used it all the
time. It’s pretty useful.
Student 3: With the extra readings available, it's just
like a textbook only easier. Solves the troubles of
missing (not received) textbooks. The words dictionary
is very helpful, on the other hand it has its downsides.
Small letterings. Charging them was sometimes
difficult.

14. What the students thought …
Student 1: I’m reading the novels on the e-reader
but I prefer my study books to be hard copy because
I can highlight on the hard copy books. I enjoy
reading the novels but not the study materials on the
eReader.
Student 2: Most of the students face difficulties
trying to operate the eReader. They don’t know how
to magnify it, so they just complain it is too small to
read because they actually don’t know how to use
the e-Reader [to enlarge text].

15. Making the Connection
• $.4.4 million over 3 years
• 13 correctional centres (in
Qld, WA, Victoria)
• Stand Alone Moodle
• Tablets

16. Paper to Pixels

17. All photos from Flickr …
• Breaking all chains by Kristian Niemi
• Illuminated Paper Blowing in the Wind by
mymodernment
• The Prisoner by Raúl G. Huergo
• The Pleiades by Jeremy Stanley
• Avery Watts - Hard Work by Avery Watts
• …Hope… by Darren Tunnicliff
• ~thank you~ by Amber McNamara

18. Dr Helen Farley
Australia Digital Futures Institute
University of Southern Queensland
Email: helen.farley@usq.edu.au
Skype: helenf5300