Using GSS technology to support teams of young students dispersed in Australia's remote outback

Web based group support systems (GSS) have been designed to support teams of adults working together towards a collaborative outcome, an outcome that is often categorized as a design process, or the business of producing an artefact. If classroom is perceived as a ‘meeting’, GSS can bring the same benefits to the classroom as to business meetings [1]. This paper explores the use of GSS technology to support the education of young students located in the remote outback of Australia. These students and their parent tutors are geographically remote and rely on distance education facilitated by the School of the Air for their schooling. We ask: “Can this technology help them?”