We have had no internet or telephone services at school since last Wednesday due to a major fire at a major telephone exchange in Warrnambool. At least 60 000 customers across south-west Victoria have been left without home phones, mobile service and/or internet. At my home, I can use my mobile phone and luckily we still have internet, but no landline.
Many banks have been closed and businesses have not had EFTPOS working. People have been stuck with no cash to pay for things they need and no ability to pay by card. Businesses have started using the old swipe machines to allow people to use their cards. One major concern was that people for a time were unable to call emergency services. The fire has had a huge impact and it has helped us realise how much we rely on this one telecommunications provider.
It might take more than a week for full services to be restored.
At school we integrate web-based learning into all our lessons so, as the teacher, I have had to rethink the learning program while we wait for internet services to be restored. I have been able to download resources from the internet at home but for now we are doing lots more worksheet type activities and games!
How much do you use the internet in your daily school learning?
How would things be different if you had no telecommunications for a week?
Hi Mrs Norton
Wow that fire in Warnabool sounds pretty bad and are all the banks in Camperdown shut? and i can’t belive you don’t have internet.
from Ronin
PS: tell everybody i said HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
PPS: tell every body i said BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Hello Mrs Norton,
I am Dimitri from 4GPS @ St. Elizabeths Parish School.
Answering your questions, here at St. Elizabeth’s, we use internet almost every day! That fire sounds really bad, I don’t what we could do without those telecommunications, I really wouldn’t want to go back to the old fashioned way…
Well done on your blog, I think it is really good. Keep up the work!
If you want to visit our blog, here is the link.
http://4gps.global2.vic.edu.au
From Dimitri
Hello Dimitri,
Thank you for your great comment! We have ‘Quality Commenting Criteria’ and yours is a high quality comment. We were lucky at our school because our internet was back on after only 4 days. We still don’t have landlines now. I have read about people arriving for a holiday in the district and finding that they don’t have a booking because they had booked online. People also can’t pay for anything because EFTPOS systems are down. It is a big disaster for local businesses especially.
from Ms Norton & 5N
Hi Ronin,
The Warnambool fire was bad but we got our internet back.
some of them were shut
From Kaleb
PS: Everyone says HI
PPS: Everyone says BYE