The Red Center

The Red Centre is a name given to the southern desert region of the Northern Territory in Australia. It's hot and dry and very, very flat. The earth here is as red as Sedona's. This is where we've spent the last two days.

The days have been in the mid 80s. But the nights cool down a lot. Into the 40s.

 The central part of Australia is sparsely populated, and ranches and cattle stations can be hundreds of miles apart.  Educating children on these remote settlements would be impossible without a system like the School of the Air, "The World's Largest Classroom", covering over 1.3 million square miles.

We visited its headquarters in Alice Springs. This is where 13 teachers teach lessons to about 140 children in preschool through grade 9. The students use high frequency radio transceivers to receive their lessons. Computers, videos,  phones and faxes are also used in the process.

A teacher teaching a lesson in real time