Brief History:
PLATO was founded by Greg Williams, Marko Vojkovic and Richard Swindail on 14 June 2005. It is a non-profit incorporated body created out of extreme frustration over their failure to be heard by the powers responsible for the proposed post compulsory OBE regime. Their hope is that this site will provide teachers (at all levels of schooling), parents and students with a venue at which they can express their feelings on educational issues. They hope also that the site will become a place where educators are able to share ideas, freely and generously, for the betterment of our primary purpose of educating children.

On 28 June 2006, we achieved hit # 100,000 on the PLATO home page (with a daily peak of 1,042 hits and 449 unique visitors); on 8 August 2007, we reached hit # 250,000. 1/3 of a million hits occurred on 27 February 2008; hit # 400,000 came on 11 July 2008..

More than 18 million pages, images and documents have been read / downloaded from PLATO; more than 89,000 separate messages have been posted on the Message Forum; and approximately 2.7 Million separate "views" have occurred of the Message Forum.

The formal objective of PLATO are:

• To lobby government and attached educational bureaucracies to attend diligently to the primary function of education, i.e. educating children optimally;
• To research and present to the administrators of education world best practice in the education of children; and
• To alert the community and government of attempts to introduce fads and ideologically driven initiatives in the education of children.
  

Home Page
The home page contains four sections:

• Topical information about OBE;
• Breaking News: education news from local, national and international print and broadcast media;
• Information about PLATO; and
• Details of upcoming events.

The Breaking News section is updated several times a day, as necessary.

NEW June 2008: RSS Education News Feeds

Breaking News Archive
The Home Page usually contains only the past 2 days' Breaking News. It is then moved to an Archive, where it is organised on a weekly basis. The Archive includes material from 21 May 2006 to the present. The archive is searchable [the Search engine can be accessed from just above Breaking News on the PLATO home page, and from the top of the Breaking News Archive.]

Discussion Forum
The Forum is is the most-used feature of PLATO. As of 19 August 2008, it contains over 89,000 individual posts on 56,200 separate discussion topic "threads", which have been viewed a total of 2.7 Million times.

Anyone can post on the Forum anonymously. The Forum is not moderated per se [you don't wait for your post to be "approved" – it appears immediately], but offensive and irrelevant posts are removed when necessary. In an attempt to block "spam" messages, the Forum software requires "image verification" when each post is made. All postings on the Forum (since its creation in June 2005) are available to anyone. No username or password is required to access the Forum.

PLATO Mission Statement
self-explanatory

New Links
This section of PLATO contains links to relevant websites that have been added since 1 June 2006.

Links to Useful Websites
This section of PLATO contains links to print and broadcast media, the Parents Against Outcomes website, and a a variety of interesting articles, sources of information on education, and forums. It also provides links to some useful information about setting up your web browser, creating html, troubleshooting your PC problems, and much more.

Useful Education Links for Teachers
This section is still under development. When complete, it will contain nearly 10,000 links to educational reference, lesson plan, instructional multimedia and similar websites.

Quotes
This section includes interesting, witty and relevant quotations regarding education and OBE. It is updated +/- weekly.

Examples of Curriculum Excellence
This section includes examples of excellent curricula from other Australian states and overseas. It is updated regularly.

Useful E-mail Address
Here you will find email addresses for politicians, journalists and education unions. It also provides a link to current email addresses of all members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council. The page is updated as required.

Parliamentary Inquiries
The Department of Education and Training Select Committee investigated the Department's response to the Corruption and Crime Commission inquiry into allegations of sexual contact between departmental staff and children, the Management-Initiated Retirements of Paul Albert and Alby Huts, and other matters. It reported to the WA Parliament on 7 December 2006.

The Parliamentary Inquiry into Changes to the Post Compulsory Curriculum in Western Australia, by the Education and Health Standing Committee, reported to the WA Parliament on 29 June 2006, producing both a Government "majority report" and a "Minority Report". The latter recommended delaying the proposed new Year 11 courses for at least another year.

The Australian Parliament's Senate Inquiry into Academic Standards, and the House of Representatives Inquiry into Teacher Education, are also now linked from this page.

This link provides access to the inquiries' websites, as well as all reports, written submissions and public testimony before the Inquiries.

Hansard Highlights
This page includes links to all relevant discussions in the WA Parliament, with respect to OBE, the proposed new Courses of Study, and education issues generally, starting 14 March 2006. There is also some archive material from 2005. It also lists proposed sitting dates. When Parliament is sitting, it is updated weekly.

Handouts for Parents and Teachers
Several useful and informative 1-page [A4] Handouts, available as Word documents, or in .rtf and .pdf format.

The Official Word
This page provides easy access to Curriculum Council, Department of Education, WA College of Teaching and similar official reports, pronouncements, directives, memos and similar stuff. It is divided into State, National and International sections.

Media Releases / Newsletters
This page contains links to all PLATO Newsletters and Media Releases.

Bumper Stickers
This page currently offer 25 different FREE PLATO bumper stickers. Download them and print them on sticky-back or magnetic-back paper.

OBE Satire
self-explanatory; updated regularly

Founders - Current Committee
self-explanatory

How to Donate to PLATO
PLATO is support solely by voluntary contributions.

Join PLATO
This page includes information on PLATO membership (which is currently FREE), an application form and the Rules of Association.

From time to time, other interesting and/or newsworthy activities are linked from PLATO's menu. At the present time, these include:

• the Anti-OBE Protest Rally held at Parliament House, Perth on 14 June 2006; and
  
  
• the Channel 7 "OBE Forum" which was broadcast on 12-13 June 2006

Also of possible interest:

• the December 2007 election of teacher representative so the WACOT Board of Management   [one year late !]
  
  
• PLATO's New Year's Resolutions [for 2008]  [for 2007]
  
  
• The top education news stories of 2007
  
  
• The top education news stories of 2008 [so far]
  
  
• The best of Alston's cartoons [in The West Australian newspaper] for 2007 [emphasis on education]
  
  
• The best of Alston's cartoons [in The West Australian newspaper] for 2008 – so far ! [emphasis on education]
  

  
  Webmaster's News and Updates:

  • Archive
    
    
  • Active Forum
    
    

Contacts:

• PLATO Committee: email plato@aapt.net.au
  
  
• PLATO Webmaster: email platowa@bigpond.net.au
  
  
• PLATO Discussion Forum Moderator: email plato_moderator@yahoo.com.au
  
  
• PLATO postal address

  PLATOWA
  PO Box 5300
  Falcon, WA 6210

This page last updated 19 August, 2008 10:45 PM