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The rationale
Using online community as professional development and for building personal professional networks is well established in Australia. The oz-Teachernet, EdNA and state system's online communities provide a network for Australian teachers to join and shape. A number of issues are now emerging for teachers as these communities mature and grow in number and variety. The volume of mail is growing and teachers will soon elect to not participate in so many lists. Teachers are now more connected and have less urgent need for online support as much as they once demanded. Further, since many systemic and school level networks now mimic the professional workplaces found in business and industry, the professional imperative to provide teachers with "at least some networking" is less imperative. This changing circumstance enables for the development of the next generation of online teacher community.

Teachers are under pressure from community and Government groups to help students prepare to participate in Australia's information economy future. This is a frankly, a tall order. The aging teacher population, whose initial training occurred as long as 20 years ago, is struggling to make use of information technology in simple ways. Their work places are often sparse of IT and certainly the business of working in their schools is not based on an IT infrastructure as it might be in other professional workplaces. They are bereft of e-commerce and high-level online experiences and have little opportunity to participate in the dialogue of the government, commerce and industry professionals who are immersed in the issues and knowledge that is shaping Australia's information economy future. The teacher's task is doubly difficult because after awareness, knowledge and understanding for them, comes the task of interpreting that into an educational context and embedding new ideas into curriculum and learning experiences.

Some teachers will quickly take up the challenge of embedding the principles of information economy thinking into classrooms. These early adopters will each struggle alone to find out, synthesise their knowledge and embed reflective thinking into curriculum approaches, subject matter, new courses and new pedagogy. Where some teachers lead, others will follow and eventually a movement of change will occur. The information technology-driven new-Australia will change faster than educational systems can cope. Activity needs to happen now, which will help early adopters work together to shape the next generation of Australian schools and directly help produce IT specialists.

This Australian Teachers Thinktank model is a blueprint for the next generation of online teacher communities. It seeks to identify the level and type of online dialogue teachers will value and which will change the way teachers understand the relationship between how the new connected world works and what teachers do in classrooms. Not all teachers will want to participate in this new model for online communities. Those who have not had opportunity to observe on or participate in the new connected and IT-organised workplaces or who have not adopted online community as a professional survival strategy will not see its value at first. Those who understand the rationales for education's commitment to Australia's information economy future, those who are committed to use IT as a curriculum strategy and those whose business is teaching IT skills and knowledge are ready to move forward.

Information economy imperatives for education
As Australia follows global trends and considers service and knowledge industries as a key component of economic, political and social structures, the task of educating the nation's youth changes. The Adelaide Declaration of National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-First Century, now helping to shape school curriculum, pedagogical practice and learning opportunities, has been constructed in the context of changing global business, changing western lifestyles and the peculiarity of Australia's position in global markets. The small population in Australia requires that its workforce be a specialist one with efficient and effective practices. It is imperative that schools respond to changes and help youth understand how they can prosper in a new economic climate. How to do this in schools in unclear.

Various documents (MCEETYA 1999, NOIE 1999) encourage governments, schools and communities to support the use of learning technology in schools. Students who use learning technology during the learning process will develop skills, knowledge and attitudes which will place them in a position of knowing how to learn about IT and how it is embedded in the processes of life and work. Further learning technology approaches being adopted by most states focus on using IT and other technologies for higher order thinking, problem solving, project management and communication. The approaches in Technology Education and other KLA's complement this. Using computers is important, but using them for higher order processes is more important and a goal to be developed further in Australian education if its students are to be able to survive the modern context Australia is creating. Teachers need to understand the Information Economy context if they are to ensure how they work with students, makes a difference.

Incorporating complex skills into curriculum experiences is vital. Collaboration, project management, problem solving and creative initiative are skills valued by employers and vital to the next generation of managers, small business owners and consumers. Although education documents stress this, it is not clear to teachers who are not part of modern business, why these are so important. The precise skills and ways of developing such skills are not obvious to teachers who may not have experienced them themselves, in any context outside of the business of teaching. The links between new businesses emerging from the new economy and new skills required must be made obvious in curriculum documents, in choices of learning experiences and in design of courses. The task of interpreting the Information Economy into programs of study is not yet done.

Focusing on IT studies will grow in significance in the near future. Specialists begin making choices about study paths and begin gaining expertise at school age. It is vital that schools offer modern programs of IT studies and that they directly contribute to Australian Information Economy initiatives. In the same way that University and Vocational sectors are directly targeting new IT trends and offering programs in IT studies, E-commerce and new Information Systems, schools need to alter their current IT programs to become more relevant to the future needs of their students. Informed and enthusiastic IT teachers can do this with support of IT mentors.

The balance between IT skills and knowledge and social and ethical responsibilities loom dominant as Australia develops the next generation of industry. Bio-technology, online businesses and complex economic imperatives each cause society to question the advancements of technology and its relationship to the dehumanising of business. The ethical boundaries are shifting. The moral causes are changing and the technologically displaced groups in our society need attention. In the same ways that environmental education begins at schools, ethical understanding of IT in society needs also to be embedded into programs of study and into the dialogue which teachers construct and promote in their classrooms. The Information Economy context needs to be interpreted in human ways and embedded into the thinking of children, while they are in educational systems and programs.

A significant component of information economy consequences for schools is the development of Australia's education market. Schools will embrace the trend to internationalise their operations, conduct open learning programs and offer educational programs for all sectors of the community in a variety of ways. Flexibility, ability to respond quickly and the changing structures in which to work, are attributes of schools who will be able to take advantage of new market opportunities. These trends may alter how schools behave and are managed. Although restructuring of education is a constant activity in recent times, incorporating new ideas within the information economy context is yet to be realised. Connectivity in the community and in schools is the first step to altering the role and shape of schooling in the global and local marketplace.

Teachers who are forward thinking and who have capacity to initiate changes will do much to accelerate Australia's progress in the new global social, economic and cultural structures. Teachers need to be connected to the thinkers in the country who are driving such change. In turn for gaining a deep first hand account of new ideas and trends, teachers will help shape community uses of new technologies and directly contribute to supporting the inventors of the next generation of services and commerce.

The concept of a "Thinktank" for teachers
This concept aims at teachers who are ready to move beyond the professional help-group style online communities now available to support education. This model for online community aims at forward-thinking teachers who need stimulus and debate from a wide variety of people in order to reach their professional potential. It is these early adopters and broad thinkers who will shape education's future. A thinktank puts good thinkers together and enables them to use their synergy to generate new ideas and ways of communicating them. The key rationale is that teachers need access to how modern macro-business decisions are made in the context of an IT-driven future. Access to the level and type of thinking of key thinkers in the IT sector will help teachers understand this and how their curriculum understanding needs development if their curriculum is to serve the society and economy.

An Australian Teachers Thinktank would encourage debate amongst business leaders, political analysts, economists, and IT futures expertise with teachers. A number of models can be tried to stimulate dialogue and develop teachers understanding. Developing such dialogue would be difficult and a coordinator would need to work hard to prepare participants, develop online content, record debates, encourage reflection and monitor strategies, topics and people who created the most stimulus and ultimately the most change in what teachers do in classrooms and in curriculum development projects.

Online guests might provoke discussion, cause debate and inform the teacher community of new ideas, thinking and trends. These guests could challenge teachers to shift emphases, adopt new approaches and generally became more responsive to and aware of change. A variety of guest models, currently used in online educational communities could be used. Guests might use combinations of web-publishing, streamed audio, email or webboard-centred discussions and live text chats to encourage participation. The VECO model for organising, recording and conducting online guest events could be used as a base model.1

Regular but infrequent online commentaries could be organised by a coordinator who would work with multiple guest writers, seek responses from the audience and generally ensure the tone and topic of conversation was helping teachers move from their comfort zone. Case studies of industry, career case studies, analyses of issues and current incidents, legislation and projects might form suitable subject matter. Online education, a volunteer service in Australia, is a model from which ideas can be drawn. 2

Virtual tours of industries could be conducted using guests from an industry, commentators, collations of major publications illustrating an industry, guided tours of web sites, live cams and general information delivery. Where appropriate, face-to-face visits and lectures can complement online activity, especially is they are recorded or streamed live to remote audiences.

Online thinktanks on issues could be conducted in a variety of models with skilled facilitators leading participants through stages of discussions. Models might include hypotheticals, debates in the style of the Great Aussie Debate 3 , organised brainstorms, speakers and audience reactions in a forum style and publication-discussion-publication style often used in thinktanks to produce and communicate new ideas. The project coordinator could explore various technologies to match purposes and tools in ways that help participants communicate.

A new thinktank community web site might be developed to provide services to teachers who are interested in connections to the IT and other industries which are driving Information Economy goals. Similar to the Wired Site 4, teachers might be able to access clips of information about new development and unusual ideas as they happen, participate in live events with leaders of the industry and net commentators, access trials of new services and generally immerse in an online culture of people willing to talk about and try new ideas before they become mainstream. The Wired or VECO communities in Australia would be excellent models upon which to base this Australian Teachers Thinktank online community. Its core principles would be about helping people communicate rather than on gathering information.

The web view of a Thinktank
A web could be used to create a place that tells the story about what happens in the community. The web would be used by this thinking community to access information abut events, join in events, discussion lists forums and chats, and find out about the levels of debate. The web would record all events in some form and act thereafter as a resource for other teachers or as a place to hold the data from which reflection can occur. The web would describe how to join in, what has happened and provide links to quality communities and sites which complement the activity which occurs in the thinktank. The web view of a thinktank would be the view visitors have of what happens in the community.

The participants view of a thinktank
Participants would experience the thinktank as a series of events. Events would be advertised, conducted and reviewed. Participants might use the web to access tools, information and resources as part of the participation process. Participants would see that people talk with them, stimulate their thinking and that dialogue encourages growth of thinking. Participants would experience a variety of models for participation and access different people in different ways; a set of experiences which might help them structure online events for other teachers or for their students.

The project manager's view of a thinktank project
The project manager would understand the project through four lens: event topics and guests, the event designs, tools and strategies for hosting events, housekeeping and management tasks. Each of these lens provides a view of the Thinktank and suggests that a range of tasks, tools and process enable a thinktank to achieve its goals.

Selecting clever topics and guest communities is imperative if the Thinktank is to achieve its goals. It would need also to appeal to teachers, have a sense of fun and be something so valuable, efficient and effective that teachers make time and energy to participate. It would need to be different to the usual educational-centred professional development available through other media and models. It would need to have extremely high-profile guests and expert communities and be well advertised amongst teacher communities. A sense of community would develop amongst participants who would celebrate the opportunity to develop relationships with other forward-thinking teachers and community leaders.

The design of events would be imperative to the success of the project and considerable time would be required to develop valuable events. Careful crafting of background information, dialogue, activities and reflection would complement a provocative and interesting topic. The coordinator would need to learn to understand the community to thus predict the behaviour and reaction of participants to changing models, topics and guest communities. A variety of models would need to be critiqued to develop further generations of activity.

The project manger would have to develop, modify and use a variety of tools to implement this project. The community are likely to be extremely IT literate and would expect the most recent and new tools to be incorporated into the project for administration and conduct of events. This project and its community could be seen as the test-bed for trialling tools that have widespread application in other projects.

The housekeeping and management tasks in this project would be essential to enable busy community guests and teachers to participate easily. The people involved in this project would use volunteer time to participate. Thus unless participation is seamless, they are likely to be reluctant to repeat their efforts. Tasks for the project manager are likely to include selecting, designing and testing tools, establishing contacts with potential guests and businesses, advertising events, promotion of the project, reflection and communication of event design and data gathering. Activities would also include designing events, building a web site and establishing a level of personal professional development that helps them take a leadership role in this elite community of advanced teachers.

References
Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) (1999). The Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-First Century. Brochure. Canberra: MCEETYA

Commonwealth of Australia (1998). A strategic framework for the information economy, identifying priorities for action. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.

1. The Vocational Educational Coordinators Online Project (VECO) is managed by Australian Student Traineeship Foundation (ASTF) and Aussie SchoolHouse (ASH) to build an online community and host events for vocational education coordinators in schools. A web which records the events and provides a window on the community is at http://www.veco.ash.org.au.

2. Online Education is an occasional publication via email to a list designed for this purpose. It is run by a volunteer, Graham Hart, at the University of Melbourne. The publication is always though provoking about current issues and uses a variety of high-profile writers.

3. The Great Aussie Debate is a television show which uses a debate team approach. Its distinctive characteristic is that it uses creative unusual titles for debates and the angle of a issue is usual and enable either satire or humour to help communicate quite serious issues.

4. Wired is a community in the US which collects folks interested in online futures, IT stocks, new inventions and new cultures. It has a web sites, magazine, events and newsletters. It mixes online and paper-based communications. It injects futurist thinkers into the community.