With the education revolution a key part of the Rudd government’s election platform, the recent embarrassing “argy-bargy” with the States (especially NSW) over implementation costs of the government’s $1.2 billion promise to put computers on the desks of all students in Years 9 to 12 was seized by the Opposition and used as a political bludgeon. When the States meekly fell into line before the CoAG meeting last week, the political hoo-ha died away but the issue didn’t.
In fact the issue has been around for more than a decade, during which time plans offering big bucks to put computers in front of kids, and therefore launch them into the 21st century, have been used time and again as a neat electoral ploy.
But these plans hardly ever include money to support the computers, or to acquire and operate ancillary devices.
Crikey has visited a private school where computers are used by every student. The school employs ten IT staff and had just acquired more than $50,000 of data storage equipment, an essential item to ensure students’ work is backed up. Another school we recently encountered found that everyday PCs simply cannot withstand the punishment dealt out by teenage boys, who have been known to break off DVD-ROM trays by accident. Government PC-buying programs do not include explicit mechanisms to deal with that kind of maintenance.
Those with hands-on expertise therefore say that schemes that only provide money for the acquisition of hardware money are inadequate unless additional money is spent on the peripheral costs of implementing the program and then operating the computers. Those costs run at around $3 or $4 for every dollar spent on computers for kids.
Bob Lipscombe, Deputy President of the NSW Teacher’s Federation is scathing about the Federal government’s failure to consult with teachers about the best way to get access to computers for senior students.
“There is an assumption by governments at all levels that all that really needs to happen to roll out the hardware and that somehow magically with very little regard to professional development these computers will make a wonderful difference to schools outcomes,” says Lipscombe.
If they’d been asked, the NSW Teacher’s Federation would have been more than happy to tell the government that the plan needed to include the cost of upgrading electricity supplies to schools, training the teachers on incorporating computers into the curriculum as well as the ongoing issue of technical support.
In stage one of the new federal program, high schools in NSW will receive on average between 200 and 300 computers, with the largest schools getting around 400 computers but there is no provision for non-teaching staff member to be providing support to those machines.
“What other organisation with hundreds of computers would not have onsite tech support?” asks Lipscombe.
The reality is that such support has usually been supplied by enthusiastic teachers, who provide tech support and also develop ways to bring computers into the curriculum.
This time, however, teachers may not be willing to spend their own time to make computers work.
“If the commitment is not made to properly support and resource the rollout in terms of infrastructure, professional development and technical support then teachers will look seriously at not supporting the roll out,” says Lipscombe.
“The Teacher’s Federation is not prepared to stand by and watch the already significant workload of its members added to by poorly thought out programs.”
It’s not just Years 9 to 12 where these issues could become prominent.
One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), a US based organisation offering a cheap laptop for children in disadvantaged communities, has a vigorous local chapter which says the federal government is already interested in its device.
“There is certainly a lot of interest from Canberra in this project,” says OLPC Australia’s Jeff Waugh.
“OLPC Australia and Boston see disadvantaged communities as the natural focus, but there is an enormous amount we can do beyond that. We see an incredible opportunity for children all around Australia in primary school and it is good for older kids to create content and software for people in their community.”
The Parliament House community will also, one suspects, need to wise up to the support costs involved before these scenarios come to pass.
We pulled our kids out of an expensive private school that has a policy of a notebook computer for every kid from year 5 upwards – paid for by the parents, of course.
Even in an incredibly well resourced school, after six years, almost no teacher had worked out how to gainfully integrate the technology into the curriculum. At worst, some teachers would set the project, let the kids loose surfing the internet, and then bludge their way through the period.
The kids learnt how to all cut and paste the first five Google hits whether they were bullshit or not. When I asked any question about the content of these slick presentations they were, to an individual, clueless. Masters of cut and paste, but no learning of content was discernible.
For me, this whole issue of a computer – an expensive chunk of technology as a core component of an education is the biggest con job in living memory.
At the new school, computers were available – but not mandatory. They were in the background. Good old fashioned books and great teachers were in the foreground. And there was none of the panic of a week’s work going out the window with a crashed disk or a deleted file. Save that crap for the workplace.
I agree with Earnest. Computing now-a-days is promoted as “easy to use”. My grand mother picked up how to email, word process and Skype with the right setup. Heavy duty concepts like file systems, programming, security, etc should be taught in theoretical abstract to middle school. Hands on should be reserved for much later and as a definite tool not a toy (or TV-substitute but more dangerous internet babysitter). Our local high school govt. department IT can’t even keep the staff’s admin network going effectively!
another aspect overlooked.
many schools are 1to1 notebook schools.
note: we no longer have laptops because the intelcore2duo run too hot to place on your lap, they are notebooks and replace desktops.
however, the audit by federal education neglected to recognise the situation where students bring thier own computer to school.
consequently bendigo is funded for over 700 computers, but are unwanted as their students bring notebooks to school already. as the funding is linked to a CPU purchase creative methods are being explored to ‘hand off’ the computers to junior classrooms around Bendigo.
not the only instance, though Bendigo is spectacular example of the Feds being sooo out of touch with school reality.
as for NSW situation, it is the only state inthe dark ages of no technicians.
NSW ed has been so underfunded for so longthey forget to pay their way.
this is catchup time, and the state will have to pay.
no point blaming the Feds on this one, they are at least ten, if not 15 years behind the Vics, SA, Tas and Qld
WA so far away hard to know what they do as they do not visit the east, and the easterners do not visit the west…
the NECC in SanAntonioTX last week illustrated how far ahead Australian ICT is..probably 3~5years well all except NSW…