[Yr7-10it] Ultranet

[Roland Gesthuizen]

There are some activities that our state education departments were never
really ment to move into.

At one stage a bright spark probably had the idea that if every school had a
photocopier, kids would never read to buy a book in a library. Teachers
could just run off blackline masters. The same could be said for film loops,
16 mm projectors and other bits of technology that are rolled out into
schools. There is a point where the state can provide support and a point
where it must step back and let go.

With the wisdom of hindsight, can laugh at the rush to install copiers and
projectors. Whilst we applaud the work by groups such as the state film
library, there comes a time when other groups can handle this better and we
can let go of central state control or organisation.

This is already happening around us. I just helped another staff member
connect to a wireless network that leaps around our school network.
Organisations such as NSW and NASA are outsourcing email to external groups
like Google Gmail. I agree that the millions we now spend on a satewide
Ultranet would very probably be wasted over the next millenium as ICT goals
move towards cloud and portable based computing where users have a very
personal stake in how it should be used.

If I can quote a good friend (his entire article is worth reading)

"The problem is that we do not create productive contexts for learning in
which the needs of each child are met as their talent, interest, curiosity,
and passion are amplified. The last thing we need is another sweeping
top-down reform."
      http://www.good.is/?p=11450

Regards Roland

2009/3/2 <stephen at melbpc.org.au>

> (snip)
> They would be better putting the money into creating moodle blocks to do
> the extras that they want, and teacher education in the use of ICT's.
> 60.5 million is a damn lot of money that could be much better used in a
> 1000 different ways. But instead we will end up with something that is
> probably irrelevant to our needs, a resource hog, etc etc.
>
> Why isn't the government looking at Open Source software?? Or are the
> kickbacks too much of an enticement??
>



-- 
Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change
the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.edulists.com.au/pipermail/yr7-10it/attachments/20090302/7b029c70/attachment-0001.html