It's a bit rich giving kids a computer each when most teachers don't have one for their personal use.

My wife has been teaching for a thousand years, and just last week she was put into a ballot for a laptop, the school(private) not being able to provide the 80 something staff with one all at once.

I agree that the computer business is a stunt. But perhaps these smug liberal hacks would like to spend a moment on a real issue, and discuss the destruction of education, particularly higher education, under Howard. Of course, that might disrupt their nauseating sycophancy.

I agree bushbasher, Rudd should also spend a moment on the real issues here and not just talk slogans of digital schools, broadband and education revolutions. I don't know what kind of "revolution" he is going to get for the little amount of money he has allocated.

Teachers are also going to need more training and to do more work to put their content online if the computers are going to be of real use. Otherwise they will all just sit there.

Environmentally these computers will use more power and create lots more land fill every three years.

I don't hear anyone saying that a lack of computers is the problem with our education system.

Mr Rudd talks of a skill shortage. Where is he going to get the IT staff to support all these extra computers? And for them to be really useful they will want to employ content creators to put more of the curriculum on the computers.

I like the Coalition education rebate that gives me more choice as to where I spend my rebate. That is a key difference between the Coalition and Labor. Labor thinks they know best and where all the money should be spent.

Rudd is so media managed with all his work shopped advertising agency slogans that mean very little. He has done so much to make this election more like a plastic US presidential campaign and has lowered the tone of debate. He isn't debating on a lot of the big issues that I would have thought Labor supports hold so dear. They should watch out that they may actually get the Liberal wanna be that Rudd is pretending to be and not the union hack they want(only his cabinet will be full of union hacks).

I agree that Rudd has said nothing of interest on education. But I can see no way that he could possibly be as bad as Howard: on education, Howard has been an unmitigated disaster.

this might not be so bad. there are cheap, light laptops developed recently for 3rd world kids which would be very suitable for ozzie school kids as well.

they are a substitute for books, and would actually reduce the weight of school bags. with texts down-loaded, the cost as well as weight of books would be removed. and they're tough, no moving parts as hard drive is replaced with flash memory.

no telling what actual program kevvie has in mind, but ozzies are used to the mushroom treatment and after the commentariat has earned their stipendium, they will submit with cap in hand and a muttered "gorbless, guvnor."

In 1979 when I was on my two eldest children's Primary School P&C, our Committee was pressing the system for in-service computer training for teachers and provided the funds for two computers to be installed in the school as a starter. Bugger all eventuated from the education establishment until 1998 (19 years later) when my youngest son joined an experimental 'notebook' year 8 class in high school where I went into debt to purchase a Toshiba laptop for over $3000.

The system was still not prepared by having the curriculum available on the laptops but at least it was a step in the right direction.

By virtue of access to a computer, learning to touch type and become familiar with computer technology and programs,my son developed computer skills which has enabled him to move straight into the workforce where a high degree of computer skills were required. He also developed a talent for graphic design which he is persuing post graduation.

I am on my 4th generation computer and only wish I had access to the technology 50 years ago.

Technological development is increasingly reducing the costs of what is no longer a luxury in education. The Rudd proposal is final recognition of the usefulness of the technology and a necessary first step if Australian students are to experience an education revolution and move into the 21st Century

Whilst I don't want this to be mistaken in any way as support for the Howard Government (see for example my article "The myth of the Howard Government's defence competence" at http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=6665, "Mark Latham's politcal gift to John Howard" at http://webdiary.com.au/cms/?q=node/2195 ) I agree that Rudd's plan will be largely a waste of taxpayers money as it now stands.

The money spent on laptops may be largely wasted as few are built for durability and may be made obsolete in a few years as a result the way Micro$oft designs newer operating systems so that older hardware and software applications can no longer be used.

What Rudd shoud do instead is procure on behalf of school students a basic and robustly designed laptop that is optimised for use with the Open Source Linux operating system. Thus, we as a national community, would pay far less, being able to derive the economy of scale and not be obliged to buy expensive proprietary software, whether out of our own pockets or through our taxes.

Straight away you see the problem. All schools will not apply for the maximum grant (a) because they won't all need it (e.g. many schools are relatively small) and (b) because any sensible policy will not have the Federal Government paying the full cost of the computers. Hopefully schools will require a co-payment from students to put some integrity into the demand. Rudd may in any case be thinking of a co-payment from the States or from the schools. An average grant of $400,000 will see Rudd staying within budget even if all 2,659 schools apply

I'm not hugely impressed the computer policy the way it is either, but it's a little unfair to suggest this is simply the outcome of a "Labor-thinks-it-knows-best" mentality: from what I understand, it was the direct result of interviewing hundreds of schools all around the country.

FWIW, I'd be interested if anyone considered a scheme where all schoolchildren were simply *loaned* laptops for school use only.

What so we shouldn't give kids a laptop. I guess those kids who haven't got access to one mustn't need one. As technical manager in a global IT company (software)I can dispel a few non-truths told in as well. Laptops are very robust, if looked after they can last for 10 years. Ever the software can last that long and longer. It all depends on what choices you make, how generic you go. Any system adopted by the eduction system would mean a slow turn over just from a logistic pov. Replacing your computer every three years or so has more to do with tax then anything else. Some of our clients have computer systems over 20 years old and software even older.

I'll tell you what though these Authors are doing the best to make sure that economist get ranked below lawyers as the least trusted professions.

Rudd’s “education revolution” is vacuous rhetoric and a HOAX REVOLUTION and he knows that. There is no dearth of computers in Australian schools. On the contrary Australia rates as one of the top countries that provides computers to its pupils and students. Hence to provide laptops to the latter is no revolutionary action. The genuine revolution lies in the quality of teaching. And in this area Rudd remains silent because he knows that this area is forbidden area decreed by the education unions which protect a large body of mediocre teachers whose minds are draped in postmodernist clothing.

It’s by such hoaxes of “education revolution” and “new leadership” that Rudd, who has copied during the campaign so many of the liberal policies including their economic conservatism, hopes to con the electorate to vote for him next Saturday.
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Schooling in Australia will not improve until the loony left is thrown out of curriculum development, and as far as possible out of the schools themselves. Computers play very little part in any Education Revolution". This is a political stunt of the worst kind - particularly coming from the side of politics which has done the most to degrade the education system in this country.

Themi, give me vacuous rhetoric over divisiveness, deceit and dereliction of duties (on many key issues) any day.

daggett - I had wondered about the O/S issue too - while a self-confessed MS user (largely because that's where the job opportunities have been), I agree that imposing Wintel machines would be a mistake. But is there any information indicating that this will be the case? And presumably it's decided on a school-by-school basis?