The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > Labour's figures on laptops don't compute > Comments

Labour's figures on laptops don't compute : Comments

By Sinclair Davidson and Alex Robson, published 22/11/2007

Forget living in poverty, Labor now promises every Australian child two computers.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. 3
  5. All
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.
Posted by daggett, Thursday, 22 November 2007 12:24:53 PM
Find out more about this user Visit this user's webpage Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
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
Posted by Claudiecat, Thursday, 22 November 2007 12:26:42 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
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.
Posted by wizofaus, Thursday, 22 November 2007 12:41:34 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
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.
Posted by Kenny, Thursday, 22 November 2007 1:11:48 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
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.
http://kotzabasis3.wordpress.com
Posted by Themistocles, Thursday, 22 November 2007 2:20:42 PM
Find out more about this user Visit this user's webpage Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
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.
Posted by Reynard, Thursday, 22 November 2007 2:41:40 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. 3
  5. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy