NationStates Jolt Archive

The OZ government is suppose to give the australian high school students in years 9-12 laptops for school. No sign of that yet.

Discuss.....:confused:

The OZ government is suppose to give the australian high school students in years 9-12 laptops for school. No sign of that yet.

Discuss.....:confused:

Nanny-statism.


(Yay! I said it this time!)

The OZ government is suppose to give the australian high school students in years 9-12 laptops for school. No sign of that yet.

Discuss.....:confused:

Wow.

If this post is genuine, those laptops are needed.

Laptops in school? Utterly stupid, put proper desktops in there. They're better in every single way.

Laptops for the homework? Why, may also give them a free car and a free house and free money instead of a job.

Laptops in school? Utterly stupid, put proper desktops in there. They're better in every single way.
Yeah, it isn't like space could possibly be an issue, is it? I mean, most classrooms are easily twice as big as they need to be, so taking advantage of the fact that laptops can be conveniently stored in a cabinet or closet until they need to be distributed for a specific project would be utterly stupid.

No, you're not getting shit whilst until we clear the national debt again

intrestingly they accidently shiped 10 million American HS students lap tops. seems your PM was drunk and left the A off the country abbreviation when sending out the lap tops.

I'd be fine with that if it wasn't some high-tech laptop. With textbooks nowadays being 40-80$, getting a laptop to be used again and again, putting in a few large documents to take the place of a textbook (used with adobe acrobat reader), and use (I can't believe I'm saying this...) Linux, it might not be a bad idea. Collect the laptop at the end of the year, and you have yourself a system at least as good as the one in place, and possibly better.

I'm all for increased spending on education, but I'm not sure laptops for all students is the best way to go. I can forsee theft & loss being a big problem. Desktops would probably be better, as they offer better bang for your buck & they're harder to "misplace".

We got all our Classrooms Desktops...and replaced them with newer versions...

Maybe we could let the Aussies have some of the old ones? lol

We got all our Classrooms Desktops...and replaced them with newer versions...

Maybe we could let the Aussies have some of the old ones? lol

Back in 1999, the local College of Education was being generous to my primary school by giving the school a suite of computers...with windows 3.1 on them.:D

You know what irks me? The OP refers to the laptops as belonging to him, not the school district.

With textbooks nowadays being 40-80$, getting a laptop to be used again and again, putting in a few large documents to take the place of a textbook (used with adobe acrobat reader), and use (I can't believe I'm saying this...) Linux, it might not be a bad idea.
However, cue Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and some other stuff.
Plus, textbooks aren't so expensive because of the printing part. The printing is less than 10% of that price, the rest they take for content because they can. So the pdfs wouldn't be free.


Yeah, it isn't like space could possibly be an issue, is it? I mean, most classrooms are easily twice as big as they need to be, so taking advantage of the fact that laptops can be conveniently stored in a cabinet or closet until they need to be distributed for a specific project would be utterly stupid.
Hmm, you're right, I forgot about the option of convertible classrooms possible with laptops.

Although for many applications, where they're needed all the time or at least don't interfere, stationary desktops would still be better:

- No need to distribute them, always there.
- More comfortable and ergonomic. Proper keyboard and mouse, larger and adjustable monitor.
- No need to worry about theft.
- Don't crack their screen because of a pencil on the keyboard.
- More tolerant to school abuse. Keyboards are easily replaced.
- More longevity. Most laptops aren't designed for a decade of full-time duty.
- Way easier to maintain and repair. The broken board out, the new in.
- Also easily upgradeable.
- And, last but most important, much cheaper.

- No need to distribute them, always there.
- More comfortable and ergonomic. Proper keyboard and mouse, larger and adjustable monitor.
- No need to worry about theft.
- Don't crack their screen because of a pencil on the keyboard.
- More tolerant to school abuse. Keyboards are easily replaced.
- More longevity. Most laptops aren't designed for a decade of full-time duty.
- Way easier to maintain and repair. The broken board out, the new in.
- Also easily upgradeable.
- And, last but most important, much cheaper.

So it seems to be time to reintroduce the old 'n' trusted TTY. :D

This is the most recent stuff I can find about it (Jan 29) (emphasis added):
"That money will be available to schools and school systems by the end of June this year."

She said the timetable for rollout for the new computers "is a matter for individual schools and school systems".

The Government will invest about $2 billion over six years as part of the program.

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/95106,government-funds-141000-more-school-laptops.aspx

So it's likely to depend on which State you're in. Queensland's very gung ho on computers -- they've had a computers-for-teachers program running since 2007 -- but NSW was playing silly-buggers last year in the hope of screwing more money out of the Feds for computer support. I don't know about the other States.

The fact that Gillard was saying this stuff just two weeks ago suggests that it's not going to be one of those promises canned because of the global financial crisis.

On the other hand, the report talks about just 1400 schools getting this particular lot of funding, so maybe they're going to do it in stages.

Let's see -- next Federal election, on or before April 16, 2011. Next NSW State election, March 26, 2011.

Somehow, I think I can confidently predict NSW students will have laptops by 2011.

You know what irks me? The OP refers to the laptops as belonging to him, not the school district.

In the UK we have a program to provide home computers and internet connections to disadvantaged kids.

They may actually be giving them to the students, not the schools.

I prefer books personally. I'd rather the money be invested in text books than laptops.

In the UK we have a program to provide home computers and internet connections to disadvantaged kids.

They may actually be giving them to the students, not the schools.

I can justify providing access to computers at school, I cannot justify just giving them away.

I can justify providing access to computers at school, I cannot justify just giving them away.

It helps level the playing field between rich and poor.

I don't think the intention is to give them away. At the State schools my kids attended, textbooks for each subject were handed out at the beginning of the year and returned at the end. If the kids couldn't return the book, they were charged its replacement cost. I don't know, but I'd expect that the same practice would apply to laptops (though maybe allowing the kid to keep it throughout high school).

I don't know for sure, because probably they wouldn't be good for much more than two users. Still, I'd thank my lucky stars I wasn't the IT support who had the job of clearing the returned ones.

I prefer books personally. I'd rather the money be invested in text books than laptops.

So do I, but for a tiny fraction of the cost of textbooks, we could provide the PDFs on laptop. Interestingly, electronic media actually has a higher profit-margin in many bases, because of how much money is wasted on printing. Now, don't get me wrong, I happy to love holding a good book in my hands, but we have the chance to provide schoolkids with up-to-date textbooks quickly, cheaply, and universally.

The OZ government is suppose to give the australian high school students in years 9-12 laptops for school. No sign of that yet.

Discuss.....:confused:

Don't know if it has been said yet.

But NO! the Australian government did not say it was going to be giving all high school students in years 9-12 a laptop.

What they did promise during the election was that all Australia students between years 9 to 12 will have access to a computer.

If the electorate was stupid enough to think this meant every child will have a computer that is hardly their fault, but they knew many people would be thinking this.

Now in regards to laptops, the NSW government said they will give a laptop to every student between years 9-12 for them to keep till they leave. The reason for this was because there was a lot of infrastructure for them to pay for in order to install these computers in many schools. The extra cost of this infrastructure on top of the actual computer was not going to be pad for by the Australian government. The NSW in response said "screw it" and said they would just hand out laptops instead.

What I want to know is if the NSW schools will be handing out the laptops every year when there is a new class of year 9's come through.

I'm all for increased spending on education, but I'm not sure laptops for all students is the best way to go. I can forsee theft & loss being a big problem. Desktops would probably be better, as they offer better bang for your buck & they're harder to "misplace".

That's what I was wondering too, I wonder if the NSW government has factored that into the cost.

You know what irks me? The OP refers to the laptops as belonging to him, not the school district.

Well according to the plan by the NSW government the students are allowed to keep the laptop even after they leave school. It will be their laptop and not one belonging to the education department.

Somehow, I think I can confidently predict NSW students will have laptops by 2011.

Funny how this sort of thing works. :)