Coalition promises $120m IT schools fund

Should add, after the Coalition has 1. fired the Technology support officers (600 jobs gones) 2. clawed back all the funds and 3. denied the current yr 7&8 students their laptops along with any chance of expereincing 21st century learning only to re-allocate $120m Tony looks set to make a tidy profit!

I think its important to understand that the DER program is not simply about handing out laptops to students.

Its a fully supportive and holistic program embracing a managed network which includes:
A netbook for every student 9-12, a fantastic array of software, wireless accesspoints in all learning spaces, school based technology support and professional learning for teachers.

In NSW, all of this is funded through DER. No submissions.

No submissions guarantees equity because allocation of resources isn't dependent on writing skills or otherwise.

DER has made a significant difference in our schools and it would be an enormous loss to the learning capacity of our students to change this model.

Having seen first hand the potential that the existing Digital Education Revolution program has offered to schools in NSW, the Coalition's plan seems to be a backward stride into a world of inequity and second rate tech in schools.
Contrary to the claims made by Mr Pyne, a self proclaimed " non expert in education" , the laptops have made a real difference in the biggest ticket item in schools these days - engagement. Teachers can project their lessons into the real time world and students can use cutting edge software to connect, collaborate and create quality work in all subject areas. This is a far cry from a mere 2 years ago when black and white photocopies and long waits for shared computer rooms were the norm.
Lets see this for what it is - a lack of vision regarding education and an ignorance of the potential that technology provides for our students in a 21st Century school, promoted by fiscal-phobes with no sense of what the future represents.

Since DER was introduced at my school in 2009 I have seen higher student engagement and a more positive attitude towards learning in general. The teachers at my school have collaborated to build programs that support the use of laptops across the curriculum. Collaboration at a regional and state-wide level has also been of the highest standard with a network of support available for teachers to ensure the success of DER.

DER has been successful and if the program was abolished by the Coalition it would be a step backwards for learning. We live in a technological world where the demand for students to enter the workplace with outstanding computer skills is increasing. The DER program has allowed our students access to the best software that wouldn't have been possible before receiving their laptops. In a 21st century classroom 1:1 laptops are essential and Australia is leading the way in delivering outstanding 1:1 laptop environments by highly trained educators. Abolishing DER would be destroying the foundations of a revolution that has the possibility to define a generation of students and educators.

I take it as another insult to those of us outside the city boundaries that we are not going to gain the NBN and be stuck with a 2nd rate system. Wireless indeed, had it and it sucked big time, off and on, off and on, speeds slower than dial-up at some stages, and this Coalition wants to put that in place out in country areas, huh.

I am paying now for ADSL1, Telstra saw fit to put pair gained cable in a new estate, so I'm now paying twice the cost of ADSL2+ for a substandard service, penalise because of the unfair attitude of Telstra, which would have been fixed eventually by Labour's NBN.

As for Labours 1 laptop per child, it is bringing the disadvantaged children who can not afford a computer at home the benefit of being able to use and utilise a computer they didn't have before. This is most important as jobs all over the world now rely on computers in the workplace, so much so, there is not more than 2% of Australian businesses without some sort of technology.

Heck, so Labour made a few bad choices, so did the last Liberal Government, keeping our county in surplus saw infrastrucutre go out the back door, saw public schools suffer through the money shift toward private schools, and after the financial gurus have said lately that a surplus is not a bad thing, then what the heck is this drive to get us back into the black all about.

Get real, get with what the public want, not what you think they want. ASK US AND DON'T GIVE US THE YOU YOU YOU ALL THE DAMN TIME!!!!

Tony Abbot does not seem to realise that kids today are different. They lived in a world fuelled by technology and the DER initiative addresses the needs of our children living in the 21st Century. If Australia is to prosper then our future lies in the ability of children to develop skills that will enable them to create and be innovative. Such skills are currently being developed through the DER program. As technology progresses at such a rapid pace we cannot move backwards. This will clearly be the case if the Coalition have their way. As an educator and parent I want to see children learn in an engaging manner. I might also add the DER has brought a breath of fresh air to my take on the teaching profession. We are all learning and it's a lot of fun. So much work has already been done by many hardworking teachers...it would be a crime for this to go to waste.

To me, this is a clear case of baby and bath water. Sure. Some Labour government programs have not been effective and have wasted public money, and need to be reviewed and possibly thrown out, but the NSW government's implementation of DER certainly cannot be judged as wasteful or ineffective. As can clearly be seen by the passion in the others who commented here about their first-hand experience of the positive influence of the program, there clearly is a need to carefully evaluate what each state has done and produce a model for a single Australia-wide Digital Education Revolution. This fine-tuning of the existing program should be undertaken, not the replacement with a generic buy-what-you-want program that will offer a tiny fraction of the progress that NSW public school students have already enjoyed for the past two years.

Think seriously about this. It's our children's and our nation's future you are playing with Mr Abbott.

When Christopher Pyne says the government has delivered only about 1/3 of the promised laptops he's conveniently overlooking the role of states. NSW has implemented technically best roll-out, possibly anywhere in the world. All the year 9 and 10 students have laptops and we're using them in new and relevant ways to improve delivery of education. Not at any stage since I started teaching in 1971 have we been able to provide such contemporary materials and offer such a broad scope of access to ideas and information.

The Coalition approach abrogates a systemic leadership role and it doesn't guarantee minimum standards of provision. In NSW it would be incredibly wasteful for a coalition government not to build on infrastructure already in schools, like the 22,000 (?) WAPs already there as a result of the Labor Government's.
Digital Education revolution.

As for the debate on broadband and the guarantee of 12Mbs/sec in the city, my copper connection is faster than that already tonight it was 14.95 Mbs, but that was slow.

I sure hope the DER NSW team have set measurable goals and collected the data that supports the improved outcomes to justify their continued existence.

Centralised systems may be bloated with inefficiency, but they sure do provide social equity in their delivery.

I am one of the hundreds of people employed to look after IT in our school.

This is the first time the school have ever been able to have someone onsite looking after things.

If I go because DER is scrapped, the school will not be able to pay for me to stay. This means that it will be down to the teachers to look after it all.

Seems wrong to me.

I expect that all the money that the school gets (I hear it could be $20,000) will have to be spent on repairs or servicing by an outside company.

Good luck with that Mr Abbott.

We have over 600 laptops in our school are are scheduled to get another 300 next year. Perhaps Mr Abbott you could help the English teacher with her year 9 class on a Wednesday when a student has forgotten their password. I am sure it won't disrupt the lesson much.

It seems terribly sad that the DER program could fall by the wayside. A lot of money and time has been spent learning about appropriate and engaging uses of the laptops in classroms, by both teachers and students, and to stop the program now would be a waste. Apart from that, there just has not been enought time to really look at their effectiveness over time - the longest have been in schools for just over a year.
I know with my own planning, it is so different having the option of incorporating laptops into lessons knowing that they will be available, rather than having to book a computer room!
Please allow more students to participate in active learning in the 21st Century, and don't kill this program!

It seems almost inconceivable to me that the DER project will be scrapped by the Coalition. This project has seen NSW schools implement a highly successful rollout of laptops equipped with up-to-date corporate level software, allowing today's students to work in a highly creative and connected environment.

To replace this well organised, equitable system with a mish-mash policy funding that rewards those who make a noise but penalises the bulk of students to save a dollar is incredibly short sighted of the Coalition.