All It On The Western Front

The Age

Monday November 24, 2003

Garry Barker

As Victoria ramps up its technology, a Western Australian school strikes a sweet deal with Apple. By Garry Barker.

PURSE strings seem to be loosening for technology in state education, perhaps revealing the start of a wave of innovation generated by government plans to revamp, upgrade and otherwise make Australia's education system more modern and efficient.

At the same time, there has been an attack on the tyranny of distance so often cited for the wide variation in access to technology between city schools and those in regional or rural areas.

Pushed by political pressure from Canberra, Telstra has concentrated on delivery of better network services in country areas.

All schools in Victoria now have internet access, mainly through the VicOne network set up by AAPT, but availability of broadband is limited.

In Victorian government schools, there is one computer for every four students, a ratio well behind the leading private schools where, including individual notebooks and desktop machines, the ratio is often better than one to one. But among the states, Victoria's ratio is the best in the country and one of the best in the world.

All 38,200 Victorian state-school teachers now have notebook computers, provided under a heavily discounted purchase scheme.

But other states are moving ahead, too. The latest example of serious investment in IT education comes from Geraldton High School in the mid-west of Western Australia, where 700 students and 50 teachers are taking delivery of 750 Macintosh iBooks and the means to wirelessly network and maintain them. Wireless mobility is gaining popularity among schools because of the flexibility it offers in and outside classrooms. It is ``always-on" and makes setting up networks cheaper, giving broadband connection from anywhere on the campus without the need to trail cables.

When the Geraldton shipment is complete, every year 8 and 9 student in the school, together with their teachers, will have an iBook and continuous broadband access to the internet and a high-speed intranet.

Geraldton High School has covered its campus with fibre optic cabling and, in classrooms, Apple's Airport Extreme 802.11g wireless system, which gives a maximum access speed of 54Mbps (megabits per second), enough to run video on a classroom full of computers.

Curriculum software is included in the deal, along with multimedia software that includes video, digital photography and music.

Every student gets a carry bag and a locker in which to secure their computer. The contract also provides full-time maintenance of the computers and support infrastructure.

The purchase, made after a competitive tender in which Apple beat three other leading notebook manufacturers, is part of the West Australian Government's $3.7 million technology-in-education program.

It is a significant win for Apple, which claims to be the world's largest education company in hardware and software development.

Apple has traditionally had a strong position in Australia in areas such as the University of Melbourne's science, engineering and medical faculties, but in past years has lost ground to other vendors, a situation the company now appears to be redressing. Apple's managing director in Australia, Tony King, says West Australia's Department of Education has ``really embraced change" in recognising the importance of providing one-for-one computing power and connectivity in the classroom.

Included in the deal is a substantial professional development program for the 50 teachers involved. This meets the oft-quoted problem that, in computing, students know more than their tutors, one of the factors seen as changing teaching styles and structures.

Western Australia's Education Minister, Alan Carpenter, says that by ``giving all students access to a portable wireless notebook, we are setting up an environment for a new and ground-breaking way of thinking about teaching and learning".

Victoria, at state level and so far, is ``overwhelmingly in favour of desktop computers rather than notebooks," a Department of Education and Training spokesman says.

Desktops are cheaper and give better value in terms of numbers available per school and maintenance bills tend to be lower.

Victoria spends about $91 million a year on school IT.