School computers.

Kevin Rudd's pre-election promise of a school computer for every child in Australia was one of the reasons he got elected. Unfortunately, after the win this offer was scaled back to one computer shared by every two school children - and now it seems that it may not happen at all !

One thing that nobody thought about was the infrastructure necessary to support that number of computers. Few schools have wiring adequate to deliver the power necessary to handle the load - and the New South Wales government is threatening to back away from the scheme unless the Federal government delivers a multi-million dollar fund injection to basically rewire the entire school system.

Maybe this might be a good time to stop and think - and reappraise this whole computer idea !

The Rudd thinking revolved around desk top computers sitting before each student. Obviously desk top computers are the cheapest to buy when such quantities are involved - but are they best suited to do the job intended ?

The world is moving very fast towards lap top computers - and it is likely that many high school students from middle and upper income families already have their own lap tops. Huge numbers of school kids already live in a home with a family computer which they are permitted to use.

Ask anybody who knows computers are you will learn that restricting their use to a few school hours is not to gain the maximum advantage. If the thinking is extended to providing each and every student with his or her own lap top then a whole host of added advantages appear.

Then it becomes possible for a smaller number of school computers to be used to get the kids started - and once started computing learning advances swiftly. The fact that the child has a computer within reach 24/7 means computer literacy will be enhanced at lightning speed.

Of course a free computer to every child will mean abuse of the system by some. That is inevitable, but the gain is in higher proportion than the loss - and it would not be unreasonable to ask the family of each child to contribute to an insurance policy to cover that lap top against loss or damage as a condition of issue.

There is another advantage. This scheme would put a computer in every home with children - and that means that adults would be exposed to the computer world which is becoming an increasing requirement in the job market.

The original Rudd concept was a good idea. It simply needs more work to fit it in to the reality of an under wired school system - and to extend the thinking to make kids - and perhaps their parents - computer literate and thinking outside the limitations of the class room.