Opinion: New tricks

The latest target of the collective knock is the federal government’s plan to computerise the nation’s schools and buy a truckload of laptops for the high school kiddies.

Despite the fact that nobody has previously suggested doing anything much on a national level to get more ICT into the schools, rather than generating a large amount of cheering, the plans have instead been pilloried by the opposition, the media and all sorts of self-appointed experts.

Quite likely there are some good points to be made – most grand plans by most governments are found to be wanting when looked at closely.

And some of the objections being raised, such as “it will cost more than you think” and “we don’t have anywhere to put the computers” will need to be addressed.

However, some of the other objections read like the script of a rejected Monty Python sketch – or maybe the synopsis for another Joseph Heller novel.

For starters, much has been made of research showing that many teachers don’t have a clue about the technology that’s being introduced.

No problem – there were plenty of pre-teens at school when we attended and they all seem to know way too much about technology already. They can teach the teachers. Also being waved about are reports showing that rich kids use computers to learn stuff while poor kids use computers to play games and surf the Internet.

Well there’s a surprise – rich kids being more motivated/disciplined/conditioned to study rather than play.

You don’t need to put a computer in front of the kids to discover this trend. It works with television and books as well. But it’s hardly a valid argument to withhold computers and the Internet from our school children.

Why not let the feds do what they promised to do, and hand over the cash for the computers. We’re all here ready to sell them. They can figure out what to do with their computers later.

After all, that’s what most of us did anyway – very few of us knew in advance how useful the PC would become. And that is what we call learning. Last time I looked the principle was still on most school principal’s agendas.