The Great Digital Divide
A computer with internet access is now as essential as a pen and paper in modern learning.
Education Minister Jim Knight.
As part of the Prime Minister's speech to conference, it's been announced that children ( in England ) from jobless and low income families will receive a free computer and free broadband access.
The plan won warm applause from the party faithful, the response elsewhere hasn't been quite so enthusiastic.
iPM's Chris Vallance has been speaking the Education Minister, Jim Knight.
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UPDATE Edu-blogger Ewan McIntosh sends this reaction:
Generally the reaction in education circles is hugely positive, since kids barely get any time on t'interweb in the classroom as it is. This is much-needed, and should be much applauded
Do you agree? Let us know.
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What liability are you forcing on the family. Setting an expectation that a computer is appropriate in a house is wrong.
I suffer from RSI from many years of keyboard and mouse use, designing computers. Please do not force youngsters to destroy their adult life by early overuse of computers.
If it is just looking at the internet then give them access after school, in clubs, so the students are monitored.
A laptop in a bedroom is like a leaving them roaming the streets at night. It will be a crime soon to abandon children in this way.
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Hah!! So what about those rural areas of England that still cannot even get Broadband, let alone any Next Generation Access technologies?
Ask the Community Broadband Network about their survey of 'Not-Spots'
http://www.broadband.coop/Reports-Presentations/CBN-Notspot-Report-Summary.html
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Why is the Government spending money to pre-load commercial software when good, free alternatives (such as Ubuntu and OpenOffice) exist. This would leave all of the money available for hardware and result in massive savings.
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Subject: Broadband and being green
We are urged to save energy and we are urged to get on line. Getting on line really means getting broadband because many services offered by the BBC only work properly if one has broadband. For instance, you cannot download a pod cast using a dial-up connexion. I have had dial up for years but have just taken the plunge and entered into a contract for broadband and I now think I have been let down by all the elements of the media from which I tried to get information: the BBC, the Guardian and Which? Magazine mainly, because nobody suggested that I would be significantly increasing my electricity consumption.
I chose Plusnet. They sent me the kit. I had not expected the modem would need a power supply, but anyway, I installed it. The modem ( a D-link DSL-320B Ethernet modem) has to have a 9 volt supply and comes with a transformer. This is rated at an input of 80 mA so uses about 19 watts, more than most low-energy light bulbs. After I had used it I unplugged it and was surprised, later, how long it took to reconnect so I e-mailed PlusNet technical help. I was astonished and dismayed to hear that it is not supposed to be unplugged. It should be kept powered up continuously. I was told that if I unplugged it when I wasn't using it, equipment at the exchange would detect the line as faulty and reduce my speed, and that this would be done repeatedly over some weeks until my line was running at only about twice the speed of dial up.
19 watts it not a lot for an appliance, but when it is left on 24/7 for a year it is significant.
I am not knowledgeable in this area and do not know whether all modems require a power supply like mine. But if they do, then all this stuff about not leaving equipment on standby (using about 4 watts) will come to nothing if people are at the same time being persuaded to install modems that have to left on continuously.
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It would be worth pausing for a minute and asking how many Internet-less homes are without Internet access because of lack of money, and how many are without because of lack of interest or knowledge of what to do with it, or just not considering it a priority. Given that things that are 'free' tend not to be valued very much, how much use will a free computer get in a home where up until now widescreen TV and Sky Sports have been considered more important than having Internet access for the kids?
Note also that this is not like £700 that you can use to buy what you think best - much too Free Market. No, it will be £700 'worth' of stuff that the government has chosen for you from 'carefully selected providers' - um, like Microsoft. Yes, there are some people out there who so don't give a damn about the whole computer thing that they actually haven't considered it worth spending any money on Microsoft stuff - EVER! - and so to rectify this, your tax pennies are going to be used to buy Microsoft software for them. Brilliant. And so the Microsoft dream of a Windows computer in every home comes true - they just had to persuade the government to pick up the tab for the last million homes.
And I wonder, if my shiny new laptop gets 'stolen' (or sold to a mate down the pub so that I can afford fuel for my car), do I get a new one? And how many times can I repeat that trick?
And if I live in a high-crime area - and lots of low-income families have to for lack of being able to afford anything else - then might the local criminals be paying a night time visit to my living room shortly after it is announced that this is the week that the kids from the local school are all going to be getting their £700 laptop bundle?
I have a feeling that this may have been rushed out in time for the Labour Conference (perhaps to catch up with the very similar idea that came from the Welsh Assembly earlier in the year) without allowing time for it to be properly thought through.
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It is encouraging to see Government catching up with grass roots efforts to provide equal access to home internet services.
For example, social enterprises such as Cybermoor have been providing affordable internet access for school pupils at home by wirelessly sharing the local school?s broadband connection with the community since 2002. The impact has been dramatic, with improved academic results. By every measure the children we can support improve faster and do better academically than those in neighbouring towns.
We are now developing superfast broadband connections for pupils to access their school work and we hope the government also rises to this challenge.
The work we have done has been thoroughly evaluated and you can have a look at the results here http://www.cybermoor.org/lid/index.asp?intID=825 and coverage on More4 news here http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/digital+nation+uk/1306952
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