The Digital Education Revolution (DER) was an
Australian government
The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...
–funded
educational reform
Education reform is the goal of changing public education. The meaning and educational methods have changed through debates over what content or experiences result in an educated individual or an educated society. Historically, the motivations for ...
program, promised by then
prime minister of Australia
The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister is the chair of the Cabinet of Australia and thus the head of the Australian Government, federal executive government. Under the pr ...
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian diplomat and former politician who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and June to September 2013. He held office as the Leaders of the Australian Labo ...
during the launch of his
2007 Australian federal election
The 2007 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 24 November 2007. All 150 seats in the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives and 40 of the seats in the 76-member Australian Senate, Senate were up for electi ...
campaign in
Brisbane
Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...
.
It was officially launched in late 2008, with the first deployments announced by then
Deputy Prime Minister of Australia
The deputy prime minister of Australia is the deputy Chief executive officer, chief executive and the Deputy prime minister, second highest ranking officer of the Australian Government. The office of deputy prime minister was officially creat ...
and
Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations,
Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961) is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013. She held office as the leader of the Labor Party (ALP), having previously served as the ...
and then
New South Wales counterpart,
Verity Firth. The first deployment took place at
Fairvale High School in August that year.
Aim
Through the program, the government would allocate
A$2.4 billion over seven years to:
* provide
laptops
A laptop computer or notebook computer, also known as a laptop or notebook, is a small, portable personal computer (PC). Laptops typically have a clamshell form factor with a flat-panel screen on the inside of the upper lid and an alpha ...
to all public high school students in years 9–12 through the National Secondary School Computer Fund
* deploy high speed broadband to all Australian schools and quality digital tools, resources and infrastructure that will help support the Australian Curriculum
* support increase in
information and communication technology
Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals) and computer ...
(ICT) proficiency for teachers and students throughout Australia to nourish the use of ICT in teaching and learning
* develop projects and research that will assist and support the use of ICT in learning
* enable parents to participate in their child's education through online learning and access
* support mechanisms that will provide assistance to schools in ICT deployment
Deployment
In September 2008, amidst uncertainty over extra costs involved with the computers, the
Government of New South Wales
The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the executive state government of New South Wales, Australia. The government comprises 11 portfolios, led by a ministerial department and supported by several agencies. Th ...
rejected an offer for extra funding from the Commonwealth Government.
The State Government requested additional funds to cover servicing, technical support, upgraded power supplies, software licensing, security and teacher training associated with installing the computers.
After failing to secure assistance, the State Government then requested an extension to the 9 October deadline, for applications in the second round of funding. After being denied an extension, the State Government said it had been forced to refuse the offer until the extent of its financial situation was clarified in the 2008 mini-budget.
The Director-General for Education,
Michael Coutts-Trotter, told
The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...
: "We can't commit at this stage until we can be sure the full cost of implementing the computers can be met. But we are enthusiastic about the program and as soon as the funding is sorted out, we will apply in the third round."
The Minister for Education and Training Verity Firth said she expected the State Government to resolve the funding issue ahead of the second round of funding. "NSW can't commit to any infrastructure ahead of the mini-budget," said Firth,
"It would be unfair to schools and students to seek new computers only to find that there was insufficient funding for their operating costs from the federal Government" .
In November 2008, after negotiations with the
Commonwealth Government
The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the prime ...
at the
Council of Australian Governments
The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) was the primary intergovernmental forum in Australia from 1992 to 2020. Comprising the federal government, the governments of the six states and two mainland territories and the Australian Local G ...
(COAG),
then
Premier of New South Wales
The premier of New South Wales is the head of government in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Government of New South Wales follows the Westminster system, Westminster Parliamentary System, with a Parliament of New South Wales actin ...
Nathan Rees
Nathan Rees (; born 12 February 1968) is an Australian former politician who served as the 41st Premier of New South Wales and leader of the New South Wales Labor Party from September 2008 to December 2009. Rees was a Member of the New South Wal ...
and the Government of New South Wales secured A$807 million to provide every year 9–12 public high school student with a laptop. The laptops, loaded with A$5,500 worth of programs from the latest
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office, MS Office, or simply Office, is an office suite and family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. The first version of the Office suite, announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at CO ...
Suite and
Adobe Suite, are provided by computer company,
Lenovo
Lenovo Group Limited, trading as Lenovo ( , zh, c=联想, p=Liánxiǎng), is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in designing, manufacturing, and marketing consumer electronics, personal computers, software, servers, conv ...
under a four-year contract secured by the state government.
On 26 August 2009 the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Julia Gillard and New South Wales Minister for Education and Training, Verity Firth announced the delivery of the first laptops to secondary schools in
New South Wales
New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
. Gillard and Firth visited a Year 9 class at Fairvale High School in Sydney's west to witness the integration of laptops into the lesson.
In February 2010, the
Queensland
Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
Department of Education, Training and Employment chief information officer David O'Hagan said that there was a possibility the
iPad
The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...
could complement laptops used in public high schools in Queensland, "When it
he iPadbecomes available in Australia, the
ueenslandDepartment of Education and Training will conduct an evaluation to determine its suitability for teaching and learning as well as network compatibility, schools eligible for computers under the federal government's National Secondary School Computer Fund also use this central purchasing arrangement to buy desktop and laptop computers." he said.
Apple
An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
is a member of the panel of computer suppliers for Queensland state (public) schools (primary and secondary).
Laptops
In New South Wales, students were issued with Lenovo laptops no bigger than a sheet of A4 paper. In 2009, the model issued was the
IdeaPad S10e, in 2010, the
ThinkPad Mini 10, in 2011, the
ThinkPad Edge 11, in 2012 the
ThinkPad X130e which was uniquely designed
and in 2013, the
ThinkPad X131e.
The laptops also came with pre-installed software, such as
Adobe CS5
Adobe Creative Suite (CS) is a discontinued software suite of graphic design, video editing, and web development application software, applications developed by Adobe Systems.
The last of the Creative Suite versions, Adobe Creative Suite 6 (CS6) ...
,
Adobe LiveCycle
Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite (ES4) is a service-oriented architecture Java EE server software product from Adobe Systems. It is used to build applications that automate various business processes for enterprises and government agencies. Live ...
ES2,
Microsoft Office 2010
Microsoft Office 2010 (codenamed Office 14) is a version of Microsoft Office for Microsoft Windows unveiled by Microsoft on May 15, 2009, and released to manufacturing on April 15, 2010, with General availability release, general availability on ...
, and
Microsoft Forefront
Microsoft Forefront is a discontinued family of line of business, line-of-business security software by Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft Forefront products are designed to help protect computer networks, Server (computing), network servers (su ...
.
In June 2010 a recall of laptop cases was issued after it was found that there was a flaw in the design of the case when several students reported that their screens had cracks. The New South Wales Department of Education and Training's
chief information officer Stephen Wilson said that the filtering system on the laptops is impervious, and no student will be able to break through the system.
"Our internet filtering is unbreakable. We have a huge proxy array that does all the filtering. We've just brought that in-house and the reason we have done that is we want much tighter control over it, every internet site that's known is actually categorised. If it isn't known, it's blocked. If you go to a site, and it's not categorised you can't get to it," said Wilson.
With the termination of federal government funding commitments, the New South Wales Department of Education and Communities has adopted a formal "Bring Your Own Device" policy approach to laptops and tablet devices.
Criticism
In 2008, letters were leaked that revealed that the Minister of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961) is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013. She held office as the leader of the Labor Party (ALP), having previously served as the ...
was told that the policy was not thought through and severely underfunded.
There were concerns that the lack of funds would be compensated for by financially crippled families or some computers left in boxes, unopened. The states were noncompliant upon learning that each would have to contribute up to A$3 billion altogether, a contribution that was not mentioned by Rudd or Gillard in the election campaign.
In 2010, the
Rudd Government
Rudd Government may refer to the following Australian governments:
* Rudd government (2007–10)
* Rudd government (2013)
{{Dab ...
was again criticised for being too slow to deliver after it was confirmed that "none of the A$100 million budgeted to bring high-speed broadband to schools had been spent".
Rudd blamed the delay in delivering broadband to schools on the
recession
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction that occurs when there is a period of broad decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be tr ...
and its impact on government finances.
In August that same year, only 220,000 of the 1 million promised laptops had been delivered. Further setbacks were due in part because of the government's focus on the A$43 billion
National Broadband Network
The National Broadband Network (NBN) is Australia’s national wholesale open-access data network. It includes wired and radio communication components rolled out and operated by NBN Co, a government-owned corporation. Internet service provid ...
.
See also
*
Building the Education Revolution
Building the Education Revolution (BER) was an Government of Australia, Australian government program administered by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) designed to provide new and refurbished infrastructur ...
*
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
The Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) was a department of the Government of Australia.
It was formed in 2007 and absorbed the former departments of Education, Science and Training, and Employment a ...
*
Education in Australia
Education in Australia encompasses the sectors of early childhood education (preschool) and primary education (primary schools), followed by secondary education (high schools), and finally tertiary education, which includes higher education ( ...
References
External links
Digital Education Revolution – OverviewDepartment of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
{{DEFAULTSORT:Digital Education Revolution
Education policy in Australia
Great Recession
Rudd government
Education reform