Feds to form education IT advice panel

Feb 18, 2010 12:40 PM
Filed under Strategy

Find ways to spend over $2.2 billion.

The Federal Department of Education has announced it will form an expert technical panel to provide advice on ways to better integrate IT and communications technology into education.

The panel could be used by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) to support "the development, implementation and evaluation of initiatives including the Digital Education Revolution (DER) and the Vocational Education Broadband Network (VEN)."

The Government has committed $2.2 billion to the digital education revolution and $80 million for the broadband network.

The revolution includes the computers for schools project. According to the DEEWR web site, to date the Federal Government has dished out funding for just under 300,000 computers in Australian schools.

"The Applied ICT in Education Panel will be required to provide expert technical advice and analysis and contribute to the development and implementation of initiatives," the department said.

"The panel may be required to assist in developing, reviewing and providing quality assurance of technical documents and reports.

"Areas of expertise relevant to education include infrastructure, networking, e-Learning, technical standards, copyright, security and privacy."

The department said there was no guarantee that panel members would be awarded services contracts as a result of their sitting on the panel.

The panel was expected to start in April and run through until the end of June 2011.

4 comments in this discussion

"Fedas, I agree with funkyg. I am providing IT support for a large number of school too. It seems that all the monies given to schools are spent on getting all the switches or computer gears. ..."

By laman

Tags

federal, department, education, panel, ict

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Comments: 4

funkyg Feb 18, 2010 3:09 PM	Oh great another government panel. We'll just make the budget $500M to the expert panel and $1.7B to education....Hmm assuming that 'no guarantee' actually means most members of the panel will get contracts, lets make that $1B to the panel and $1.2B to education. That seems fair, they're still getting more.....;-)
Fedas Feb 18, 2010 5:21 PM	Although I can understand why funkyg is annoyed with yet another panel I can also see where this may help. Part of my work includes providing IT support for a school and due to the latest government handout they have lots of $ to spend. So far they have spent it on little of great use but still managed to spend alot. Having an informed government body provide hardware (printers/smart boards etc) ensures good pricing and if they back it up with training for the teachers they might even be used! Although i can't see why the Department of Education can't preform this function as well.
Ace Feb 19, 2010 4:16 PM	I just get my wife to apply. She could probably find a way to spend 2.2b without any obvious result, except that everyone might get a new digital-pot for the kitchen, and some obscure nbn-ornament for the bathroom. I expect it would have about the same effect on 'working Australian families'
laman Feb 20, 2010 11:00 AM	Fedas, I agree with funkyg. I am providing IT support for a large number of school too. It seems that all the monies given to schools are spent on getting all the switches or computer gears. Departments already have panels to look after the spending of the IT monies, there is indeed no need of another IT panels. What should have been done is to consolidate a team from all different Departments and discuss what has to be done. From what I can see, IT Teams in different regions have their own standards and they are not standardized on one thing or the other. Some departments are already have recommended equipment suppliers for computers and printers for a better price and longer warranty services. This $nb should be spent somewhere else.