Australia Kathryn Moyle Associate Professor University of Canberra Secretariat Director Australian ICT in Education Committee

Digital Education Revolution Australian Government priorities National Secondary School Computing Fund Fibre connections to schools Professional development for teachers Online curriculum tools and resources Parental involvement Back-end assistance

Activities in 2008 Audits: computers in schools and bandwidth A preliminary survey of computers less than four years old available for students in Years 9-12 in secondary schools in Australia Approximately 990,000 students in years 9-12 Already over 280,000 computers in schools

Bandwidth connections Most schools reported using fibre (47.0 per cent) per cent use DSL 2.4 per cent use satellite 1.3 per cent reported no broadband access. The remaining 7.0 per cent of schools use other non-fibre technologies or did not report a technology type Other non-fibre technology includes: – Ethernet (1.4 per cent), – Frame relay (0.06 per cent), – ISDN (0.3 per cent, – Microwave (0.06 per cent), – wireless (1.1 per cent) and satellite (0.8 per cent) technology.

Political pressure ‘Grimes’ Report: Legitimate & Additional Financial Implications of the National Secondary School Computer Fund National Secondary School Computer Fund – On-costs to meet the costs of installation and maintenance of the additional computers purchased through the Fund – 710,000 additional computers

Activities in 2008 Round One: 896 schools received funding for 116,820 new computers Round Two: 1,394 secondary schools received funding for 141,319 new computers Better Practice Guide Digital Education Revolution Implementation Roadmap Industry leaders Forum

Workplans in 2009 Using data – Evaluation and monitoring the Digital Education Revolution Work through three national Advisory Committees of AICTEC: – Teaching in a Digital Age Advisory Group – NationalInteroperability & Digital Architecture Advisory Group – Intellectual Property and Privacy in Technology Advisory Group All teacher employers in Australia notified that funds of up to $11.25 million of the total ($22.5 million) of the Australian Government Quality Teacher Program in 2009 are to be directed to ICT-related school-based professional development for teachers

Building the Education Revolution Part of the Australian Government $42 billion stimulus package $14.7 billion available to schools across Australia to build or upgrade existing facilities, including: – Primary Schools for the 21st Century - $12.4 billion long term investment to build or upgrade large scale infrastructure (eg libraries and multi-purpose facilities in all primary schools, special schools and K-12 schools). – National School Pride Program - $1.3 billion investment to refurbish and renew existing infrastructure and undertake minor building works in every Australian school. – Science and Language Centres for 21st Century Schools - $1 billion long term investment to build around 500 new science and language laboratories in secondary schools

URLs Australian ICT in Education Committee: – Digital Education Revolution: – Building the Education Revolution: – ationRevolution/Pages/default.aspx