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<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma color=#000080 size=2>thank-you matia.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma color=#000080 size=2>xo</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=billkerr@gmail.com href="mailto:billkerr@gmail.com">Bill Kerr</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=yr7-10it@edulists.com.au
href="mailto:yr7-10it@edulists.com.au">Year 7 - 10 Information Technology
Teachers' Mailing List</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, October 22, 2007 9:56
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Yr7-10it] RE: Year 7-10 IT
structures</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>There is a large elephant in the room that no one has referred
to so far: the OLPC<BR><BR>The one laptop per child non profit project not
only plans to deliver millions of laptops to third world children but has also
become a hand grenade in the commercial world - and has succeeded in forcing
down the price of other laptops now on offer <BR><BR>
<DIV style="MARGIN-LEFT: 40px; FONT-STYLE: italic">"... the whole global
mind-think around technology has changed. </DIV>
<P style="MARGIN-LEFT: 40px"><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">No longer is low
cost computing in education a fantasy, no longer are big technology companies
secondary, and everyone wants to sell technology into classrooms. Intel
introduced </SPAN><A style="FONT-STYLE: italic"
href="http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/brazil/olpc_classmate_mobilis.html">Classmate
PC</A><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic"> to Brazil, Asustek is </SPAN><A
style="FONT-STYLE: italic"
href="http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/intel/negroponte_100_laptop_asus.html">selling
Eee PC's</A><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic"> in the USA, and even thin-client
manufactures </SPAN><A style="FONT-STYLE: italic"
href="http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/competition/stephen_dukker_anti_olpc_campaign.html">compare
themselves to OLPC</A><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">."</SPAN><BR><A
href="http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/countries/sales_inhibiting_xo_distribution.html">http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/countries/sales_inhibiting_xo_distribution.html</A></P>How
will schools and education departments in the wealthy west react to the fact
that in a few years we will have the capability for every child to have their
own laptop? <BR><BR>Will we treat them like mobile phones and ban them or try
to figure out a way to utilise them for optimal educational
development?<BR><BR>The use and misuse of computers in schools has up until
now been based around the idea that computers mainly belong in labs and / or
that access is limited. The fact of limited access has acted as a powerful
brake for many teachers not to extend their knowledge much beyond the basics.
<BR><BR>Most (all?) of the maths curriculum could be taught using laptops. In
fact MIT produced a series of books in the 80s for teaching much of maths and
aspects of language and art using logo.<BR><BR>Shouldn't we factor this
potential into the discussion? If we are talking about the future it might be
incorrect to assume that the pattern of distribution of computers in schools
will remain similar to the present. <BR><BR>-- <BR>Bill Kerr<BR><A
href="http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/">http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/</A><BR><BR>_______________________________________________
<BR><A href="http://www.edulists.com.au">http://www.edulists.com.au </A>- FAQ,
resources, subscribe, unsubscribe <BR>Year 7 - 10 IT Mailing List kindly
supported by <BR><A
href="http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au">http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au </A>- Victorian
Curriculum and Assessment Authority and <BR><A
href="http://www.vitta.org.au">http://www.vitta.org.au </A>- VITTA Victorian
Information Technology Teachers Association Inc</BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>