[Offtopic] Ultranet

[Roland Gesthuizen]

Department IT initiatives can easily run out of steam, out of funding, out
of favor and drop out of focus. We shouldn't be surprised, that is the
nature of any funding that is politically motivated. I am concerned about
the minimal benefit to students who are not in public schools, the folly of
perhaps buying and mandating a closed-source solution.

NASA landed man on the moon by spending, no,  throwing money at the problem.
When they reached that goal, the vision died a quick funding death when the
political focus shifted conveniently back to the cold war. It is generally
acknowledged that they could have achieved more, been safer and cheaper if
it would have been done slower. Victor may be right, when the funding for
this new paradise runs dry, who will laugh at the fools struggling to fix
their old stone castles with a residual skeleton crew.

Consider what might happen if we nurture and unleash the power of diversity
in our school system. There are many diverse educational programs and
delivery models (we dont all teach levers in week 3 and we dont all teach
exactly the same way or rely on the one supplier). From all this diversity
we each adjust our program of delivery to meet local needs, supporting a
local cottage industry of support that rewards efficient service delivery.
We encourage innovation, stimulate creativity and share our success stories.

Consider the good that millions of funding dollars can do at the local
level; building new and ecosustainable schools, refurbishing old ones,
kick-starting new micro-initiatives or even just paying for a holiday
program that helps keep my idle students out of moral danger. 12 years ago
the world wide web was a cute idea and 6 years ago, so was e-mail for all.
The Ultranet idea started before web2 and goodness knows how it will fit
into web3. If anybody can say with confidence what our ICT future holds in
2012 then please speak now, I would love to hear. :-)

Regards Roland

On 23/05/07, Cameron Bell <bell.cameron.p at edumail.vic.gov.au> wrote:
>
> Ohh I don't know - I would classify edupass as a success when you consider
> the scope of the project.
> Edumail seems to be pretty good as well.
>
> The trouble with IT across the curriculum is that the approach has been
> to throw a (comparatively) huge bucket of money at a project to get it
> up and running with no $ for follow up or ongoing running.
> One of my (and my bosses) concerns at the moment is how are we going to
> sustain the practices that we have initiated as a LSF when the money
> runs out? Will ultranet be the same?
>
>
> victor rajewski wrote:
> > On 5/23/07, Cameron Bell <bell.cameron.p at edumail.vic.gov.au> wrote:
> >> I didn't want to kick off the cynicism too early in the thread - you
> can
> >> pull a hammy if you get started too early without warming up.
> >> HOWEVER:
> >> If a statewide system is introduced:
> >> 1) It will make moving between schools very easy. No new system to
> >> learn.
> >> 2) Materials developed will be compatible across all schools. (Provided
> >> vendors don't impose their own file formats or systems on materials)
> >
> > One would hope they use a standard for learning objects like SCORM. If
> > not, any possibility of me respecting this system will be lost.
> >
> >> 3) Group expertise while be huge and common help facilities will be
> >> understood across all schools.
> >> 4) Auditing of materials against the current standards, (at the moment
> >> VELS, but who knows what they will be by the time the Ultranet is
> >> running) should be easy
> >>
> >> I don't want to kick a system before I know anything about it, but
> >> that's the problem, I don't. Does anyone know where the input is coming
> >> from? Whether they will mandate all schools use this thing?
> >> Where can you find out so that long term-planning can be taken into
> >> account?
> >
> > It is a brilliant idea in theory, and something like this will
> > eventually happen. But from a perspective, anything the education
> > department has tried to do with IT has been a miserable failure. While
> > I wish that this isn't, I ain't holding my breath.
> >
> > Correct me if I'm wrong, but someone told me there are something like
> > 8 or 9 people working in the IT section of the department of ed (this
> > could be totally  mistaken). For this to be a success, it would
> > require a lot more resources than this.
> >
> > vik
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-- 
Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change
the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead
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