Victorian teachers to get laptops for $3 per week

[Robin Whittle]

Here's a story from today's Age: a Whole of Government approach that 
looks very serious, very expensive to implement, flexible (both 
Wintel and Mac) and probably a very good thing:

   http://www.theage.com.au/daily/981023/news/news13.html

I am glad to see this government spending money on education - with 
suitable training on using the PCs.

- Robin

- - - 

Victoria's 37,000 state schoolteachers will each receive a 
notebook computer under a $100million deal between the State 
Government and two computer companies.

The five-year contract involving Acer and Apple, announced 
yesterday by the Education Minister, Mr Phil Gude, is believed 
to be the second-largest tender of its kind in the world.

Teachers will be encouraged to lease the computers through 
their school under a three-year arrangement that will cost them 
$3 a week. But they will be eligible to receive the computers 
only if they have completed 40hours of training approved by the 
Education Department.

The larger share of the deal has gone to Acer, a 
Taiwanese-based company which, in return, will return to 
Victoria up to $15million a year in spending on research and 
development in local software, multimedia and hardware 
companies.

It is believed teachers will have the right to choose the type of 
machine they will take.

One option will be the Apple G3 PowerBook notebook 
computer, rated the most powerful in the market. It retails at 
more than $6000, but the price to the Government is 
considerably less. Teachers will pay about $450 to use the 
computers under the three-year lease deal.

Mr Gude said the computers were a vital component of the 
Government's strategy to expand the use of information 
technology in classrooms.

The Australian Education Union said that while it welcomed 
initiatives to introduce technology into schools, it did not believe 
teachers should have to fund the equipment from their own 
pockets.

The first consignment of 10,700 computers will be delivered to 
teachers next month on the recommendation of their principals. 
Science and technology teachers at state schools will receive 
priority. Teachers from Catholic and independent schools and 
TAFE colleges will also be eligible.