Funding should be injected into school broadband infrastructure following the lapse of the federal government’s student laptop program, according to a veteran Epping teacher.
The federal government began the laptop program, which supplied every year 9 to 12 student with a laptop or device, in 2009 under Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, but ceased on June 30 this year.
St Monica’s College Epping deputy principal Fulvio Frijo has just returned from a study trip to the United States where he attended the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference held in San Antonio.
Dr Frijo said there was a strong emphasis on high-speed internet connections, rather than supplying students with devices. He said the emphasis on devices may have been at the expense of schools being able to build strong network infrastructure.
“If we’re saying to students: ‘You need to work off the web’, then we need to be able to provide robust infrastructure,” he said.
Dr Frijo said there needs to be state and federal funding to improve access to high-speed internet in schools.
He said it was too early to tell whether the National Broadband Network would improve access in schools, but he said it looked like investment might be too expensive.
A Department of Education and Early Childhood Development spokeswoman said the department provides all Victorian government schools with internet access “at no cost to schools”.
The Catholic Education Office deals directly with Telstra to facilitate broadband internet access across all Catholic schools.
CLICK HERE for a profile of Dr Frijo.
