OLPC and Labor's Digital Education Revolution policy

I found it refreshing to see at the last Federal election that the Australian Federal Labor Party had policy on providing each and every secondary student in Years 9-12 with their own computer.

The Digital Education Revolution was a major piece of government policy that saw the party win in a landslide in 2007.

The policy goes on to state:

• $1bn over 4 years to be spent.
• The National Secondary School Computer Fund will provide upto $1m for schools to provide new and upgraded ICT equipment.
• $100m to be spent on high speed FTTP provisioning to schools.
  
• Training of school teachers in the effective use of ICT to assist student learning
• Development of web-portals for parents to participate in their child's education.

This will mean a complete transformation of many schools, and bringing them in line with 21^st century teaching practices.

Whilst this all does sound appealing, in it's present form I can see Microsoft and their solution providers clammering on the software/operating system space to bleed the government dry of the funds.

I think this is a perfect location where the OLPC could see the amount invested into such a scheme.  The use of XO Laptops are perfectly suited for the classroom, and even more so in remote rural areas.

Take into consideration the requirements for most students:

• Ability to write documents  (Word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, etc.)  The traditional 'Office' application
• Ability to communication with fellow student (Collaboration works)
• Ability to send Email
• Ability to browse the Web
• Ability to use digital content (Audio/Video/Graphics)
• Ability to undertake course material in a digital age

These are areas where the XO Laptop shines.  It's not a general computer, but one specifically built for students in mind.

The $1m AUD could therefore be used to ensure ALL children in high-school (Years 7 - 12) are provided with a laptop, and thus ensure to double the reach of the initiative.

OSS software in the school would be seen as something that could greatly enhance to dollar spend and provide a rich and full learning experience for the student, assist the teacher in providing the appropriate tools.

If the average laptop is say $1200AUD, it is likely that they can replace one such laptop with 4 OLPCs.  If a traditional laptop requires say $300 worth of software (Operating System, Office, Utilities, etc), this further increases the value of the OLPC as the software required is built into the laptop, thus avoiding any additional expense.

So comparing functionality and cost -- it's likely 1 traditional laptop could be replaced with 5 OLPCs.

The OLPC is rugged and made for demanding students, add to it that it's easily repairable, ensuring ongoing costs are minimized.

I would expect that money saved with laptop rollouts could be used to further enhance the OSS stack and provide a full OSS stack in the school.

• OpenLDAP authentication servers
  
• Samba file servers
• OSS Webmail solution (something like Zimbra that allows students/parents/teachers the ability to access it outside school hours).
• Linux based firewalls protecting the school infrastructure.
• Web-servers based on LAMP.
• The use of an ECM like Alfresco for ease of content management.
• Collaboration servers such as Jabber.
  

The XO Laptop was on display and handed out to many of the conference attendees at the recent LCA08.   Many people marveled at it's simplicity and pure beauty.   (I'm sure it's something Intel and AMD will pour over for months to come!)

If people from Linux Australia are interested in putting together a submission to the Federal government on such a proposal I'm happy to donate my time.

I see investing in the future education of our children paramount to moving Australia into the digital age, and the use of OSS ensures they get the best start possible! 

I feel this is one area the OSS community can make a massive contribution to computing in Australia that is likely to touch nearly every Australia family.  Whilst deploying OSS solutions will also ensure it's familiarity is likely to rise to unseen levels in this country.  Adopting OSS principles at an early age with students is likely to ensure that the next generation of Australians are very OSS savvy and will continue the great work their previous generation have commenced.

If you're interested, please contact me.