Comments on: Schooling Disgrace – IT really doesn’t matter

By: Evert

Evert — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 10:37:15 +0000

This is nothing new.
I remember doing big business about 5-6 years ago providing tech support services so primary & secondary schools.
they were all given substantial budgets to purchase computer hardware but there was only token funding available for training.
Combine this with the fact that most teaching staff are up to their eyes in work due to under-funding and you can imagine what the results were.
IT-labs full of equipment that no-one (except for the pupils) really knew how to use…
I have never experiences that computers were not upgraded or maintained due to lack of funds, in most cases it was due to the complete ignorance of the school staff. No-one seemed to be aware of such things as software patches, ant-virus updates etc.

Another great example is the governments effort to provide broadband to every school. My kids school were “given” a satellite connection.
However no-one explained to them that after the satellite installers were finished you would actually need to network the schools PC’s and route traffic out through the satellite backhaul in order to access the internet or use email. I ended up volunteering to do this myself..
IT knowledge is at a substandard level with a most staff struggling to send an email…

It’s time that the government threw away the policy of just throwing money at a problem and plain old posturing…

By: Antoin O Lachtnain

Antoin O Lachtnain — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 08:42:50 +0000

We have to be realistic here. Some schools don’t even have proper buildings. Some communities don’t have schools at all. In the medium-term, with the resources that are actually available, there is probably more benefit to be had from getting teachers on the Internet at school than there is getting the students.

By: blog.thoughtwax.com » Linutop: less is more

blog.thoughtwax.com » Linutop: less is more — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 17:20:59 +0000

[...] Of course, people aren’t going to want to go without a hard disk, but if you’re the type of person who uses their computer for email and doing The Google, it looks good to me. If anything, it’s probably a little ahead of the broadband and web apps curves. We should get some of these into Irish schools. [...]

By: Branedy

Branedy — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 13:15:49 +0000

I’d agree with Colm, the school I helped out at only had 25 computers for a student body of 400. And the ‘Computer’ teachers with the exception of my wife, only taught ‘touch typing’ on them. One teacher was so resistant to change she wouldn’t let her students onto the internet. And she fought against buying and installing a network laser printer, because she claimed that the students would only waste ink. The career guidance councilor had a computer which she was afraid to turn on for over two years.

By: Colm

Colm — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 12:31:55 +0000

I don’t think it’s as much an issue with the computers as it is with lack of teachers who know computer basics.

By: Advanced Technology Products Interactive » Blog Archive » A chance for business to help the community

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 11:58:44 +0000

[...] Since theÂ schools in ireland have no budget for updating technology this is a great chance for businesses to donate their old hardware when they update. Just remember to wipe your computers first. [...]

By: Robin Blandford

Robin Blandford — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 09:57:20 +0000

I remember in 98/99 when Eircom/Telecom Eireann did there big 1 computer for every school in the country thing. I remember our computer arriving at school and I was given the job of setting it up in the library and installing all the school CD-ROM’s on it, Encarta etc..

A friend commented to me (From Dundalk boarding school) that they had no access to computers in their school at all, where they all boarded full-time, which I found very hard to believe. When I asked about the Eircom computer I got told the Principal had put it in his own office for his own personal use!

What a scam on the students! I wonder how many of those computers got to the students.