Thursday 17 September 2009

Fibre and Broadband

The two announcements from the Government in the last few days about broadband and school networks is very pleasing. From a selfish perspective it helps us in our overall strategy of providing better services to schools. From the nations perspective - it's about time!

One of the comments made on the news last night was also very significant for me - the $1.5 billion dollar initiative was not about Telecom and what it was or was not doing - it was about New Zealand's strategy for getting the necessary fibre optic broadband infrastructure this country so desperately needs. We seemed to have been fixated with what Telecom is or is not doing - nice to see an end to that.

Yes it is not going to be here tomorrow and no not everyone is on the roadmap, but we're (NZ) not sitting on our hands and we're not trying to legislate Telecom into or out of something. Thumbs up from me.

The challenge now for schools is to understand the timing and the possibilities and risks associated with such capability. It is a good time to sit down and start thinking about ICT strategy. It's here that we must be very careful. Teaching and learning must drive the school ICT strategy - not the other way around. All too often in ICT the tail wags the dog.

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