Update on the Australian Student… Netbooks

6:10 May 4th, 2009 | 1 note

Yay sources! Today I found out that testing of the student laptops would begin soon, with selected teachers from New South Wales pilot schools to be receiving them in the near future. I also managed to get this helpful pamphlet about the laptops detailing more of their specs and pre-installed software.

It has finally been confirmed that the laptops are not laptops. They are netbooks. I don’t think the government realize just how significant the difference is. Note the quote on the first page:

“Considering the device size these are impressive specifications.”

Sorry to burst your bubble Mr Deputy Director-General of Schooling, but they’re not. An Intel Atom processor? Are you kidding me?! What happened to these laptops costing $2200 each to make, or being “powerful enough for the IT needs of today’s students”? You’re handing me bronze and tell me its gold! If you honestly think that such a slow processor is powerful for what you want it for then you obviously haven’t look at computers since the late 90s.

The netbooks are the Lenovo IdeaPad S10e. Fine as a secondary computer, terrible if you want students to use them stand alone.

Here’s where the big problems arise: the installed software. Well, it’s not the software itself. It’s the combination of the resource demanding software coupled with the incredibly low power netbook hardware. Here is the installed software:

  • Adobe Photoshop Elements
  • Adobe Premier Elements
  • Adobe Acrobat Professional Extended
  • Adobe Flash CS4 Professional
  • Adobe Dreamweaver CS4
  • Adobe Presenter
  • Adobe Captivate CS4
  • Adobe Fireworks
  • Adobe Contribute
  • Adobe Device Central, Version Cue and Bridge CS4
  • Microsoft Office 2007 Professional

Now that’s quite an impressive list I admit. I wish I had all of that. What I love is how stingy Adobe were with Photoshop and Premier! Undoubtedly the two most used Adobe applications and they give students the dumbed down versions.

Truth is, it doesn’t matter. If the Government think that those machines will run Photoshop (let alone Premier) and the rest of CS4 at an adequate standard then they are sadly mistaken. In the end, this is another attempt by the Australian government to play catch up with some of the education systems across the world. These netbooks won’t sustain students through their schooling. These netbooks are not the latest most powerful technology, they have specifications from computers nearly 5 years old. These netbooks won’t be able to keep up with the IT needs of students and they most certainly won’t solve any of the problems they set out to achieve.

I’m not saying that these machines are useless, far from it. They are a fantastic device for email, web browsing, listening to music but by no means were they built to run Photoshop or or edit video. What I’m saying is that what we as students were promised was technology that will meet our needs. The government outlined those needs by installing CS4 on the them. Unfortunately, a netbook just doesn’t cut it.

What we’re left with is just an expensive exercise in PR.

So in the end it’s true. The fantastic dream of high powered technological classrooms will stay just that, a dream. Instead, politics and rhetoric have gotten in the way of reality. Again.