Teaching in the digital age

The State Government is set to roll out the next phase of its multi-million dollar Learning With Information and Communications Technology (LWICT) project.

Education and Training Minister Mark McGowan said the project, which boosted student learning through information and communications technology, would expand to an additional 21 public schools by the end of the year.

“We will spend $2.84million to implement the project at the schools to join the 165 schools already participating,” Mr McGowan said.

“The State Government has invested more than $48million over eight years in the project, with $11.13million to be spent during 2008-2009.”

An additional $1.56million is being spent on school power upgrades to support the new computers.

“The investment includes professional development for teachers, additional resourcing and a range of new or upgraded infrastructure for the delivery of online teaching and learning,” he said.

“Learning With ICT is revolutionising classroom teaching by using technology in all subject areas.

“Selected school staff have access to specialised professional support over three years and become Curriculum ICT Leaders in their schools.”

If needed, participating schools are provided with infrastructure upgrades such as:

· additional workstations for classrooms;

· fibre optic cabling with additional data cabling to new data outlets in classrooms;

· new switches to manage and control network traffic within the school as well as the school’s connection to the department’s Wide Area Network (WAN); and

· new enhanced computer servers.

The Minister said the project honoured a 2005 State Government election commitment.

The Learning With ICT project has won an international award - the 2008 Computerworld Honours Program Laureate Gold Medal in the category of Education and Academia.