IT HAS been suggested that every school should provide computer access and training. There are approximately 4,000 national and secondary schools in Ireland. If we take £1,500 as the cost of a computer, then only one PC per school To have a more realistic number of computers - say 10 per school - represents an investment of £60 million. This would be such an enormous capital investment that it requires careful scrutiny.
This figure does not take into account the cost of teacher training, computer maintenance and consumables (paper, disks, printer ribbons etc.). For example, typical computer maintenance contracts are 5 to 10 per cent of the price of the computer. So an initial outlay of £60 million could lead to another £3-6 million per annum being spent on maintenance.
The provision of adequate teacher training is also vital because, as we have argued earlier, supervision and questioning are essential pedagogical activities.
It has also been suggested that every school should be connected to the Internet. This would represent an additional ongoing cost in terms of telephone charges, which would also require justification.
We believe very serious consideration needs to be taken before the educational authorities commit themselves to a massive investment, particularly when many schools currently don't have sufficient funds to provide basic facilities such as heating or adequate resources for teaching. Likewise parents should be cautious before making such a major family purchase.
An alternative to a school computer programme would be to use the public library system. The economics are much more attractive in that there are only approximately 350 public libraries in Ireland. If they had sufficient space, 10 computers per library would cost £5.25 million. Libraries are open all year around to the general public, so this would be a very democratic way of providing computer access to the whole community. However, similar issues regarding the training of library staff arise as do for training teachers.
Computers are also becoming more powerful every year, and software is becoming more sophisticated and requires more powerful computers. While this is fine from a technological perspective, for the would be purchaser it means today's high performance machine quickly becomes tomorrow's relic.
If schools had been equipped with the most powerful machines available five years ago, these machines would be more or less obsolete by now, or at the very least require expensive upgrades. For example, much educational software now comes on CD Roms and it is only in the last year or so that CD Rom facilities have come as standard on computers. So, anyone with an old machine wishing to avail of the CD Rom based software must upgrade or replace their machine.
However, at present, a new form of CD Rom is being introduced with up to 30 times the capacity of a current CDRom and is likely to be on the market later this year. There is every chance that this technology will displace the existing CD Rom technology, so machines purchased this year will soon have to be upgraded to use this new technology. Changes like this one are the norm in the computer world.
It is true that computer are becoming more pervasive in the workplace. However, you do not have to be a computer expert to use a computer: some basic computer experience is all that is required. One the most important trends in computing is that computers are getting easier and easier to use.
If you ask your friendly computer salesperson how long it will take you to learn how to use a computer, you will be told (truthfully) that with a little help, you will master it in a few days. Yes, a few days! If you think about it for a moment, why should you spend £1,500 on a machine so that you can learn to use it, if it can be mastered in a few days? Why not borrow one, rent one, go to a neighbour who has one, enrol on a week long summer computing course?