Conclusion

NOIE's consultations with major stakeholders in the education sector strongly suggest that there is considerable latent demand for bandwidth across the sector. Given adequate technical support and professional development, educational institutions are eager to maximise the benefits of broadband. There are already many good broadband applications available. Improvements in the price and availability of broadband will allow application developers to create even more compelling content. Even institutions that have slow internet access recognise the considerable potential benefits that broadband can bring through increased student participation, improved scholastic achievement and the ability to deliver high quality education to remote students.

Access to affordable broadband communications is the critical element for the continuing growth of the use of ICT in education. It is central to development strategies in all sectors of education, in all jurisdictions. Failure to address this issue will prove a major impediment to continuing successful growth in the use of ICT in education. It is anticipated that the lack of affordable broadband will have a flow on impact to both the development of a strong education system relevant to the information economy and the capacity of the education system to provide a strong base for building future skills in ICT for Australia. Some states are attempting to address these problems by aggregating demand across the schools sector or across state government.

Although groups representing higher education, VET and schools are attempting to address the issues identified in this paper, significant infrastructure issues remain that may prove to be beyond the capacity of individual institutions or sectors to resolve.