The DfES has just published the speech by Alan Johnson at yesterday's Moving Young Minds conference, one of the precursor events to BETT.
Equipping children for a technological tomorrow, by providing schools with technology today
Speech by Alan Johnson
09 January 2007 , Moving Young Minds Conference
In recent years, the pace of technological advance has been startling. A sixteen year old child in London going to school on the Underground today might easily witness a passenger listening to a podcast on their IPOD, someone else drafting an email on their blackberry and another person editing a photograph on a laptop. All on their way to work None of this would have been possible just ten years ago, when that child was beginning their education. In Africa, change has been particularly evident: with internet cafes springing up in once isolated villages, and a rapid growth in mobile phone usage, as many communities bypass land-line use completely. We will only equip children for the technologically advanced world of tomorrow by supplying our schools with vital computer equipment today.