CW: UTS tags podcasting as future teaching tool

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

In response to student demand for more flexible learning options, the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) is investigating the use of online technologies to supplement, or replace, lectures of the future.

The issue was discussed at a UTS Student Forum this week where podcasting took centre stage for its potentials in self-paced learning and remote education. Other potentially useful technologies have been said to include Second Life and social networking tools.

"There have been so many requests from students to introduce podcasting," said Shirley Alexander, the university's Vice Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President of Teaching, Learning and Equity.

The start-up costs of podcasting are estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars, not to mention ongoing maintenance costs, and potential costs and disruptions to students already entrenched in existing teaching methods.

However, this could be a small price to pay for the University of Technology to live up to its name.

Darren Loasby, President of the UTS Students' Association, debated that the university's lack of standardized online teaching methods could be putting it behind its more technologically-enabled peers. The Queensland University of Technology and the University of Sydney were named as institutions with online education systems already in place.

"Podcasting of academic material is being implemented all around Australia and all around the globe," he said. "Students are frustrated that going to the University of Technology, Sydney doesn't give them access to similar systems."

"In 2007, it's harder than ever to be a student," he said, citing an unavailability of income support, a shortage of time, and rocketing education costs as likely causes of difficulty. "Basically, students are paying so much for education; I believe they should have some flexibility in how material is accessed."

Podcasting could alleviate scheduling difficulties for some students as podcasts are easily accessed online and can be made available on-demand. Furthermore, Loasby said, podcasts would allow students to learn at their own pace and in their own time, so students could potentially be listening to course material while at the gym or in transit.

For lecturers, Loasby expects podcasts to allow the university to track student study behaviour, and identify any systemic problems. Far from encouraging students to stop turning up to class, podcasts could drive lecturers to improve their in-class teaching methods, he said.

"If I can download material off the Internet, then there has to be a reason for me to come [to class]; and that should be face-to-face interaction with my teacher," he said.

An ongoing study conducted by Dr Maree Gosper of Macquarie University, in conjunction with Murdoch University, Newcastle University, Flinders University and the Carrick institute, has found that a majority of students report having had positive experiences with "Web-based Leaning Technologies" (WBLT), such as podcasting.

Results were obtained via an online survey that received 817 student responses. Almost 80 per cent of respondents found that WBLT made it easier for them to learn course material, and 66.7 per cent believed that it helped them achieve better results.

More than two-thirds of the survey respondents claimed they could learn from WBLT as well as they could from face-to-face lectures. Worryingly, a quarter of the students admitted to not attending face-to-face lectures, most of whom blamed their regular absences on scheduling difficulties.

However, more than half of the students using WBLT still claim to be attending lectures frequently. Gosper highlighted a motivational atmosphere, and interactions with other students and lecturers, as students' reasons for attending.

Dr Sue Hood, a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at UTS, specialises in language and literacy teacher education. From her research on the role of gesture in creating meaning in face-to-face learning, Hood warned against using podcasting as what she believes will be an incomplete substitute for existing teaching methods.

"We mean through language, we learn through language, we construct knowledge through language," she explained. "What we also know is that language changes as modes of learning change, so if we change a mode [such as moving from face-to-face lectures to podcasting], we are not only changing the mode but also the meaning and knowledge."

"If we are extracting sound from lectures and presenting it in a different context, we are impoverishing the meaning potential," she said.

While Loasby agreed that some subjects may not lend themselves to being podcasted, he said that podcasting should not be used as a simple replacement for face-to-face classes, and should, instead, be used to supplement other existing material.

"Depending on individual lecture styles, not all material is suited to being podcasted," he said. "But I think what students want is a broader range of educational options."

"I don't think that podcasts should ever replace meaningful face-to-face interaction between teachers and students," he said. "While podcasts should be supplementary to other academic material, they can become a very significant part."

Hood said that the use of podcasting as a follow-up supplement to lectures "seems a more attractive proposition". However, she raised the question of if podcasts would then be viewed as a replacement for reading material, which could then present problems in how lecture supplements would be designed.

Meanwhile, Alexander encouraged the university's staff and students to explore other, new uses of technology, rather than considering them mere replacements for existing methods.

"My concern about the way in which we have embraced technology is that we have often used it just because we can; we tend to use it as an automated replacement for existing technologies," she said.

"Let's not just automate what we are doing already; let's look at the root of the problem, which is that students are time poor."

The university has formed three working groups with the aim of formulating a future education strategy within the next 12 months. The groups have been charged with the responsibilities of researching the current and future design of curricula, investigating necessary infrastructure changes, and designing learning spaces of the future.

more

CW: Web host turns to Gmail in Microsoft boycott

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

In a move that could alienate it from a lion's share of free e-mail account holders, Canadian Web host GaltGroup Internet Services has turned its back on Windows Live Hotmail - as well as all the products, services and partners of Hotmail's parent company, Microsoft.

The boycott was said to have been sparked by e-mail delivery problems between GaltGroup and some of its customers who were also Hotmail users. Despite having sent legitimate, authenticated messages, GaltGroup found that Hotmail's spam filters had been directing its e-mails past users' inboxes, spam and trash folders, to be destroyed without any notice to either the sender or intended recipient.

"It is analogous to the letter-carrier just deciding to throw away your letters, and not even telling you or the person who sent it," said Laura Brownlee, GaltGroup's chief marketing officer.

"I don't believe they [Hotmail] specifically target us, but rather we fall into some category of 'things their filters dislike'," she said. "As we are unable to reliably deliver email to Hotmail and reliable email delivery is vital for billing, we simply cannot afford to take the risk to customer satisfaction that Hotmail presents."

GaltGroup no longer accepts registrants using Hotmail or MSN email address. Instead, it directs potential customers to sign up for Google's free e-mail service, Gmail.

According to Ashley Friedlein, chief executive officer and co-founder of U.K. e-commerce research group E-consultancy, deliverability problems extend beyond Hotmail to other large Web mail providers also.

Friedlein explained that some country domains, like Russia, are typically treated more harshly by spam filters, because of the volumes of spam known to originate from servers in those countries. Other servers are tagged as likely spammers by spam filters because of the number of e-mails they send within a certain time period.

"Deliverability is a real headache. It's not just Hotmail, but the other large webmail companies too - Yahoo!, AOL, Google, etc," he said. "If you send above a certain threshold you immediately get them all junked as 'spam'."

Meanwhile, a Hotmail spokesperson claimed there to be no evidence that its spam filters unfairly targets specific domains.

"We seldom get Australian customers raise issues due to the spam filters in Hotmail," said Kate Beddoe, head of Windows Live Services at ninemsn. "Our customers have told us that ensuring their email is spam-free is of top importance to them. Given this, we have worked to deliver increased security and safety measures for Hotmail."

"While we are aware of some instances where some legitimate emails in Australia have been blocked by the spam filtering technology in Hotmail, we have not received any complaints from ISPs," she said.

Beddoe said that Hotmail users are able to access spam-filtered e-mail by selecting the message in their junk e-mail folder and adding the sender to a "safe" list. This would cause emails from the "safe" email domain to no longer be classified as spam.

But from her experience with Hotmail users, as well as correspondence with other Web hosts, GaltGroup's Brownlee disagrees.

"Hotmail dumps the mail with no notification, and Hotmail Support reply emails give great indication that they don't even read the complaint emails that get sent to them," she said.

To sidestep issues with e-mail delivery, E-consultancy's Friedlein said that service providers have been known to throttle send speeds for different Web mail clients. Other methods may also include using multiple IP addresses from which e-mail is sent, so that if one address gets blocked, the service provider can simply switch to another address.

"Essentially, all of us legitimate e-mailers are having to copy what the spammers do," he said.

Brownlee outlined other methods mentioned in Hotmail help documents that involve either using a paid, third-party service that Hotmail uses to access a white-list, or installing proprietary Sender-ID software from Microsoft. Even with those methods in place, Hotmail makes no guarantees for the deliverability of e-mails.

Noting that GaltGroup currently is not listed on any online black-lists, Brownlee said the company would not pay for third-party services that make no guarantees for the service being employed.

Citing an opposition to closed software and enforced proprietary standards, she said GaltGroup would not submit to Microsoft's proprietary Sender-ID software.

"The already-established open standards should be sufficient to at least get us into the 'Junk' folder," she said. "I'm not willing to jeopardize our ability to transmit to email addresses outside of Hotmail or risk the security of our servers by using proprietary closed software."

"My only course of action is to stop using Microsoft products, and wherever possible refuse to lend support to those who jump on the Microsoft boat for the fringe benefits," she said.

more

CW: Check Point introduces next top security certification

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

In response to what it views as an increasing demand for security in the market, Check Point has introduced its newest top-level certification program for network architects.

The new Check Point Master Architect (CCMA) has been designed to build on the material encompassed by Check Point's three lower-level certifications: Check Point Certified Security Administrator (CCSA); Check Point Certified Security Expert (CCSE); and Check Point Certified Security Expert Plus (CCSE Plus).

Scott McKinnel, Check Point's Australia and New Zealand Country Manager, attributed the introduction of CCMA to a rising awareness of security in the market. Besides providing employers with a higher benchmark for the assessment of new hires, McKinnel expects the certification to offer career benefits to IT professionals.

"We were looking to add a an additional certification which allows IT professionals to validate their real-world security expertise and advance their careers, to ensure they keep up with a market which has a growing demand for skill specialisation along with breadth and currency of knowledge," he said.

"Customers will continue to demand higher levels of expertise from their technology partners," he said. "Although it is difficult to pinpoint an exact financial return that certified experts can expect, as this is really driven through market-forces, this certification will provide individuals with a highly desired skill set and could add a premium to their remuneration."

Although the CCMA program is vendor-specific, McKinnel said it also takes into context the industry demands, and hence requires broad security knowledge.

Besides having already obtained Check Point's lower-level certifications, candidates are required also to have five to eight years experience working within complex infrastructure and security environments, and at least five years of experience with Check Point products.

The certification consists of a two-hour, computer-based qualification examination, as well as a corresponding hands-on laboratory exercise. The qualification examination is currently offered through Pearson VUE testing centres in English, with extra time given to foreign language speakers. The laboratory examination is not yet available in Australia; however, Check Point is currently in dialogue with training partners to provide this service by the end of the year.

more

CW: Scientists cash in on fixing spreadsheet errors

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

Spreadsheets are a tool commonly used by businesses to track everything from payroll to accounts receivable. However, experts claim, there could be erroneous code, programming or formulae in spreadsheets that is costing businesses billions of dollars.

A newly-founded company in the U.S. has developed technology to reduce mistakes in spreadsheets, and potentially rake in some profits in the process. Dubbed "Goal-directed Debugging of Spreadsheets" -- "GoalDebug" for short - the technology aims to provide non-specialist programmers with the means to detect and correct programming mistakes simply by selecting from a shortlist of change suggestions.

In the U.S. alone, it has been estimated that about 100 million spreadsheets are created annually, which in turn might be managed by up to 60 million users. As most of these end-users tend to be non-technical staff with limited computer software programming knowledge, spreadsheets are notoriously prone to errors, warned Martin Erwig, an associate professor of computer science at Oregon State University in the U.S., and one of the creators of GoalDebug.

"Most users of spreadsheets are overconfident, they believe that the data is correct," he said. "But it has been observed that up to 90 percent of the spreadsheets being used have non-trivial errors in them. In fact, one auditor has said he never inspected a single spreadsheet during his entire career that was completely accurate."

"Spreadsheet debugging problems are huge; we believe there will be a significant demand for these products -- a large market," Erwig said. "We can't provide a dollar figure at this time, but our company is quite optimistic about this product."

The impact of spreadsheet errors could range from a few dollars misplaced in a personal travel budget, to delayed paychecks, to significant financial misrepresentations of budgets and stocks, which could affect many people, Erwig said.

For GoalDebug to correct a spreadsheet, it requires the user to first identify a suspicious-looking result, and plug in a more accurate figure. By identifying common errors made by humans, the program then suggests several programming mistakes that might have created the error, and what the correct approach might be.

Citing a recent study that found that software engineers spend up to 80 percent of their time testing and debugging programs, Erwig expects GoalDebug to appeal to non-technical spreadsheet users as it allows them to identify and repair errors by looking at a short list of possible problems instead of combing through hundreds or thousands of cells.

GoalDebug will be taken to market through a spin-off company called i5Logic, which was founded by Erwig and two colleagues last year. The current research prototype has been designed to work with Microsoft Excel; however, Erwig expects the program's underlying analysis techniques to apply to other spreadsheet systems as well.

more

CW: Bring our talent home, AIIA panellists say

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

Discussions of Australia's value proposition at the AIIA Borderless World Conference yesterday inevitably centred on what panellists agreed was the country's greatest advantage: talent.

Ironically, the realisation comes at a time when Australian IT talent is in dangerously short supply.

Educational institutes are reporting declining IT enrolment figures. Meanwhile, skilled professionals are emigrating towards bigger and better opportunities in overseas markets.

One of the conference panelists was Graham Edelsten, co-founder of Auran Games, which is a Queensland-based company that develops software targeted at the burgeoning online games market in China and Korea.

"Here we are in Australia, where our labour cost is so much higher," said Edelsten, who currently holds both director and chief financial officer positions at Auran. "But because our technology is still more advanced, and [because of] our creativity due to our political system, we can produce a game that's so successful that it is attractive to those [Chinese and Korean] markets."

"There are very, very creative people in Australia - but we lose a lot of our intellectual property especially to the U.S.," he said.

Technology behemoth Google is one U.S. company that has historically attracted some of the top Australian talent away from the country's sunny shores. And while the company's 2005 launch of its Sydney office has allowed more of its Australian employees to remain in the country, remotely located employees still contend with issues to do with Google's globally distributed workforce.

"We're here [in Australia] because that's where the talent is," said conference panellist Alan Noble, head of engineering at Google's Sydney office. "We recognise that not everybody who is an engineer wants to go and work in Mountain View, California."

"I do think we are used to working remotely as a culture," he said, "[but] there are real factors here that we need to work hard to minimize. Time zones are very annoying."

As a nation that is located on opposite ends of the world to its Western-cultured peers, Australia is subjugated to what panellists called the "tyranny of distance".

While panellist David Merson, the Bali-based founder of Australian software company Mincom, views Australia's geographic and cultural positioning as a trading advantage, the tyranny of distance has also been charged with producing a penchant for travel among Australians.

Noble is one example of an Australian-born engineer who took his entrepreneurial activity to the U.S. for about 14 years, before recently returning to Australia to work at Google. A graduate of the University of Adelaide, Noble recalls how initial feelings of homesickness faded away with time. For Australian businesses, he said this meant that opportunities had to be created to draw expatriate talent back home.

"At some point, you stop thinking about Australia," he said. "By and large, we in the industry have to create opportunities for people to come back."

Merson agreed: "I think it is fantastic that there are expatriates overseas, in terms of the knowledge they gain. I think if we build the jobs and the opportunities then they will come [home], because it's [Australia] a great place to live and bring up kids."

Noble and Merson said that it is predominantly the industry's responsibility to create opportunities for returning expatriates. Auran's Edelson highlighted training initiatives put in place by the Singapore and Chinese governments that involved sending students overseas for fixed-term work placements to ensure their return with the advantages of an expatriate experience.

Edelson described a proposal from the Singapore Government, which he said has offered to partly fund Auran's hiring of Singaporean entry-level staff on two-year contracts. The deal is expected to provide Auran with a low-cost staffing option, while assisting the Singapore Government with up-skilling its workforce.

"I wish our government would do things like that, because we are desperate for knowledge," Edelson said.

more

PCW: Finger lengths could point out technophobia

As a journalist at PC World Australia:

The measurements of a person's ring and index fingers may come in handy in the early identification of developmental disorders, career paths, and behaviourial issues such as technophobia, psychologists claim.

In a comparative study of the finger lengths of 75 seven-year-old children with their Standardised Assessment Test (SAT) scores, researchers found evidence that finger lengths can accurately predict a child's numeracy and literacy abilities.

Longer "digit ratios'', which were calculated by dividing length of the ring finger by that of the index finger, were generally found in males with good numeracy skills. In contrast, girls tended to have shorter ring than index fingers, and fared more poorly in numeracy than literacy tests.

While finger lengths have long been a source of knowledge to palm readers and mystics, it is only in recent times that scientists have been able to link finger lengths with the sex hormones, testosterone and oestrogen, according to Dr Mark Brosnan, who led the study.

"Testosterone has been linked to spatial skills and mathematical skills, [and] digit ratio has been linked to testosterone," said Brosnan, Head of the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath. "So the question then was - does digit ratio relate to mathematical abilities?"

Scientists believe that high levels of exposure to the male hormone, testosterone, while a child develops in its mother's womb, promote the development of the areas of the brain which are often associated with spatial and mathematical skills.

Similarly, the female hormone oestrogen is thought to do the same in the areas of the brain which are often associated with verbal ability.

"Interestingly, these hormones are also thought to have a say in the relative lengths of our index and ring fingers," Brosnan said.

"We can use measurements of these fingers as a way of gauging the relative exposure to these two hormones in the womb, and as we have shown through this study, we can also use them to predict ability in the key areas of numeracy and literacy."

Longer index fingers could also be linked to a greater tendency towards what Brosnan has termed "computer anxiety", or "technophobia", which has been defined as a fear or anxiety towards technology.

And while it is unlikely that finger length measurements could replace SAT tests, Brosnan announced plans for further research into how digit ratio relates to a person's career path.

The early prediction of a person's natural disposition could perhaps be used to reduce anxieties to do with technology, and even open new avenues to technology-related careers, Brosnan said, should the person be willing.

"Those who are good at maths, for example, [might] enter numerate jobs," he predicted, noting that this hypothesis has yet to be empirically researched.

more

CW: Headhunters shake up a candidate-short market

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

At a glance, it seems conditions are ripe for active recruitment to take hold of the Australian IT industry. As skilled professionals bask in an opportunity-rich environment, recruiters are fast coming to terms with new laws of the jungle: poach, or get poached from.

The technology industry has taken off at such speeds that a once-overfull workforce is now barely meeting the demand for skilled staff. Employers are faced with the challenge of attracting and retaining employees, while a recent influx of the notoriously fickle Generation Y is pushing employee loyalty to an all-time low.

With a nationwide scarcity of IT staff in full force, active recruitment has become an increasingly attractive prospect for IT hubs such as electronics vendor Altium Limited.

"With the current IT skills shortage, we are increasingly exploring less traditional ways to find people and to ensure those people are a great match for Altium," said Kerri-Ann Wilson, the Sydney-based company's Chief People Officer.

"When companies like Altium require IT staff that possesses a very specific and hard-to-find skill set, then active headhunting can be an effective way to find the right talent."

The battle-worn concept of headhunting certainly has caused its fair share of debate over the years. Proponents view the method as an effective way of recruiting staff with the skills and experience to match a particular position. Challengers argue that headhunters risk too much time to account for the low success rate associated with their passive job-seeking targets.

And active recruiting services don't come cheaply either. As Duncan Thomson, General Manager of FiniteIT Recruitment Solutions explains, active recruitment can be a long process with costs involved along each step of the way.

"The recruitment term for 'headhunting' is 'search' which is more generally used to fill senior/executive roles, or to source hard to find niche skill sets," said Thomson, adding that search comprised only one of several methods the recruitment agency employs to source candidates.

FiniteIT's search contracts would normally involve an initial "retainer fee" of about one-third of the total cost of the contract. This would allow the agency to take a comprehensive brief on the position and what it would offer to potential candidates.

The second step of the process involves market research with a view to eventually producing a shortlist of candidates to approach. On production of the shortlist, the recruitment agency collects a further one-third of the total fee, with the final third being charged upon placement and commencement of a successful candidate.

It is only in the final stages of matching a potential employee to a company that the company's details are actually revealed to a candidate, Thomson said.

"The merits of this type of approach to the client is that it normally remains a very private process, requires a trust in the search consultant's ability and is normally a very thorough, targeted and methodical exercise for both client and consultant," he said.

"However, depending on the seniority of the role or the scarceness of availability of the skill-set in demand, it can take anything up to three months to carry out a search assignment, and does involve a non refundable fee paid up front with no absolute guarantee of eventual success."

Headhunting, or being hunted, may not always be the best option for everyone, Thomson said. While some candidates may feel flattered by unsolicited approaches from headhunters, others may find it a distraction, and can be offended in cases where the consultant has not done their homework sufficiently on their individual background and skills, or adopted the wrong approach.

But even without the guarantee of eventual success, no effort is wasted effort to Altium's Wilson, who views even failed attempts at active recruitment as investments that may pay off in the long run.

"While headhunting means that you are often contacting people who may be very happy in their job, it's still a great opportunity for us to make a potential future employee aware of the unique Altium offering," she said.

"That person, who is happy in their job today, may be ready to move in 12 month's time, and then you want them to remember the unique benefits offered by working at Altium and the positive experience they have already had with the company."

Get hunted

Passive job seekers stand a greater chance of being headhunted if they have a high profile in the industry, and are accessible via a good professional network, FiniteIT's Thomson said.

"The higher the individual's public profile and contacts network, the easier it will be for them to appear within the researched industry candidate long list," he said, mentioning industry publications, the Internet, and media announcements as avenues for publicity.

Meanwhile, Altium's Wilson encourages professionals to take a more active approach to shaping their careers.

"If people are interested in working at Altium we encourage them to get in touch with us directly," she said. "There is no need to wait for a tap on the shoulder or to see a specific job advertised."

more

CW: Off-site printing service banks on hardcopy invoice needs

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

Businesses may be moving to digitize their operations in today's technocentric world, but according to Australian start-up bing Technologies, the humble hardcopy letter will prevail.

That is at least what the company has gathered from an Australia Post survey that, at the turn of the millennium, found that while businesses reported a preference for electronic correspondence, ninety percent of their customers would rather receive invoices and statements in the post.

"Mail is a real pain for a lot of companies," said bing's National Sales Manager, Simon Moss, explaining that while the electronic medium does offer a speed advantage over traditional letters, it can be less effective as a reminder of outstanding invoices.

"The average e-mail is handled about once or twice after it enters your mailbox," Moss explained. "Paper is, on average, touched 7 times; people receive letters, stick them on the fridge, and pass them on."

bing Technologies is a software-enabled postal service provider with headquarters in Sydney and Brisbane. Its self-titled service allows businesses to electronically send any document they create to either of bing's facilities for offsite, on-demand printing and next-day delivery through Australia Post.

Aimed at enterprises and small to medium enterprises (SMEs), the service is expected to speed up the mailing process through automation, and reduce the cost of mail by up to 42 percent through economies of scale.

Besides enabling its clients to more readily access wholesale prices from Australia Post, the service boasts the potential to eliminate wasted printing materials and cut down on human hours spent manually printing, folding and posting letters.

bing's automated process has already been welcomed by SME clients, Seek.com.au and a large bank. Moss cited market figures that revealed the number of letters sent in Australia to have increased by 150 million, to 5 billion in 2006. About 41 percent of this market, or 2.1 billion letters, were found to have originated from enterprises and SMEs.

The 2.1 billion letters sent by Australian businesses were still only a small portion of what Moss saw as an "addressable world market" of 450 billion letters sent world wide.

The company plans to open facilities in Melbourne and Auckland by the end of this year, with plans for further international expansion into New York and London in 2008. As outgoing mail is electronically delivered to be printed and posted by the branch closest to the recipient, Moss expects mail sent through bing to reach its destination up to 36 hours faster than courier services such as DHL, with the launch of international branches.

more

CW: ACS warns of 'Google-Schmoogle' syndrome

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

"Google, schmoogle," declared Philip Argy, president of the Australian Computer Society (ACS).

Speaking at the National ICT Industry Alliance's (NICTIA) launch of its 10-year Strategic Vision for Australia, Argy criticized what he said to be an often-indiscriminate use of search engine results by the younger generation in their school assignments.

"The Google-schmoogle syndrome is a term that I've invented to apply to mostly kids - and sometimes also journalists - who uncritically copy and paste information retrieved from a Google search into their school assignments and serious reports," he said.

With the convenience of online research in today's world, students in search of information often turn to the Internet as their first port of call.

Unfortunately, Argy said, school curriculums are yet to catch up with the technology, so principles of rigour and intelligent use of online material tends to be overlooked.

Likening much of the material found online to dog-eared scraps of paper handed out by "a vagrant on the street", Argy explained that poor teaching of proper investigative techniques could be contributing to a generation built on plagiarism.

Worse still, students using unverified material in their work are often rewarded with high grades from ill-informed teachers, Argy said.

"We are breeding a generation of uncritical thinkers who don't know how to differentiate between the opinion of one deluded individual, and a well-researched, factual piece by someone who is informed," he said.

"Unfortunately, it's not common sense - people are just copying and pasting uncritically. We need to teach the principles of rigor in research skills and a much more questioning approach to search engine results."

A better education system would teach students to test their sources, investigate a topic, and delve into the background of the persons authoring a piece of information, Argy said.

As part of ACS's involvement with NICTIA's 10-year strategy, the group is currently in discussion with the NSW Board of Studies; Senator Helen Coonan, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts; and Julie Bishop, Federal Minister for Education, Science and Training, about beefing up teacher training programs.

"They've been quite receptive conceptually; they said this [online research] already forms a small part of the curriculum, but have taken on my view that there needs to be more teaching of critical research techniques," he said. "I think the next generation of teachers will probably get most of it right; it's that intermediate generation that has been initially resistant to this sort of technology."

"Based on what we've [ACS] been doing, we're going to see in a teacher training program, and therefore within the next 5 years, we should see an effect on our education system," he said.

more

CW: NICTIA takes 10-year industry vision to governments

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

A 10-year strategic vision for the ICT industry was launched this morning by a consortium of 20 industry associations aiming to develop an internationally competitive ICT sector in Australia.

Operating under the umbrella of the National ICT Industry Alliance (NICTIA), the consortium has put forward a Vision Statement containing 12 parameters said to be vital to Australia's economic prosperity, because of the role of ICT as an enabling technology that supports all sectors of the economy.

NICTIA president Tony Hill highlighted the support of innovation and development of opportunities for small to medium enterprises (SMEs) as a key focus of the 10-year vision.

Rather than what he said to be a traditional "rollercoaster" way of innovation, which could lead to phenomena like the transient dot-com boom at the turn of the century, the new Vision Statement has long-term results in mind.

Also on the agenda was the marketing and branding of Australian ICT products in the global market; the development of skills; ICT literacy and standards; and the improvement of national broadband infrastructure.

"The pace of change with ICT has been enormous," said Hill. "We're concerned that Australia may be falling behind in developing our sector.

"In this strategy, we're taking an industry-led approach, and asking the government to join," he said. "The key [focus] is these 12 points that need to be coordinated, and this is the first time we are taking a coordinated approach that has been organized by the industry,"

The ten-year Vision Statement has been endorsed by the Australian Computer Society (ACS), whose president Philip Argy expects NICTIA to present the government with a credible, practical framework through a single, united voice for the industry.

"No government can ignore the weight of support for this document," he said.

"By comparison to other OECD countries, Australia has been a poor promoter and exporter of its own innovation," Argy said, adding that the country's greatest comparative advantage has ironically been its capability for the development and integration of technology.

"Australia really needs to take a step forward and compete on the world stage as a world-recognized brand ... this vision is about an environment in which innovation can thrive," he said.

Argy suggested the long-term licensing of export technologies to bring on-going revenue from royalties into the country.

Broadband and the early adoption of IPv6 were also identified as issues that should be a government priority. Already, members of NICTIA have been working towards the new Internet protocol through initiatives such as the Australian IPv6 Summit and the ITOL IPv6 for e-Business project.

"We want to see an Australia in 10 years time, where bandwidth is not a limiting factor on anything anyone wants to do," Argy declared. "If we are at the leading edge, then the rest of the world will - by definition - look to buy those technologies from us."

To combat the commonly touted ICT skills shortage, NICTIA is also recommending that the industry projects its skill requirements three to five years into the future, and actively communicate its needs to tertiary institutions.

"In the past, that dove-tailing hasn't really been there, and there's been a great push to import them [skilled staff] as a first resort," Argy said. "We say if you can invest more in the skills that you need, then you've got a greater probability of cross-training and up-skilling your staff."

However, according to NICTIA's Hill, having the industry make recommendations to the educational sector will first require more detailed planning, part of which can only be achieved via government discussions.

Currently, members of the alliance are in discussions with the government and opposition at a federal level, Hill said, and meetings with Senator Helen Coonan, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, as well as state governments, are also in the works.

NICTIA's 12-point plan is as follows:

1. National 10-year strategy
Australia to have a vibrant, innovative and globally competitive ICT industry that strategically plans for the future and underpins future productivity gains in all other sectors of the economy.

2. National marketing and branding
An Australian ICT sector to be well supported by the Australian, State and Territory Governments under a strong national Australian ICT brand, which presents a united front globally and is well known for its innovation and quality ICT services in key international markets.

3. Innovation
An Australian ICT industry that is a magnet for private investment to support R&D and commercialization of technology through large, multi-disciplinary commercial R&D and product realization centres.

4. Innovation in procurement practices
Government as a model ICT purchaser of Australian innovation, recognizing that as the largest single ICT customer in Australia, its procurement practices have a substantial impact on innovation in the ICT industry and provide reference sites to facilitate global market penetration.

5. Skills
An Australian ICT industry with a leading skill base by world standards with the Australian, State and Territory Governments, industry and education providers working collaboratively to improve skills foresighting, skills development and enhance enrolments in ICT courses.

6. International opportunities
Australian technology businesses to have the capacity and necessary government market intelligence and support to readily identify and respond to real international business opportunities and consistently convert these to positive business wins.

7. Collaboration and global integration
Australian ICT SMEs to be competing successfully on the world stage with the capability and necessary expertise available to access markets, attract venture capital and commercialise their technology solutions.

8. Entrepreneurship
Our ICT entrepreneurs to possess the managerial, technical and marketing skills to develop their businesses, compete for growth capital and move forward on national and international business opportunities.

9. ICT infrastructure
A high speed, affordable national broadband infrastructure and complementary e-security network that puts Australia amongst the leaders in OECD in terms of its broadband capabilities. Be one of the first nations to gain the benefits from migrating to IPv6.

10. ICT literacy
Australia to become a highly ICT literate and truly technology-proficient society that adopts, adapts and confidently embraces and exploits technology to its advantage and on an equitable basis.

11. ICT standards and conduct
Australia to increase its development and application of open technical and professional standards, at both a national and international level.

12. Regulatory policy
Australia's regulatory policy to be proportionate to the need and not to become an impediment to innovation and investment in ICT.

more