Firewall

MikroTik RouterOS Firewall stands between the company’s network and a public netvork, effectively shielding your computers from malicious hacker activity, and controlling the flow of data to the router, through the router, and from the router. MikroTik RouterOS firewall supports filtering and security functions that form your Internet using policy.

Stateful Filtering

MikroTik RouterOS Firewall is based on Stateful Filterig technology that can be used to detect and block many stealth scans, DoS attacks, SYN floods. Network communication is made up of small chunks of data called packets, and several of these packets are used solely to create, maintain, and finish the connection.
The MikroTik RouterOS Stateful Firewall keeps in memory informtion on each connection passing through it. When a foreign packet tries to enter the network, claiming to be part of an existing connection, the firewall consults it's list of connections. When it finds that the packet doesn't match any of these, it can drop that packet and defeat the scan!

System Administration

MikroTik RouterOS Firewall is very easy to manage! System’s architecture allows easy configuration of network address translation (NAT), transparent proxies, and redirection. The Firewall filtering rules are grouped together in chains. It is very advantageous, if packets can be matched against one common criteria in one chain, and then passed over for processing against some other common criteria to another chain. That makes the system a whole lot easier to administrate, using a smaller number of rules to create much more precise firewalling.

MikroTik RouterOS Firewall is based on:

��IP address filtering
��Port protocol filtering
��Network interface filtering
��Source MAC address filtering
��TCP protocol option

Applications:

��Protection of the Router from unauthorized access
You can monitor connections to the addresses assigned to the router itself and allow access only from certain hosts to certain TCP ports of the router. The Firewall controlls all Internet information and warns and blocks intrusion attempt based on rules, customized by the user.

��Protection of the customer's hosts
You can monitor connections to the addresses assigned to the customer's network and allow access only to certain hosts and services. You endow your customers with effective and proactive defence against malicious attacks.

��Using Masquerading to hide the private network behind one external address
All connections from the private addresses can be masqueraded, and thay appear as coming from one external address - that of the router. The firewall will act as a gateway for your entire network to enable the office's network to share a single, safe connection to the Internet.

��Enforcing the Internet Usage Policy from the Customer's Network
The Firewall allows you to controll connections from Customer’s Network and provides detailed traffic statistics of all the links.

��Prioritizing traffic
You can mark packets by priority to ensure fastest connection to more important packets. This guarantees that all groups always get the appropriate bandwidth, providing controlable flow of network traffic and preventing bandwidth starvation.

��Applying queuing to the outgoing packets
This feature allows to limit connection speed to certain group of packets. The hierarchy of class enables you to build a flexible, and very logical representation of your traffic.

For ordering information, contact sales@mikrotik.com

Read More

Wireless Networks

© National Centre for Technology in Education Nov 2008 1

The use of mobile phones has had a major impact on the way people communicate. Other
mobile devices, such as laptop computers and handheld devices have also become an
integral part of everyday life. The portability and flexibility of these devices has succeeded in
placing mobile technology in the realm of mainstream technology, both in the workplace and
the classroom.
The development of wireless networking solutions represents a significant evolutionary step in
this arena, as devices can now be fully networked even though they are not physically
connected with cables.

What is a Wireless Network?

When the term ‘wireless network’ is used today, it usually refers to a wireless local area network (WLAN). A WLAN connects computers together through radio technology using standard network rules or protocols, but without the use of cabling to connect the computers together. A WLAN can be installed as the sole network in a school or building. However, it can also be used to extend an existing wired network to areas where wiring would be too difficult or too expensive to implement, or to areas located away from the main network or building. The most obvious difference between wireless and wired networks, therefore, is that the latter uses some form of cable to connect computers together. A wireless network does not need cable to form a physical connection between computers. Wireless networks can be configured to provide the same network functionality as wired networks, ranging from simple peer-to-peer
configurations to large-scale infrastructures accommodating hundreds of users.

Wireless Network Components
There are certain parallels between the equipment used to build a WLAN and that used in a traditional wired LAN.
�� Both networks require a network interface card (NIC) that is either built-in to or added
to a handheld, laptop or desktop computer. There are two main types of plug-in card
available: PCMCIA which is inserted into the relevant slot in the side of a laptop and
PCI which is inserted into one of the internal slots in a desktop computer. Wireless
NICs contain an in-built antenna to connect with the network.
�� In a wireless network, an ‘access point’ (AP) has a similar function to the switch in
wired networks. It broadcasts and receives signals to and from the surrounding
computers via their wireless NICs. It is also the point where a wireless network can be
connected into an existing wired network.

Wireless Network Configurations
Wireless networks can be configured in ad hoc or infrastructure mode using access points.
Ad Hoc Configuration
This is the most basic wireless network configuration and is the equivalent of a wired peer-topeer network. This arrangement requires nothing more than wireless NICs in each of the connecting computers which associate through use of a common network name. However, the range of this configuration is limited and administration becomes an issue with more than just a few nodes. Thus, ad hoc configurations should only be used for the smallest of wireless networks where scalability and security are unimportant.

Infrastructure Configuration using Access Point(s)
With the installation of an access point, the range over which the network is accessible increases to approximately 150m indoors and 350m outdoors (optimum performance within 30m indoors). It is possible for an access point to support up to 30 clients, but in practice more access points are needed to support large numbers of wireless PCs . Access points are connected together via a wired LAN. The access point can also act as a bridge, allowing the wireless network to connect to a wired network.
NCTE Advice Sheet – Wireless Networks Advice Sheet 20
© National Centre for Technology in Education Nov 2008 2

In a situation where users need to be mobile and still retain their connection to the network, the coverage provided by the access points should overlap. As the user moves from one area of coverage to another, the network connection is transferred from one access point to the next, without the user noticing.
Two other pieces of equipment may be required to support a wireless LAN:-
�� Extension points which act as wireless relays extend the range of an access point
�� Directional antennae may be used as a means of connecting two separate buildings
so that the network is shared between buildings.

Benefits and Educational Uses
• Installation time and costs are significantly reduced. • Network is accessible in places where wiring would have been difficult.
• The space over which a wireless network operates is not planar but spherical
providing access in rooms above or below the access point in a multi-level site
without the need for additional infrastructure.
• Teachers and students can have continuous access to the network, even as they
move with their equipment from class to class.
• Computers fitted with wireless network cards can be placed on trolleys and moved
from location to location within a school in order to facilitate group work, sharing of
files, printers and Internet access.
• Wireless range can be extended beyond the main school building to allow students
and teachers use wireless devices to gather and record data outside, e.g. as part of
a science experiment or individual performance data from a PE class.

Issues to be aware of:
Before installing wireless networks schools should be aware of the following issues:

Health Considerations
• Some health concerns have been raised that wireless networks in association with
wireless laptop computers in schools may pose a health risk to pupils, due to the
levels of radiation emitted. The Government published the Report of the Expert
Group on Health Effects of Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) on 22nd March, 2007,
which examined a wide range of issues in relation to potential health effects of EMF,
including those produced by mobile telecommunications. The Group concluded that
“so far, no adverse short or long-term health effects have been found from exposure
to the radiofrequency (RF) signals produced by mobile phones and base station
transmitters. RF signals have not been found to cause cancer.” The Department of
the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has assumed responsibility for
the health effects of EMF with effect from 1 May, 2007. The full report can be
accessed at the link below:
Wireless Speed and Reliability
• Wireless networks may seems to be a simpler alternative to networking a school
than a cabled network, however schools should not install wireless networks unless
they are aware of the potential issues and satisfied that it is the right decision for the
school. Wireless networks are significantly slower than fixed networking, by a factor
of approx 10. Wireless is also less reliable than cabled networks mainly due to
issues such as the movement of mobile PCs and possible reductions in signal
strength due to changes in the local environment. Wireless networks are typically
not suitable for schools with thick walls, including many older schools.
Security of school data:
• As wireless data travels through the air, there is a risk it could be accessed by other
parties at ranges of 100-300 metres outside of the school grounds. There is thus a
risk that sensitive school or pupil data could be accessed by unauthorised parties. In
order to prevent such an occurrence high quality wireless security software would
need to be installed by qualified companies who can provide the appropriate level of
technical support and maintenance to schools. Too often schools install wireless
networks with either no or inadequate levels of security.

NCTE Advice Sheet – Wireless Networks Advice Sheet 20
© National Centre for Technology in Education Nov 2008 3
Technical and Purchasing Considerations
• If wireless is to be installed it is essential that that school receives a warranty and maintenance agreement, so that they understand the possible additional costs associated with the wireless network. The agreement should resolved issues such as reliability of signal, lack of coverage, security. A service level agreement (SLA) should be provided by the provider so that the school is aware of the extent of service provision and possible additional charges associated with the service.
• Wireless NICs are more expensive than their wired counterparts. The cost of the access points should be considered.
• Wireless networks typically work at 54Mbps which is shared between all the workstations using an access point whereas a hard-wired network connection is capable of running at 100Mbps (Fast Ethernet). A wireless network will be noticeably slower when a group of users are transferring large files. This should be considered if multimedia applications are to be delivered over the network to a significant number of
users.
• Wireless data transmission rates are dependant on the number of users, the distance from the access point and the fabric of the building (metal structures in walls may have an impact).As the range of the network may extend beyond the walls of the building, it could become accessible from outside. Consideration should be given to what security features the equipment provides to ensure that only authorised users have access to the network and that data is protected.

Relevant Web Sites

http://www.wi-fi.org/knowledge_center_overview.php
www.ncte.ie/ICTAdviceSupport/AdviceSheets

Read More

Gap between generations on “digital competences” – Need for shared understanding

At many schools, while the pupils think they have great ICT skills, the teachers hold an opposite point of view. Hence, there are different opinions of what constitutes ICT competences, or “digital competence”.

The different opinions can be considered as a gap between generations. This highlights the importance of a common concept of digital competence. If no common understanding
of digital competence is developed among management, teachers and pupils, there is both a risk for diminishing the use of ICT at school level and an increased social divide. In
order for both teachers and pupils to know what to aim for in terms of optimal use of ICT in education, a shared definition and measurement framework needs to be developed.
If you ask pupils and teachers what it means to be able to read and write, you will probably get quite uniform answers – formulated however with different words. But if you ask them what it means to be digitally competent, you will get totally different answers from teachers on the one hand and pupils on the other.

The study shows that there is a great gap between how ICT is used in schools and outside school, where pupils experience that they learn the most about ICT outside school (see Chapter 4). This gap can also be seen as a gap between generations. The pupils
have competences learned outside school that are not acknowledged and not qualified in school. This can be illustrated by a Norwegian 13-year old pupil who submitted an assignment on e-mail. The assignment was in perfect Norwegian, but the short message
in the e-mail to the teacher was in “SMS-language” with a lot of abbreviations. The pupils are becoming bilingual, but their digital language is not acknowledged inside the school.
The digital worlds of teachers and pupils are two separate worlds.
Very few teachers know what is going on in the digital world of a 13-year-old pupil: chatrooms, participating in game clans on the internet buying virtual swords with real money, blogging and constant use of the mobile phone. On the other hand, the teachers are
frustrated by the lack of source criticism among the pupils when it comes to the use of for instance the internet in the schools. The teachers believe that the pupils are the “copy-paste-generation”, who copy information on the internet and turn it in their teachers, as if it was their own work without any critical editing.

This constitutes a severe challenge, because digital competence in Nordic countries is viewed as a basic cultural competence on the same level as reading and writing. There are many different ICT competences, where some are relevant in school, while others are
not. Downloading illegal music from the internet is a competence that should not be learned in school, while an understanding of blogging as a genre probably should. Digital competences are much more than just using the technology, but to really understand what it means, there is a need for a dialogue between teachers and pupils. Ramboll Management recommends a ‘Digital-Competence-Dialogue-Day’ in all schools and a focus on integrating the pupils’ digital world into the ongoing ministerial work on defining digital competences. There is also a need for clear indicators for measuring digital competence in order to get an accurate picture of the actual digital competences among pupils. Ramboll Management assess that this is a great challenge that has to be met, if ICT is to have further impact in the Nordic schools.

Otherwise the gap between generations in the digital area will lead to that the potential positive impact of ICT will not be exploited. Furthermore there is a risk that this will lead to an accelerated social divide, where some pupils become digitally bilingual and use ICT in many different ways at school and at home – while others cannot. The results indicate that different groups of pupils – girls and pupils with other native languages – are more dependent on learning to use ICT in school and this need is not being met satisfactorily.

As inspiration, some of this is already under way in Norway. The Norwegian National Curriculum is under revision and in the new curriculum that takes effect from the school year 2006-2007, ICT is one of five basic skills that are to be embedded in all subject
matters at all levels.

Read More

Schools and teachers do not respond clearly enough to pupils’ and parents’ wishes for stronger integration of ICT in teaching and learning

The vast majority of parents and pupils respond very clearly: It is important that the schools and the teachers actively integrate ICT in teaching and learning practices and in general in the daily life of the school, including the school’s co-operation with the pupils’ homes. School management and teachers, however,demonstrate a more hesitant and less focused approach to the use of ICT.

The study shows that 96% of the parents participating in Elearning Nordic 2006 have made it clear that they find the use of ICT in the schools’ teaching very important (see Chapter 4). The pupils too make no secret of the fact that they would like to use ICT more in their learning activities. Still – and in spite of large and ambitious competence development initiatives – as many as one in three teachers feel restrained by their own perceived lack of
competences from using ICT more in their teaching and in their pedagogical design of school work and learning activities.

Home-school co-operation is one area where ICT can deliver immediate and tangible benefits to all stakeholders: parents, pupils, teachers, school management and municipal school administrations. However, Ramboll Management experiences that many schools and municipalities seem to be unaware of the potentials, and except for a few outstanding best practice examples, the impact of ICT on home-school co-operation is limited in the four Nordic countries. E-learning Nordic 2006 shows that both parents and school managers feel that ICT still not has delivered on its potential. There is only limited impact on areas such as:
• Parents’ information level about school activities
• Parents’ involvement in their children’s schoolwork
• Parents’ ongoing dialogue with the school and their children’s teachers.

Ramboll Management assesses that school managers and municipal school authorities need operational guidelines on how to use ICT to strengthen home-school dialogue. Such a dialogue will also help schools to be able to respond more actively to the parents’ wishes for a more integrated, pedagogical approach to ICT. Ramboll Management recommends that to address these challenges, the following measures should be considered:
• Promote the use of ICT for home-school co-operation to
school managers and municipal school authorities through
best-practice examples
• Identify users’ needs for co-operation tools: What do parents
need, what do pupils need, what does school management
need?
• Set up operational (editorial and functional) guidelines for
the school’s use of ICT vis-à-vis the parents
• Identify factors which must be addressed in order to ensure
that ICT will not marginalise socially and/or educationally
disadvantaged groups of parents
• Teachers and school managers urgently need to develop a
more pedagogically open and pro-active attitude to the use
of ICT and to enter into a dialogue with the parents and the
pupils about their expectations and their ideas.

Read More

ICT has positive impact on basic reading and writing skills, but potential is not fully exploited

The study shows that ICT is a valuable tool for improving basic skills such as reading, writing and calculation. Furthermore ICT provides teachers with the possibility of differentiating their teaching because pupils can work at their own pace, in accordance
with their preferred learning styles and with different subjects when at the same time teachers can provide each of them with personal support and feedback. However, this potential could be used better.

The impact of using ICT on the individual pupil’s performance could be enhanced but a prerequisite for doing so is thorough documentation on which methods work the best.
It is important to all Nordic countries that pupils in primary as well as secondary schools perform better, that they are educated beyond primary education and that the drop-out rate from secondary education is reduced. ICT is a strong tool when it comes to motivating pupils to learn, to giving them confidence in their own capabilities and to enhancing their learning. This study shows that ICT is assessed to have a positive impact on pupil performance in basic skills such as writing, reading and calculation skills, especially in the 5th and 8th grades (see Chapter 4). The impact can be seen among both the academically weak and the academically strong pupils while at the same time teachers
assess that the use of ICT does not increase the differences between these groups. Furthermore the study indicate that ICT improves pupils’ skills the more ICT is used, the more different types of ICT that are used and the more varied pedagogical methods
that are used (see Chapter 5).
This study underlines the importance of making the use of ICT more widespread and making more teachers aware of the benefits for the individual pupil. Ramboll Management recommends that policy makers and school managers focus on:
• Documenting the types of ICT use that enhance pupils’
learning
• Providing good examples of ICT use that are related to objectives
in curricula
• Supporting the development of good digital learning resources,
to make it possible to differentiate and organise
collaborative work.

Read More

Competence development must be followed up by clear objectives and activity plans

The Nordic countries have in general had a strong focus on competence development for teachers regarding the use of ICT for teaching and learning purposes. However, the results from the study show that the impact of these investments is random. Results from this and other studies show that the poor results can be improved by a more strategic and systematic approach to ICT at more levels; Mandatory inclusion of ICT in all subjects, follow-up on the use of ICT at school level and more focus upon the integration of ICT for teaching and learning purposes in initial teacher training.

The results from this study show that the respondents assess that ICT has a positive impact on pupil performance and the study indicate that the more ICT is used, the greater the impact (see Chapter 4). The study also indicates that schools where management systematically follows up on the use of ICT are the schools where the greatest impact is experienced (see Chapter 5).
The study shows that even though two out of three teachers have participated in competence development regarding ICT within the last three years, only about one in three teachers in this study assess that they have the necessary competence to integrate ICT in
their teaching (see Chapter 8). Not only does their lack of competence influence their ability and willingness to use ICT for teaching and learning purposes, also teachers’ ability to see the relevance of doing so influences their use (see Chapter 5). Only about 40%
of teachers find it highly relevant to use ICT to support the academic content in their teaching. And even fewer to support their pedagogical and didactical methods. Why is this so, if so many have participated in training aimed at integrating ICT?
As most teachers have computers and internet access in their homes (see Chapter 7) and have participated in some forms of competence development, one should believe that they have developed basic skills for integrating ICT. Maybe the competence development
has not provided teachers with more than basic skills; maybe the connection between teachers’ basic ICT competences and pedagogical methods and advantages is still a missing link.
Ramboll Management believes that the time has come where focus should be put on how ICT can best support the pedagogical and content-related objectives set out at national, regional and school level. Ramboll Management recommends that policy makers and
school managers focus on:
• Formulating clear objectives for the use of ICT for teaching and learning purposes in all subjects
• Formulating specific plans for follow-up on the objectives
• Provision of examples that enhance pupil performance for all subjects and well documented results of specific pedagogical methods, specifically related to curriculum
• Mandatory integration of ICT in all subjects in initial teacher training with the same clear objectives and plans for followup.

Read More

Strategic challenges in E-Learning Nordic 2006

E-learning Nordic 2006 is the first inter-Nordic study specifically focusing on the impact of ICT on key areas in schools in the Nordic region – and the results are positive. Results from E-learning Nordic 2006 show that ICT is a strong tool to support pupil performance, learning and the communication between pupils, teachers, headmasters and parents. However, the results from the study also indicate that the use and impact of ICT is often still random, and that the full potential of ICT as a tool to support better schools has not yet been realised. This could be easily understood if ICT were a new phenomenon in Nordic schools, and that we just had to wait for the impact to show. But this is not the case. The use of ICT in education has been a major focus in the last 10-20 years – both at political and school levels. According to Ramboll Management, E-learning Nordic 2006 reveals that the Nordic school system faces some very crucial and strategic challenges if the full impact of ICT is to be achieved. In this section Ramboll Management will present the five most important strategic challenges that we envision for the Nordic school system in the coming years. The analysis behind these strategic challenges and the recommendations presented are solely the opinion of Ramboll Management. Optimal use of ICT requires organisational implementation If the potential impact of ICT in Nordic schools is to be further realised, school owners and management need to be more professional in their organisational implementation of ICT. Substantial investments in ICT have been made at both regional and local level, but often with no clear criteria for success and no structured monitoring of the benefits. At many schools, the situation can be compared to buying 10 new laptops and not
un-wrapping them. For example, during the last few years a number of schools have invested in Learning Management Systems (LMS) with the ambition of improving education and knowledge-sharing. However, often the investments have not been accompanied by use of the new systems. Though benefits from the implementation of, for example, an LMS cannot be expected from day-one – implementation may take several years – there should still be a clear and continuous focus on harvesting the benefits. It is Ramboll Management’s assessment that such a focus is often lacking.


The same goes for the ability of many schools to benefit from the ICT projects in which teachers and pupils participate. The study shows that even though many schools have participated in ICT
projects, these projects have not had an impact on the general use of ICT at the schools (see Chapter 8). Disseminating and anchoring the best experiences from the projects into daily routines is not ensured.
Return on investment from ICT investments and ICT projects require a commitment to organisational implementation on the part of the school management. They must be visionary enough to initiate and continuously support the use of ICT as a strategic tool for developing the general ambitions of the school. This is so obvious, but still so hard to do in real life: Successful
organisational implementation of ICT is the most important prerequisite for maximum impact of ICT in schools. Most headmasters know this, but they do not have the competences for doing so1. For many years the ICT implementation at school level has been driven by a few committed enthusiasts among teachers, and many Nordic schools can be stated to be on a low maturity level, where ICT is not strategic but something that enthusiasts and the ICT department takes care of. This often results in arbitrary use of ICT at school where ICT is not seen as a part of the general strategy at school level. The study shows that many schools have indeed developed
an ICT strategy (see Chapter 8), but Ramboll Management assesses that in many cases the strategies were developed years ago, they are not linked with other strategies at school and are not widely known among teachers or pupils. Instead ICT needs to be integrated into the schools’ overall strategies and used to support school goals. In this way ICT has the greatest potential to act as a catalyst for change.
Ramboll Management believes that the responsibility of successful organisational mplementation of ICT is in the hands of school management. The management cannot outsource the strategic goals of ICT to a deputy director or some committed enthusiasts among teachers. The successful school managers have understood that ICT implementation needs to be embedded in the core strategic development of the school and that it often contains a great
deal of change management, because the school has to adapt procedures in organisation and administration, co-operation and teaching principles, if the school is to benefit fully from ICT investments. Furthermore the consequences of unsuccessful ICT implementation can be very costly and time consuming. Therefore active leadership regarding ICT must be a core competence in school management. The average school manager in the Nordic countries is not sufficiently competent when it comes to leadership of ICT. There is a need for competence development, ranging from understanding ICT per se, to understanding the pedagogical possibilities in ICT, to understanding how to link ICT implementation to change management.
Ramboll Management believes that national initiatives on leadership within this field will create substantial return on investment.

Read More

Nordic 2006

What characterises teachers who experience the
greatest or the least impact of ICT on pupil performance
and the teaching and learning processes?
What characterises teachers who experience the greatest or the
least impact of ICT on pupil performance and the teaching and
learning processes? To answer that question, Ramboll Management
carried out a cluster analysis grouping the teachers into
three different clusters, each representing a level of impact from
ICT:
• Teachers, who experience no impact of ICT
• Teachers, who experience a moderate impact of ICT
• Teachers, who experience a great positive impact of ICT.
The results of the cluster analysis show that the teachers who experience
a moderate impact of ICT, are the largest group, representing
almost half the teacher population. 30% of the teachers,
experience a great positive impact of ICT and the teachers, who
experience no impact of ICT, constitute the smallest group (23%).
Hence, the great majority of teachers experience a positive impact
of ICT on their pupils’ performances and on the teaching situation.
See Chapter 6 for a presentation of the characteristics of the
teachers in the different clusters.


The impact of ICT on knowledge-sharing, communication
and home-school co-operation

ICT is a very powerful tool, however the use of the tool organisationally
has not yet fully matured. The preconditions for using ICT
for knowledge-sharing, communication and home-school cooperation
are at hand, and ICT is indeed being used for this in
many schools, however the positive impact is as yet only moderate.
• The preconditions for using ICT for knowledge-sharing,
communication and home-school co-operation are in place.
The technical ICT infrastructure (such as computers and
internet) and the organisational ICT tools (such as home
pages and intranets) are available in schools and among
teachers, pupils and parents.
• Many schools, teachers, pupils and parents use the ICT infrastructure
for informational and collaborative purposes.
But the results show that the tools are mostly used for
communication among teachers, while the use of ICT to
support dialogue between teachers and pupils, and to improve
home-school co-operation is more limited.
E-learning Nordic
11
• In spite of high volume of ICT-based communication within
the teaching staff, the positive impact on co-operation and
knowledge-sharing is assessed only to be moderate.
• About 50% of the parents use ICT in their communication
with their children’s school. Generally these parents assess
that the communication with the teachers/school to a large
degree has become easier. However, the parents report
that they only to a moderate degree feel better informed or
find that this dialogue has improved.
• At home, the pupils use ICT as a collaborative tool; they
use e-mail, chat and mobile phones to communicate with
classmates, giving and receiving help when doing their
homework.
• Finally it must be noted as positive that despite the wide
use of ICT to support home-school collaboration, the majority
of teachers and headmasters do not at all or only to
lesser degree perceive that the home-school collaboration
has become more time-consuming.
A more in-depth presentation of the results of the impact of ICT on
knowledge-sharing, communication and home-school co-operation
can be found in Chapter 7.

Conditions for the use of ICT in schools

Conditions at the individual schools are an important factor that
influences the actual use and impact of ICT. However, many of the
results about what makes an impact are based on old data. The Elearning
Nordic 2006 study shows a very interesting development
in terms of the kinds of conditions that have an impact on the use
of ICT.
• Does the ICT infrastructure have an impact on the use of
ICT? Yes it does, according to E-learning Nordic 2006.
• Do written objectives for ICT ensure the integration of ICT?
For many years, much work has been put into the development
of ICT strategies and the majority of schools also
have written ICT strategies. However, this study shows that
no special impact can be seen in schools with written objectives
for ICT compared to the ones without.
• What impact does teachers’ participation in competence development
have? Many resources has been put into developing
the teachers’ ICT competences, however, the study
show that even though two out of three teachers have participated
in competence development regarding ICT within
the last three years, only one in three of these teachers feel
ICT-confident, and no special impact on the use of ICT can
be registered.


• Is ICT used more in schools that have participated in an ICT
project? In many countries, ICT projects have been initiated
to give teachers some hands-on experience with the use of
ICT and inspire others to use it. However, comparing
schools that have participated in ICT projects with those
that have not, there is no difference between how the
teachers and pupils use or experience the impact of ICT.
• What are drivers and barriers for achieving a greater impact
of ICT? This study shows that there is still a great focus on
access to the technology and competence development as
both the drivers and barriers for the integration of ICT.
In Chapter 8, the conditions for effective ICT use in schools are
presented.

Read More

The impact of ICT on pupil performance

The results of this study show that pupils, teachers as well as parents
assess that ICT has a positive impact on improving the pupils’
learning. What then are the areas in which the use of ICT has a
significant impact and where does it have no impact?
• ICT impact is assessed by teachers to be strongest on subject-
related performance.
• Learning basic skills such as reading and writing is another
area where a positive impact of ICT is experienced
• ICT is seen by teachers to be a valuable tool to support differentiation.
The use of ICT to support differentiation also
has a positive impact; this study shows that the majority of
teachers have experienced that ICT has a positive impact
on both academically strong and academically weak pupils.
• Avoiding exclusion is still an issue with the use of ICT in
schools. The study indicates that girls, as well as pupils with
other native languages, are more dependent on learning
ICT at school.
• According to pupils they generally use the computer more
outside school than in school, but there are differences in
what types of ICT competences they learn each place.
Standard office programmes are learned in school, the rest
outside school.


These key results are presented in depth in Chapter 4 ‘Impact of
ICT on pupil performance’.
Impact of ICT on teaching and learning processes
Results from E-learning Nordic 2006 show that ICT generally has a
positive impact on the teaching and learning situation. However,
some people expected that ICT could in some ways revolutionise
the teaching and learning processes at school, and compared with
this view, the impact must be seen as more limited.
• On the average, half of the teachers had used ICT between
1 and 5 hours the week before they answered the questionnaire
• Generally, the pupils would like to use computers more in
school than they do now.
• The results indicate that the pupils and teachers who use
ICT the most are also the ones who experience the greatest
impact.
• Use of stationary computers and internet is firmly rooted in
the school, but new technologies are also getting a foothold.
Digital cameras, mobile phones and chat have entered
the schools. The results indicate that the use of these new
technologies support teachers in differentiating their teaching.
• ICT does not revolutionise teaching methods. The teachers
are mostly focused on using ICT to support the subject content.
• Pupils are far more often consumers than producers when
using ICT, and they work more often individually than together.
• Still, the impact of integrating ICT in teaching can be
measured in pupil engagement, differentiation, creativity
and a less waste of time.
• The impact of ICT is very dependent on how it is used.
• Many headmasters view ICT as a valuable tool for pedagogical
development but fewer actually experience this impact.
In Chapter 5 ‘Impact of ICT on the teaching and learning processes‘,
these results are presented more thoroughly.

Read More

Executive summary in E-learning Nordic 2006

In a partnership between the Finnish National Board of Education,
the Swedish National Agency for School Improvement, the Norwegian
Ministry of Education and Research, the Danish Ministry of
Education, and Ramboll Management, the study E-learning Nordic
2006 has been designed and launched. Ramboll Management is
responsible for the operational implementation of the study and
Ramboll Management is solely responsible for the analysis of the
results and all conclusions presented in this report.
ICT has been introduced into schools during the last 10-20 years,
and while many studies have analysed how ICT is used in schools
and how often, hardly any studies have taken this analysis to the
next level: What is the impact of ICT? By this, an important distinction
is made between ‘output’ and ‘impact’. Output refers to
the direct product of the activities that are carried out, such as
number of new computers purchased, number of lessons using
ICT, etc. Impact refers to the changes brought about by these activities,
in terms of for example improved learning.

The aim of E-learning Nordic 2006 is to discover and document the
impact of ICT on education within three key areas:
• Pupil performance
• Teaching and learning processes
• Knowledge-sharing, communication and home-school cooperation.
Ramboll Management is aware that defining and analysing impact
is no simple matter. There are many interrelated factors that can
have an impact on pupils’ learning, isolating the impact of just one
factor, such as ICT, therefore requires a well-considered approach.
Various methods can be used to measure impact; however they all
have their advantages and disadvantages. Ramboll Management
has chosen a method where different key participants in schools
are asked about their personal experiences using ICT and their
perception of the impact of ICT on the pupils’ learning. This is a
method that makes room for assessing the impact of ICT against
the background of the complex daily situations in school. With this
methodology we do not claim to prove a direct link between the
use of ICT and learning impact. However, by asking those who experience
the impact of ICT, we show how they assess it. This is the
perceived impact of the headmasters, teachers, pupils and the pupils’
parents. It may not be the actual impact, but it is the view
they themselves hold and express about the consequences of using
ICT in schools.
E-learning Nordic
8
Data collection in the study was based on an internet-based survey
conducted among 224 Nordic schools. More than 8000 persons
participated in the survey. Respondents were teachers in the 5th
and 8th grades in primary school and the 11th grade in secondary
school, pupils in all these grades, their parents, as well as the
headmasters at the participating schools. Furthermore, 12 followup
visits to schools in all four Nordic countries were carried out.
The data collection took place primarily in 2005.
Results of the E-learning Nordic 2006 show that ICT has a positive
impact on the schools’ overall target – improving the pupils’ learning.
But the study also indicates that the potential of ICT is not
being fully realised at all schools. The use of ICT as a tool for
pedagogical development is not in focus and the impact of ICT on
knowledge-sharing, communication and home-school co-operation
is only moderate. Below are presented the main results from Elearning
Nordic 2006 within the three key areas.
In the following chapter, we provide Ramboll Management’s assessment
of the strategic challenges facing the Nordic school systems
in the years to come, if the full impact of ICT is indeed to be
realised.

Read More

E-learning Nordic 2006

Preface
The Nordic countries are known as world leaders in the area of ICT
in education. Ever since the early nineties, the Nordic countries
have invested in ICT in the educational sector, based on the strong
belief that the realm of ICT goes far beyond the immediate business
and industry applications, and ICT is seen as an essential cultural
technique which can significantly improve the quality of education.
At the same time, however, there is a lack of measurable
evidence showing the overall impact of ICT on education:
• Do pupils learn more and better with ICT?
• Have any new teaching methods emerged?
• Has home-school co-operation improved thanks to ICT?
These are just some of the many questions which must be asked
when assessing ICT, but until now no Nordic studies have been
undertaken on a more general level to demonstrate the impact of
ICT. Most studies have concentrated on quantitative stocktaking of
the ICT infrastructures in our schools and the number of teachers
trained in the use of ICT. In addition, assessments of the educational
impact of ICT have primarily been conducted with a national
scope, thereby limiting the benefits and synergies that can be
achieved by applying a broader, regional comparative scope.
E-learning Nordic 2006 is the first inter-Nordic study specifically
concentrating on the impact of ICT on education: What has been
the return on investment from the investment in ICT in the Nordic
countries?

It has been a great challenge to develop a methodology that could
show the impact of ICT on a subject as complex as learning. In Elearning
Nordic 2006, the method selected involved asking key
participants about the impact of ICT, based on what they have experienced.
Thus, the results from E-learning Nordic 2006 show the
perceived impact of ICT.
E-learning Nordic 2006 was carried out in Finland, Sweden, Norway
and Denmark. More than 8000 persons (pupils, teachers,
headmasters and parents in primary and secondary schools) have
participated.
E-learning Nordic 2006 establishes a common Nordic framework
for assessing the position of the four participating countries, in relation
to one another, in the area of ICT in education. The Nordic
countries in many respects share the same basic educational philosophy
and the same framework in the educational systems. However,
there are naturally also important differences among the
countries. These similarities and differences offer a unique potential
for mutual learning and adaptation of new ideas and approaches.
This study has revealed results that will be valuable input to
strategies and action plans for the years to come. The results of
the study will also be brought into a wider European dialogue on
how schools, teachers, and learners can benefit from the use of
ICT in education.
The E-learning Nordic 2006 study has been designed and launched
as a partnership between the Finnish National Board of Education,
the Swedish National Agency for School Improvement, the Norwegian
Ministry of Education and Research, the Danish Ministry of
Education, and Ramboll Management.
Ramboll Management is responsible for the operational implementation
of the study and Ramboll Management is solely responsible
for the analysis of the results and all conclusions presented in this
report.
Ramboll Management
www.ramboll-management.com

Read More

Internet Security - Technology

According to a variety of attacks and security issues, I list some types of techniques that strengthen Internet Security.

1. Encryption.
Encryption is also known as cryptography. It is about encoding our data or data packages with a code or cipher. The famous Morse code is an early and simple encryption method which is created for electric telegraph by Samuel Morse in 1830s. Because charges of telegraph based on length of messages, common phrases were encoded in five letters that stood for a single word. Examples: BYOXO means “Are you trying to crawl out of it?”, and AYYLU means “Not clearly coded, repeat more clearly.” Morse code is just like binary code in computer technology. Of course with the development of Internet, Morse code is obsolete. But the idea of data encryption is used in computer network nowadays. Encryption can protect our data even though packages are captured by hackers. And there are mainly two types of encryption: symmetric and asymmetric . Symmetric cryptography is an encryption method in which both the sender and receiver use the same key to encode or decode. For example, Data Encryption Standard (DES) that uses 56-bit keys to encode is a symmetric encryption. However, symmetric cryptography has its limitation that key management has to use the keys securely since it is the same key to encode and decode. Asymmetric cryptography which uses different keys to encode and decode does not have such limitation. In this method, two different but related keys are used, a public key and a private key. The public key is published and the private key that would never leave the senders is kept secret, so it can avoid the problems of exchanging keys.


2. Firewall.
When we talk about firewall, the most common word in Internet Security terminology, it can be either hardware or software firewall. A firewall’s basic function is to separate the trust areas and control the traffic between different areas. And this kind of traffic control is bidirectional, which means it can not only block the unsecured traffic from the public network but also block the private network from using unauthorized web resources. For example, many companies use firewalls to prevent their employees viewing web pages not related to their work. Of course, firewalls can block transfer protocols as well as block data. Most universities such as Aberdeen University make their firewalls block all P2P software transfer protocol. On the other hand, personal firewalls are widely used by most of private users, such as Norton and the firewall build-in Window XP. Such anti-virus software can help Internet users keep away from hackers’ attacks efficiently.

3. Digital Certificate.
Digital Certificate is also known as public key certificate or identity certificate. It is a useful technique of Internet applications. And X.590 is the Internet standard of digital certificate. A certificate includes a public key with a digital signature of a trusted third party or a Certificate Authority (CA). Besides the public key, a certificate should also have a name that refers to a person or a computer or an organization, a validity period due to which certificates can be revoked, and a location of a revocation center. It is important for users to check the certificate’s validity at times, and this can be done by two ways. One is comparing it with a Certificate Revocation List, and the other is using Online Certificate Status Protocol to check the validity. If there is any related private key has been compromised or certificate found incorrect, the certificate should be revoked.

4. Secure Socket Layer
Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is “a cryptographic protocol which provides secure communications on the Internet for such things as web browsing, e-mail, Internet faxing, and other data transfers.” SSL is the most famous encryption type that encrypts data within TCP/IP. It is just like a secure tunnel that connects the web clients and severs. All traffics in the tunnel are encoded, and the authentication and the integrity of the data will be checked at both entrance and exit of the tunnel. Early days, because the U.S. government restricted the export of encryption technique, SSL used 40-bit length symmetric keys which are easily broken by brute-force attack to encode. A few years later, new implementations use more than 128-bit to encode instead of the 40-bit keys. This absolutely strengthens the security of SSL.

5. Network Security Scan.
Network Security Scanning is technology that can help network administrators know the vulnerabilities of the system thus reduce the Internet Security risk. There is a lot of such scanning software in the Internet Security market. And these products are mainly divided into four types . The first type is remote networking security scan. This kind of software can check and analyze the holes of the system. In fact, most hackers use this software as well to find the holes to attack. The second type is firewall system scan. The software provides the firewall configuration scan and operating system scan. The third one is website security scan. The security of CGI applications that run on websites is a primary threat to Internet Security. And website security scan can recover the secure holes by detecting web services, CGI applications and web configurations. The last type is system security scan. It scans the target host’s system configuration and reports the vulnerabilities of the system.

6. Intrusion Detection.
It is also called networking real-time monitoring. It uses software or hardware to detect the network traffics and compares the data flow to the intrusion features database. For example, Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is a system that performs the detection automatically. Once the system discovers an intrusion-like object, it will log the relevant information to a database and send an alert to administrator. However, the intrusion detection is good at discovering intrusion rather than preventing intrusion. So we should combine the intrusion detection with firewall technology to realize the Internet Security.

Internet Security - Legislation
Legislation is an effective means to fight against Internet crime. It can help us not only protect our private data, but also improve our public data accessing. Although security technology often keeps us away from being attack, it can not always work as well as we expect. When the loss has already been caused by hacking, technical things can do nothing with the crime. However, we could use law to punish the criminals and to reduce the loss by fines. Examples : the creator of virus ‘Melissa’ was sentenced to 20 months in Federal Prison and faced 150,000 dollars fine; the Russian man who hacked into computers in U.S. was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 48 months, to be followed by three years of supervised release in 2003. Maybe the fines can not cover the loss caused by hacking, but the legislation related to Internet Security does limit the ascending trends of Internet crime.

There are some important Acts we should know about. The first one is the Computer Misuse Act 1990. It was designed to prevent hackers and defined as “An Act to make provision for securing computer material against unauthorized access or modification; and for connected purposes.” In this Act, computer misuse offences and jurisdiction were defined. The second one is Data Protection Act 1998 which is “An Act to make new provision for the regulation of the processing of information relating to individuals, including the obtaining, holding, use or disclosure of such information.” This Act defined sensitive data and introduced the data protection principles. The data protection mainly protects private data such as credit card information held by a third party. The last Act introduced is Freedom of Information Act 2000 defined as “An Act to make provision for the disclosure of information held by public authorities or by persons providing services for them and to amend the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Public Records Act 1958; and for connected purposes.” This Act is different from the previous two as it gains the rights of users to access the public resources.

Read More

IVT News

IT predictions for 2009
Fri, Nov 14 2008

By Jonathan Oxer, IVT Technical Director

On Tuesday I participated in a panel session to discuss the future of IT and, in particular, what the hot topics will be for 2009. You know the deal: a bunch of "experts" sit in front of an audience and make grandiose statements about what technology will look like in 5 or 10 years, and you just know that in retrospect the predictions will either look obvious (if they came true) or naive (if they didn't).


This particular session was pretty interesting though because it maintained focus on the present and the near future, not some indeterminate point over the horizon that nobody can really see. It was about the issues facing businesses and consumers right now, and the issues they are likely to face in just a few months or a year.

Being part of these sorts of events can be a bit odd at times though. Because so much of my time these days is spent looking at the latest trends and investigating emerging technologies (or even creating them in the first place) I tend to live so far ahead of the bleeding edge that the knife blade is behind me somewhere trying to catch up, and I sometimes feel embarrassed raising issues that I feel are quite passe and so "last week" and then I'm surprised when other people think they're new and exciting. That's not to try to make myself sound good: it's just to highlight the huge variation across society in the uptake of technology. As William Gibson once said, "the future is already here, it's just not widely distributed yet".

Some of the things people are doing with technology right now may seem like science fiction, but it's not fantasy: it's reality, just a reality that isn't widely distributed yet. For example, my letterbox has a network connection and an IP address so my home automation system can be notified when the postman drops by, and my car is connected wirelessly to the internet so my mechanic can use their web browser to interrogate my engine management system and run diagnostics in real time - while the car is hundreds of kilometers away driving down the road. And I have an RFID microchip implanted in my arm so I can unlock my front door just by waving my arm near it and don't have to carry keys. Right now I'm working on a device that will detect when I leave the loungeroom so it can pause the TV automatically, then if I walk into another room with a TV it will transfer the program across to it and continue playing from the paused position without me doing a thing. The TV show (or music, or movie, or video phone call, or weather data feed, or news headlines) can just follow me around the house.

As I said, this sort of thing may sound like science fiction but it's reality for some people already. Predicting the near future therefore is really just a matter of paying very close attention to what the thought-leaders are doing, because in many cases what they are experimenting with right now is what will become reality for everyone else just a little bit down the track.

So let's cover some of the topics the panel discussed.

Cloud computing. This is one of the hot buzzwords in IT right now, and like many others it's very poorly defined. Just about everything about cloud computing has been done in some shape or form for decades, but now that a trendy label has been tacked on there's a sense of hype about it and just about every tech vendor is trying to find a way to associate themselves with the term. The general premise of cloud computing is that low-level computer resources (processor time, storage, memory, etc, and even software) can be abstracted away into a vast pool of resources that you don't need to manage directly: it just becomes something you have available "on tap" when you need it, and you turn off the tap when you're finished with it. Instead of building, deploying and managing servers directly, it enables "virtualised" servers to be created and destroyed on demand very rapidly. You don't need to care what hardware your server runs on, or even what data center it's in. You just click a few buttons and a minute later you have a server running for you to use, and when you're done you just kill it off. Amazon is one of the best known providers of this sort of technology with EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud), where you can create as many servers as you like and pay for them on an hourly basis instead of buying them yourself. Instead of thinking about server cost as something that involves high up-front establishment fees and deployment delays and asset depreciation over several years, a server is just something you create for a couple of hours and pay 10 cents / hour to use. Want to run 1000 servers for a few hours for a big computational task? No problem, it'll cost you $100 / hour. No up front costs, and when you're done you just "delete" them. Much better than paying to buy, install, and configure 1000 actual servers yourself! The concept of the "cloud" applies at all levels of computing, too. For example, when you use a web application like Flickr or Gmail or Slideshare you don't care about installing the software or maintaining it. That all happens out "in the cloud". You just use it when you want it and don't think about it when you don't.

Broadband internet. The funny thing is that when this topic came up there was a collective groan from the panel because we're all tired of talking about it. It's been a sore point for years, and none of us see anything changing any time soon. It'll continue to be slower and more expensive than elsewhere in the world. Telstra will continue bickering with the other providers and the government about wholesale rates and anti-competitive behavior. Same-old same-old. Yawn.

Clean feed. In case you haven't heard about it (and it's surprising how many haven't given the potential impact of the proposal), the Australian federal government is actively pursuing a plan to censor the internet by forcing all ISPs to filter out unwanted content before it gets to end users. Under their plan it will be illegal for an ISP to provide a direct connection to the internet: all connections (not just domestic, *all*) will be filtered and an undefined list of "unwanted" websites and web services blocked. What's more, it will be illegal for the ISPs who are forced to do the filtering to reveal which sites are being blocked. They will simply stop being accessible with no explanation. What a stupid idea! From a freedom-of-speech viewpoint it's dumb because they will be able to censor anything they like without explanation. It starts with the obvious stuff that nobody can argue against (kiddy-porn), then extends to other adult content and gambling sites, then ... who knows? Any site considered to provide information of use to terrorists, even if it's of general interest? Personal blogs that criticise government policy? Wikipedia, because it contains articles about sexual health and maybe an unsupervised child using a computer might come across it? Where does it end? But even laying aside the social reasons that censorship is a bad idea, from a technical point of view it's totally ridiculous. Ask any tech-savvy computer user about whether government-imposed censorship of the internet will work and they'll laugh in your face. They'll point to projects like TOR (The Onion Router, a project to allow political activists and journalists in repressive regimes to bypass national-level filters and connect anonymously to the internet so they can't be tracked down by the secret police). They'll point out that a simple VPN connection to a server in another country provides an encrypted tunnel that the government-imposed filters can't see into, and through that tunnel you can access anything in the world without them even knowing what you're looking at. They'll point out that many protocols used on the internet now use encryption and it's impossible to see what's passing through it: think of SSL certificates for online credit card transactions, which could just as easily be used by a kiddy-porn ring to prevent the filters seeing what's being transferred - but the government can't ban SSL, because then all online commerce in Australia (including online banking) would cease to operate overnight! And even if they did become totally draconian and ban all encryption and block access to all but a few selected "family-friendly" websites and throw us back into the dark ages, it still wouldn't have the slightest impact on access to porn which (presumably) is the whole point of the project. Porn and illegal content would just be transferred by email instead. *Encrypted* email, that can't be inspected. Summary: worthy (so far) intentions, but a totally ridiculous plan. It won't work, it can't work, and the government should stop wasting our money and give up on the idea right now before they make themselves look even more stupid.

The internet of things. The examples of "the future here right now" I mentioned earlier are examples of this, which is basically the concept that in time every single device will end up connected to the internet somehow. Early products such as overpriced and useless internet fridges (really just a fridge with a laptop molded into the door) have given the concept a bad name, but the phenomenon has now gained critical mass as the incremental cost to manufacturers drops. It now only costs in the order of $2 to $5 for a manufacturer to add a network connection to an appliance so it can use your home broadband connection to increase its intelligence. You can buy an alarm clock that connects to the internet to play online radio stations and display the news headlines and stock prices on its touch screen when you wake up (www.chumby.com). You can buy an umbrella that uses a wireless internet connection to download local weather data and tell you as you walk out the door whether you need to take it with you or not (www.ambientdevices.com). TVs have internet connections so they can download program guide data. And as I mentioned previously, my letterbox has an ethernet connection so it can report when mail has been delivered. Soon there will be cat doors which connect to your home automation system to tell you whether your cat is inside or outside, and let you automatically prevent it leaving the house after dark. Eventually none of this will seem exotic or far-fetched: it will simply be *assumed* that every object around you is part of a huge mesh of information constantly being updated and commands being sent. Devices that aren't part of that mesh will seem as old-fashioned as kerosene-powered refrigerators.

Windows Vista. The consensus of the panel was that Vista has been largely bypassed as a technology. Take-up has been pathetic, with many businesses preferring to stick with XP until the next version of Windows (Windows 7) is released and never migrating to Vista at all. Even Microsoft themselves have made statements that they expect many businesses to totally bypass Vista and hang on to XP until Windows 7 comes out. Vista is now gaining traction in domestic use largely because it's extremely difficult to buy a computer without it bundled in, but in the corporate environment it basically doesn't exist. MacOS and Linux continue to slowly grow in popularity, but the underlying message from the panel was that in the long run it really doesn't matter what happens with desktop operating systems because they're becoming less relevant by the day. As more of the day to day tasks we do with computers move "into the cloud" as web applications that can be accessed using a variety of devices from your desktop computer to your mobile phone to your TV, nobody will really care much what operating system your computer runs. The operating system will become just a hardware abstraction layer to deliver cloud-based applications to your screen. Eventually we'll care about the OS about as much as you probably care right now about the BIOS in your computer, or the firmware in your network card. It'll be there just to allow other stuff to run and you won't think twice about what flavor it is.

Identity management. Right now you probably have either a huge list of usernames and passwords for all the sites you use, or you use the same username and password on every site (a very bad idea, by the way - what happens if any one of those sites is hacked and all the usernames / passwords is exposed? Whoever gets them can log in as you into all the other services you use, of course!). Technologies like OpenID provide a good basis for solving that problem but have taken a while to gain critical mass. The prediction by the panel is that identity management systems will continue to grow in importance because it touches just about every aspect of what we do online, from logging in to Flickr to entering into online contracts. The lack of strong identity management is even what allows spam to exist. If all email senders were verified, spam would cease to exist. The panel didn't see a magic-bullet solution, but it is certainly a topic to watch in the near future.

Social networking. This was another topic that brought a collective sigh from the panel because we're all sick of talking about it. A comment was made that many businesses allowed access to Facebook and other social networking sites for a while just to keep their gen-Y staff from whining too much, but then discovered that there's not much point having happy staff if they spend all their time chatting online about the party last weekend rather than doing actual work. The result in the last 12 months has been a big backlash against social networking in business, with many social networking sites now blocked at the corporate firewall. The agreement was that from a business perspective the important thing is not so much the social aspect like getting in touch with long-lost school friends, the real benefit is using social networking as the framework for collaboration inside virtual workspaces. We want to be able to create ad-hoc project teams bound together via a social networking infrastructure, and share documents and resources transparently within the context of projects so everyone is kept in the loop. That will all come, and very soon.

Government policy. Right at the end as we were running out of time the panel was asked what IT-related advice we would have for the government. Ditching the "Clean Feed" censorship project was the #1 item mentioned, of course. My suggestion was that the government should kill off the remaining technology commercialisation grants that are still hanging around because all they do is provide a good soundbite ("State Government commits $120M to the local ICT industry!" right before an election) but then most of the funds are soaked up within the bureaucracy and paying "consultants" and very little of it gets into the hands of the innovators who could use it to, you know, actually build the local ICT industry. Instead it would be better to look at successful schemes overseas in places like Canada, where a percentage of superannuation funds are invested into start-up ventures which are also provided with advice and assistance to get themselves ready for investment. Most ICT-related government initiatives at the moment are about helping us be technology consumers rather than technology producers, which is not a good long-term strategy if we still want to call ourselves "the clever country".

Whew, an epic email today!

I'd love to hear *your* predictions about where you think technology will take us in the next 12 months, so if you have a great idea bouncing around in your head please let me know at jon@ivt.com.au. In fact, to up the ante a little I'll send your choice of any one of my books to the person who comes up with the most interesting prediction.

Cheers :)

Jonathan Oxer
Technical Director
Internet Vision Technologies

Read More