Education in New Zealand 2012

Foresight is a creative idea that enables a person to never be wrong when thinking about a world that is yet to be created, it is this notion that provides technicians at Apple, Google and Microsoft the ability to think of the unthinkable.

So what will education in New Zealand be like in 2012, will it be the same as now or will it be a different world? One thing is certain, fibre optic wiring should have been laid throughout the major cities linking consumers at home and at school together with the rest of the world.

Now that this has been achieved we can finally begin to enjoy the richness of the internet and its true capabilities, streamed conferences with multiple people in opposite parts of the globe, classrooms engaged in discussion and debate about the latest topics and sharing their ideas not only to the classroom peers but a streaming feed to selected classes throughout the country and world.

Infrastructure within schools will be wired with fibre optics with a direct linkage to the Ministry of Education's server located in a secure basement in Wellington. On this massive server information once kept within a school is migrated to here, that is: information on students' grades, teachers' files and students' learning.

With this massive cost exported to the Ministry of Education, cash strapped schools are now able to promote IT usage within their schools. But what about the aging computers in the ICT laboratories?

These computers would be virtual, similar to the thin client principle, thus meaning no moving parts on the computer = no need to upgrade or replace the computer- ever, even if a new operating system is released.

This transition is occurring as we speak, Tertiary Institutions have made the first jump into this new world and the contract was given to Datacom.

Who knows, perhaps with this new world ahead we could have students from our schools finding their foresight ideas are needed in companies such as Google, Apple and Microsoft.