Towards a 21st century national software infrastructure for education

• Andrew Williams, Geoff Hendrick
• Education.au

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14 December 2009Several significant current trends are providing strong imperatives for Australian policy makers to seriously consider Australia’s national software infrastructure for education, including the 21st century learning agenda, issues of equity and social inclusion, Australia’s innovation, collaboration and productivity agendas, and the constant emergence of new technologies. This investigation develops the case for acceleration of Australia’s progress towards a 21st century education software infrastructure.

The report presents analyses of the policy drivers outlined above and of the current state of Australia’s national education software infrastructure. On the basis of those analyses, recommendations are made for actions that will accelerate the development of Australia’s education software infrastructure towards a situation in which the policy drivers identified are addressed, and emerging issues and agendas can be more efficiently tackled in future.

Australia’s federation is a key consideration for policy makers in education, and recommendations from this investigation are appropriately framed to build on work already carried out in the states and territories.

This investigation is one of the series commissioned by the Australian Government’s Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) as part of the Strategic ICT Advisory Service (SICTAS) project.