Laptops, Bill Gates and UNESCO

Submitted by "Dayspring". . .

Lt. Governor Patrick Quinn has been appearing on radio programs this week promoting his program to put a laptop computer in the hands of every 7th and 8th grade student by August of next year.  The purpose would basically be to replace textbooks.
Quinn said  legislation will be proposed in January which would authorize this purchase and the $50 million needed would come from the small percent of the sales tax kept by the merchants for collecting the state sales tax.
Are 7th and 8th grade students mature enough to respect an expensive  laptop computer they have gotten so easily?  A lot of adults would love the luxury of a laptop, but it is outside their budget.  But then we should never say no because after all, "it is for the children."

Parents now have the opportunity to look at the textbooks their children bring home, but with laptops it would be more difficult to review the whole text of the curriculum.
Bill Gates recently signed an agreement with the United Nations Education,Scientific and Cultural Organization for education, teacher training, curriculum and assessments.    The agreement is to meet the goals of UNESCO worldwide and is  "for every country and community."

No longer will it take a village to raise your child, but the United nations will make him/her a global citizen.   In 2003, the United State joined UNESCO knowing their intent was to design the educational curriculum worldwide. 

A Sept. 29, 2003 headline from France read: "UNESCO-US-Bush-France: Laura Bush marks US return to UNESCO, meets Chirac during busy Paris visit." 

The agreement by Bill Gate's Microsoft with UNESCO, and the issuance to students of  laptop computers, which will no doubt contain United Nations (UNESCO) curriculum,  makes it very apparent that not even the local school board will have a voice in curriculum choice if this legislation passes.

Comments

[Tom Bookler]

Lieutenant Governor Patrick Quinn I-Connect Initiative
Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn is proposing a laptop initiative for the state of Illinois. The I-Connect Initiative is proposed to provide a personal laptop computer for all 169,000 seventh grade students in Illinois public schools. HB 5244 (click here) has been introduced for this initiative. Kathleen Molloy, DuPage County Learning Technology Director, Tom Bookler, Assistant DuPage County Regional Superintendent and several Illinois Computing Educators executive board members met with the Lieutenant Governor’s staff this week to discuss the impact that this bill will have on our schools.

Part of the bill - "Section 20. I-Connect Computer Technology Advisory Board" creates an Advisory board. My recommendation is that the Govornor/LT Governor considers appointment of representation from the Regional Office of Education and/or the Learning Technology Centers. It was explained to me by Ted and Steve (LT Gov Advisors) that they were looking at doing an RFP for the training of this initiative. I suggested that it be organized through either the Learning Technology Centers, Regional Offices of Education, or Illinois Computing Educators (ICE) since they have experience with rolling out professional development of this magnitude.

Personal thoughts:
There are a lot of concerns with this bill - funding being number one. Also, it says that " ISBE shall contract with only one vendor for portable computers for program recipients, but may contract the purchase of with more than one company for technical support and professional development. - Am not sure if that excludes ROE's and LTC's. And last but not least there would be a negative impact on technical support at the local level and not to mention the negative impact that will occur on forcing districts to pick up a platform other than what the district/school is currently utilizing.
The GOOD SIDE OF THIS BILL is that someone is finally looking at Technology in Illinois and the need for Technology to come 'front and center' as a focus in our schools.