1) A breakthrough for e-mentoring?

The government has announced that it wants to see broadband access for all students in their homes http://politics.guardian.co.uk/publicservices/story/0,,2235297,00.html the existing digital divide being illustrated by this article in the Observer http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jan/06/retail.internet?gusrc=rss&feed=technology

I’m sorry to start the New Year negatively, but some government policy initiatives are just so dumb all that can be done is to watch open mouthed and try to guess how the failure will be handled, this is one of them.

There are of course many ways in which every home could be connected to the internet and that would be a good thing. Unfortunately, be it wireless or cable, it is the running costs of the connection, not the installation cost that is the problem. Commercial suppliers are in intense competition for profitable customers, no-one is going to want to be supplier of choice to disadvantaged families living in poverty. This problem could be overcome by implementing a policy of universal and free at the point of use internet connections for all homes in the UK. Of course, the cost would have to be met out of national or local taxation, something which this junior education minister is not in a position to decide and as it would drive the all important ‘middle England’ to foam at the mouth – ‘council tax to pay for immigrant scroungers free internet porn’: it isn’t going to happen.

So, with a morbid fascination, all we can do is to try and speculate how the inevitable utter failure of this initiative will be handled? My bet is that home access will be redefined as ‘easy’ access, which will mean a local library or school. Yes, that should do the trick!

Most ill thought-out policy initiatives of this kind are quietly allowed to disappear; remember Gordon Brown’s computers for disadvantaged families’ scheme? Unfortunately, this one will have a long term negative effect, because part of the policy will be implemented; that of schools having to make student educational performance available through the internet. Consequently, the division between the connected and the unconnected will become even more profound, as the relatively advantaged will have improved access to near real-time information about their child’s educational progress and have a mechanism for direct and continuous communication to teachers and schools. The upshot will be that those without a home connection will be even more disadvantaged than they are now. This initiative will have the exact opposite effect of what is being intended: it will deepen the divide between the haves and the have-not’s.