Fashion Forum

Kevin Rudd tells 3AWs Neil Mitchell today he doesnt know:

1. If unions have donated $30 million to his campaign.

2. If Mark Latham was invited to his launch.

I think Rudd isnt telling the truth.

Bad news for the ALP's education plan;

The Australian Council for Educational Research found that not only did all students already have access to a computer at school, but there was no guarantee that using computers would raise standards.

ACERs Monograph 62 states: The relationship between student performance and access to computers is ambiguous.

Two German researchers, Thomas Fuchs and Ludger Woessmann, made a similar point after analysing the results of an international test for 15-year-old students organised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The availability of computers at school is unrelated to student performance, they stated.

A US government-funded study into the impact of IT on student learning - in particular, the effectiveness of software products used to teach reading and mathematics - also throws doubt on Rudds enthusiastic embrace of the digital age. The US report states: Test scores are not significantly higher in classrooms using selected reading and mathematics software products.

What does everyone thing of the whole promise of computers for students? I personally don't think access to computers is where education is failing... how about some basic literacy, and discipline!

100% full time access to a computer (or a 1:1 ratio) would only lessen the educational experience, not enhance it. How many kids leave school in this day and age and can't use a computer? Look at those statistics, and compare them to grammar, manners, values, and other educational benchmarks. I think you'll find computer literacy is fine, and there's little to be gained from wasting money on already out of date computers.

Possibly the worst part of the policy is that the money put aside for it is horribly inadequate, meaning it could never be met anyway.

Well really that just means kids will spend more times on sites like Fashionising while at school, come on kids join you know all the cool kids are doing it.

my little sister went to one of those snobby schools where all the kids had a laptop and guess what- same grades at schools where they didnt all have laptops and msn/facebook/myspace allllll day! and kids know how to use computers. better than you do...

on a brighter note, wnet for dinner with a friend last night (grew up with a single parent, relied heavily on centrelink and works for the government) and got called a stupid capitalist elitist conservative who wishes all poor people were dead. it seems everything is back in perspective now and iv decided i may as well vote liberal due to the fact that, lets face it, us elitist f**ks know thats how we get a stable economy which means we keep all our silver platters off which we have always been fed. blegh. and this is why i hate people with "broke syndrome".

I hate the "broke" and "Aussie battler" syndromes, work hard and 90% of the time you'll have success. Few people who make it get the silver spoon in their mouth when they're born, they work all hours God sent and then get to enjoy it (the late 'Crazy John' as an example). Yet the two syndromes (part of the tall poppy syndrome unique to Australia and New Zealand) dictate that such people should be pulled down.

agreed. sure i have some things easy. but i do work 11, 12, 13 hour days. i work saturdays. i do a ton of charity work too. my parents may have money now but my dad used to sweep streets in dublin to support himself through university. my moms whole family lived in an apartment smaller than her current bedroom and she put herself through medical school and her brother through aeronautical engineering. when the parents first got married they couldn't buy a car and so dad bought a bike and mom used to sit on the handlebars to get a lift to the hospital.

i guess my point is if you want something, work your ass off and you will get it, but dont blame people who have already had to work their asses off and think the world is out to get you. and it pisses me off to realise that the majority of people here would prefer a government who will pull down these people who have worked hard and raise up those who are not prepared to work hard, and would rather bitch and moan.

Post by ruru

and it pisses me off to realise that the majority of people here would prefer a government who will pull down these people who have worked hard and raise up those who are not prepared to work hard, and would rather bitch and moan.

That's the nature of the left since Whitlam.

Annabel Crabb finds a fresh example of Chameleon Rudds work, to add to the most famous:

For one thing, Rudd has found new ways to describe the intersection between his faith and his politics. To wit: I am an old-fashioned Christian socialist (February 7, 2003, The Australian Financial Review).

I am not a socialist. I have never been a socialist and I never will be a socialist (December 14, 2006, The Age).

Its a unity ticket, but I never resigned from Rome - Rudd, explaining how it is that he was raised a Catholic but now worships as an Anglican (November 5, 2005, Good Weekend).

That last line is one hes used to a Catholic audience, naturally. To an Anglican one hed be an Anglican, of course.