Learning with the Fang

People who know me understand that I am a proud South Australian who hates the ugliness left behind by over-enthusiastic acts of economic rationalism.  Especially when when they are short sighted.

So, today, I am pissed off.

Because of the news in THIS post from Graham Wegner:

It has been officially announced that South Australia’s world renowned centre for innovation and training for ICT in education, Technology School Of the Future (generally referred to by most teachers as TSOF) is to be closed and moved from its base at Hindmarsh.

Not because I am one of the consultants mentioned in Graham’s post (I have already, and would happily continue to provide my services free of charge for events that make effective use of the world class facility and communications infrastructure).

Not because significant online events need a physical locus like TSOF (for example my podcast of Sir Professor Harry Kroto’s ‘BuckyBalls Downunder’, or the fantastic ‘Blogging Masterclass’).

Not even because this is the place where MY CHILDREN learned to make ‘iMovies’ (even though my house is choc-a-block full of digital audio and video production gear).

But because of the potential demise of one of South Australia’s SPECIAL SECRETS which typify successful working of the competitive advantage our little town has in the global information economy.  Sure, we still have our relaxed and enjoyable lifestyle, low cost of living (and doing business) and plenty of bandwidth over which to be internationally competitive BUT… We need to hang on to every world-class asset we have in order to nurture the heat or critical mass they provide. 

Our assets of small scale could become a liability if we keep cutting costs and ’scatter the heatbeads’ from the barbecue.  Then who is going to give a rats arse about investing in our little town?  And we will have to eat cold uncooked rat!

Not happy Jan(e)

Fang – Mike Seyfang

p.s. I didn’t post this last night because I wanted to make sure there was some ‘official’ word on the TSOF closure outside of Graham’s post and the newspaper column it quotes.  So I did some google and technorati searches and eventually found this official news release.  It is so heavily spun that it took three reads to pick up the phrases ‘building on programs previously offered at the Technology School of the Future at Hindmarsh’, ‘The centre’s activities will be refocussed next year to…‘, ‘Nine staff members will become part of a team delivering technology programs across the State‘ which add significant weight to the hearsay doing the rounds. 

On the funny side, try searching for ‘tsof’ on the official ministerial site!!! – the number on hit relating to prescription of viagra type drugs to a notorious local kinda sums it all up – economic rationalism has cut so deep in this State that we are choking innovation, our education and health systems are cracking at the seams and we can’t even afford a decent ministerial website!  As Peter Allen says in his contribution to this google group discussion:

This is a  blow.   Will the last person leaving Adelaide please switch off the lights?

Ministerial Contact Details:

via
http://www.ministers.sa.gov.au/

Education

8226 1205
minedcs@saugov.sa.gov.au

Premier

8463 3166
premier@saugov.sa.gov.au

technorati tags:tsof