No digital strategy for Canada

Just clearing my desk and came across a few items that are worth a mention that I didn’t get round to before. I’m doing a short post on each one.

Wolchak, P. (2012) Canadians are not getting a digital economy strategy Backbonemag.com, November/December

Peter Wolchak is the editor of Backbone Magazine published by the Globe and Mail. In his editorial, he berates the Conservative government’s failure to develop a national digital economy strategy. Basically the federal Conservative government is leaving it all to the private sector.

Wolchak states:

This is a mistake….Canada has dropped in every international study ranking competitiveness and ICT excellence. In other words, what we are doing isn’t working’.

He compares Canada to Nigeria, Malaysia and the European Union, which all have clear national or regional goals, targets and strategies for ICT development. This of course is critical for online learning in Canada. Without a strong and fast developing infrastructure and policies for ensuring equitable access to the Internet, online learning will continue to be restricted to those who already have economic and social advantages. Online learning needs to be a part of any national digital strategy. This way, we might even get to know how many online students there are in Canada, which we don’t at the moment.