Stephen Downes

The Learning Federation, a collaboration of ten governments in Australia and New Zealand, explores options for collaboration beyond 2005 and adduces four major criteria:

CRLF
• continuing online curriculum content procurement and distributionCRLF
• embedding online content in the practices of schoolsCRLF
• a national vision about schooling for the future andCRLF
• commitment to a range of policies and programs to support the vision.

That said, the paper reflects issues in how this development should proceed. "There are tensions, and at times conflict, in the understandable desire of schooling arms of governments to gain immediate local financial return on money invested in content developed for their schools. At the same time other arms of the same governments are working to develop viable commercial industries in multi-media, with export potential, pursuing policies that restrict government activity to core business."