Comments on: Software in Schools http://www.jonathandavis.me.uk/2007/01/09/software-in-schools/ Books, Politics, Free Software... and other going's on.. Mon, 05 Jul 2010 18:39:15 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: JonathanDavis.me.uk » Blog Archive » Tory’s Want Open Source http://www.jonathandavis.me.uk/2007/01/09/software-in-schools/comment-page-1/#comment-3 JonathanDavis.me.uk » Blog Archive » Tory’s Want Open Source Thu, 08 Mar 2007 18:47:52 +0000 http://www.jonathandavis.me.uk/?p=4#comment-3 [...] very encouraging to be hearing this kind of talk from the Conservatives, in addition to the EDM tabled by Liberal Democrat MP John Pugh in November, there seems so be much more awareness of Open [...] [...] very encouraging to be hearing this kind of talk from the Conservatives, in addition to the EDM tabled by Liberal Democrat MP John Pugh in November, there seems so be much more awareness of Open [...]

]]> By: Karl Orbell http://www.jonathandavis.me.uk/2007/01/09/software-in-schools/comment-page-1/#comment-2 Karl Orbell Tue, 06 Mar 2007 19:29:12 +0000 http://www.jonathandavis.me.uk/?p=4#comment-2 Having worked in a school, both as an IT Manager and sort of as a teacher, I'd say that the students do really need to be trained in Microsoft Office primarily on a Windows-based system, as opposed to an open source alternative. The purpose of the IT education is to prepare them for exactly what they'll encounter in outer world, particularly in business and that means the Microsoft platform - unfortunate though that may be. Whilst I'm a huge advocate of open source, I would not advocate using it for teaching at a school level. The main issue from the schools point of view is cost, particularly as students need to use Access to meet the curiculum requirements, which is not included in Student/Teacher packages and it should be. Microsoft should sort this out, and provide their software free to schools, and improve their student/teacher home offerings - that would take care of the problems. Having worked in a school, both as an IT Manager and sort of as a teacher, I’d say that the students do really need to be trained in Microsoft Office primarily on a Windows-based system, as opposed to an open source alternative.

The purpose of the IT education is to prepare them for exactly what they’ll encounter in outer world, particularly in business and that means the Microsoft platform – unfortunate though that may be.

Whilst I’m a huge advocate of open source, I would not advocate using it for teaching at a school level. The main issue from the schools point of view is cost, particularly as students need to use Access to meet the curiculum requirements, which is not included in Student/Teacher packages and it should be. Microsoft should sort this out, and provide their software free to schools, and improve their student/teacher home offerings – that would take care of the problems.

]]>