Hi All, too,
It has been suggested that the relationship between some exam board syllabuses and certain Microsoft products is not in the interest of fair competition. In my involvement with schoolforge.org.uk I have been asked to investigate this and see if there is grounds for a complaint to the Offiice of Fair Trading. ---snip --- Further, if anyone has suggestions or other examples of this relationship please mail me? I'm aware that if all the messages hit this list then it could be overwhealming - I will either post a summary or try to collate them on the web in some way.
I was at Warlingham School (Secondary and sixth form) from Jan 2000 to Dec 2001. I was told that the school had to have MS on the desktop and servers (Novell, Linux and one NT for Admin) because the LEA demanded that we use the "standard" software and the senior IT curriculum could only be achieved using MSAccess - although any other rdmbs could be used, some aspects of the curriculum were only relevant under MS. We could not adopt non MS desktop products (e.g. Star/Open Office) because, although it worked brilliantly, it was "not what they [the students] will meet in the real world." and on the back of that comment was that the LEA support was unable to support any non-MS system including Novell. I demonstrated terminal server (LTSP) to staff and students and those who saw it (except the head of IT) were sold. Head of IT, "They won't meet this in the real world nor will the curriculum work without MS." Now, it may be that the comments were factually incorrect but they were what was believed by senior management as a whole - in spite of one of the governors (working for IBM) having installed Linux at a primary school and being thoroughly in favour. It goes beyond the curriculum to what the LEAs understand and have inexpertise in. -- Best wishes, Derek