On Thursday 27 November 2003 15:53, John Dean wrote:
On Thursday 27 November 2003 14:50, Chris Puttick wrote:
Am I correct in assuming that you guys actually teach kids to use a Wordprocessor. Surely, your time would be better spent teaching the rudiments of programming. Would you believe that I have never been taught a single thing about the use of any any application from the multitude of Office Suites. The Help files and tutorials have always been my friend not the class room
Just read the nonsense that is the KS3 strategy for iCT http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/keystage3/strands/?strand=ICT regards garry
The big one is inclusion; all students in the school benefit because everyone can freely use OO.org in the school or at home, regardless of their financial situation.
If they are not employed by MS or a shareholder, the above should work.
If you want to get another support to your argument, try this: history tells us the dominant player in any emerging technology sector *never* remains dominant: Remington were once the world's number one supplier of typewriters; Sony once dominated television supply (either direct or by CRT supply); Novell were the name in SME file and print servers; Netscape was the only web browser anyone serious ever used; and of course WordPerfect was once the word processor of choice. Training a child to use a set of packages that, even if MS retains their dominance until that child leaves higher education, will be changed beyond all recognition seems pointless. It is highly unlikely that a Microsoft world will continue; to give the child the best chance, they need transferable skills.
(for references on the above, see any site about history of science and technology)
On the open file formats, my partner is the absolute expert (archives and records management). I'll get her input to you ASAP.
-----Original Message----- From: Matt Johnson [mailto:johnsonmlw@yahoo.com] Sent: 27 November 2003 14:14 To: SuSe Subject: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Open file formats and idiology
Hi all,
A rallying cry for some assistance in a scary world.
We're thinking of replacing MS Office here (97) with Oo.o 1.1 (to be honest, it's going to happen!). I've received a letter from a parent who is "alarmed" that we may be considering any alternatives to Microsoft, expressing how important it is for her child to be in a Microsoft environment because of the real world (I'm paraphrasing - not her words).
I'm arguing along three lines...
*Practicality (cost/budget/product features).
*Educationally (we're teachers not trainers)
*Idiologically (free thinking, open standards and specifically open file formats).
Could anyone point me to some web resources for the definition of "educating" rather than "training" that would enhance my point. And also resources that support the case for "open file formats" versus proprietory (and thus I suppose opensource in general versus proprietory - although maybe this wouldn't directly help as we're at least "looking at Star Office". Hmm). The more professional the body of any report's author, the better I suppose (do Becta cover this stuff?). Any articles at all would be great.
Cheers
-- Matt Johnson
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Regards John
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