I agree that many teachers of ICT (and hence their students) would have considerable difficulty transferring their existing ICT skills to alternative open-source applications. But why?
Rather the non-portability of ICT skills as taught in schools and elsewhere simply reflects the comparative immaturity of today's ICT curriculum.
True. It reflect training rather than education, though we aim for transferable skills in most other subjects. It's as if we were producing mechanics who can only service Ford cars, historians who know only the late Victorian period, artists who can paint only in charcoal, philosophers who know only Kant. All this is fine as a specialisation or in old age, but we are producing young people (and young teachers, defined for IT purposes as under the age of fifty-five) who are not only restricted in their range but - much worse - who are determined not to learn anything else. -- Christopher Dawkins, Felsted School, Dunmow, Essex CM6 3JG 01371-822698, mobile 07816 821659 cchd@felsted.essex.sch.uk