Here are some observations based on my experience in secondary schools: The level of skill among school IT staff is usually extremely low. How low? Well, I've come across secondary ICT coordinators in charge of all ICT infrastructure and teaching in large comprehensive schools (1,500 pupils plus) who are working at no better than 'Level 3 to 4' of the National Curriculum ICT attainment targets. In laymens terms this means they are working at the level which the government -- via their DfES (Department for Education and Skills) and QCA (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority) -- specifies is no better than "The expected attainment for the majority of pupils at the end of Key Stage 2" ...at age eleven. Fourteen-year-olds are expected to achieve levels 5 to 6, levels at which these ICT coordinators didn't even come close to meeting! Consequently most ICT coordinators -- who control what gets used in schools -- simply stick with what they know. Many will go still further and dumb-down their Microsoft based ICT facilities still further for example by; Doing away with all SMTP / POP email in favour of an obscure simplistic web based service that restricts pupils to a max of 10 e-mails each (including the ones they wish to save); Blowing away 'Windows Explorer', which means file navigation becomes a nightmare (no problem for the ICT coordinator of course, who retains Windows Explorer on his own PC); No Outlook, WordPad, NotePad, or any other utilities that make Windows usable. Anything at all that's configurable is also locked down; No file sharing (justified on the basis this will protect against viruses) ...they would not be capable of installing and updating an anti-virus programme; In fact their systems tend to be configured so as to reduce support to an absolute minimum ...at the expense of usability. Now if you suggest to them they should be addressing Linux based systems as well, their most likely response will be "What's Linux?"! David Bowles Education Support / TeacherLab