On Tue, 2003-12-16 at 17:01, Phil Thane wrote:
I suspect it is like much education policy, (or any govt policy) civil servants playing safe and a dread fear of individual initiative.
If they inadvertently break fair trading law or go against "greater" policy of the E-envoy's office its not actually playing safe. Things are changing and what might have been safe in the past isn't necessarily going to be in the future. Sexism and racism were quite accepted not too long ago ;-)
Heaven forbid that a teacher might actually know where to get freeware (even Windows freeware), how to install it, test it, evaluate it and decide to use it, or not. There is a slight chance that he/she might download something that screws things up, but so what? The worst that can happen is he/she gets to format the hard drive and re-install, which is a hell of a learning exercise. Teach them the importance of backups apart from anything else!
Point is that why should a teacher be penalised because others are ignorant? Nanny state!
I don't think for one minute it is some campaign against FLOSS, just FUD. Keep on banging away you are making a small impression.
I agree, most of these things are more to do with an easier life than active willfulness but they need challenging even if politely! -- ian <ian.lynch2@ntlworld.com>