On Tuesday 30 December 2003 12:00, Richard Rothwell wrote:
Hi All,
A while back I asked for information about any cases where the examination boards _required_ schools to use specific proprietary software for their syllabuses or examinations. I did not get any direct evidence, if anyone has anything to add please let me know.
HOWEVER
I am aware that some of the examiners for this summer's GCSEs will be following marking schemes that are Microsoft specific. I am thinking of writing a letter to all the examination boards and ICT principal examiners, from SchoolForge I guess, pointing out the minor differences in syntax and menu structure between different suites of office software. This will I hope not only prompt the boards to remind their examiners to be flexible but will also flag the existence of alternatives to the Microsoft product - without mentioning names.
At A-level we use Knoda and MySQL for database applications and so at a recent coursework standardisation meeting I brought this up with the chief moderator. The reply was extremely positive and I was urged to continue but when submitting to a moderator I ought to include a covering letter explaining the software choice and its differences. The actual words used were 'lay it on thick'. regards garry