Has anyone seen the test - bed program? http://www.becta.org.uk/corporate/corporate.cfm?section=15&id=3078#ans1 27 million pounds for 5 secondary schools and associated feeder schools ought to ensure that they get the right answers! Some time ago I emailed this program to ask if any of the testbed schools were using open source solutions - guess what the answer was. Is this in breach of the e-envoy's rules? I also offered to help them by becoming a testbed, so far I have not recieved a reply. We can all be thankful to Becta for this one also: http://www.becta.org.uk/corporate/press_out.cfm?id=3098 Such a wise institution charged with protecting UK educational ICT falling for one of Microsoft's well documented lock-in tactics - surely not? http://www.iht.com/articles/96369.html On new year's eve I sit comfortable in the knowledge that the future of our ICT provision is in such safe hands. Happy new year to all. kind regards garry ps. The laptop spec problem could have been due to a misguided attempt to protect us from the inevitable sharks (AKA suppliers) that prey on UK educational establishments.
----- Original Message ----- From: "garry saddington" <garry@joydiv.fsnet.co.uk> To: <suse-linux-uk-schools@suse.com> Sent: Wednesday, December 31, 2003 9:06 AM Subject: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Becta's other activities
On new year's eve I sit comfortable in the knowledge that the future of
our
ICT provision is in such safe hands. Happy new year to all.
http://www.becta.org.uk/corporate/corporate.cfm?section=8&id=182 Read it and weep - the type of tears shed depends on your sense of irony, I suppose. -- Paul
On Wed, 2003-12-31 at 09:06, garry saddington wrote:
Has anyone seen the test - bed program? http://www.becta.org.uk/corporate/corporate.cfm?section=15&id=3078#ans1
27 million pounds for 5 secondary schools and associated feeder schools ought to ensure that they get the right answers!
Makes you wonder how they justify 27 million on a bit of minor research (on the global scale of things) and then put nothing into FLOSS development that has the potential to save millions. Of course research is not normally controversial.
Some time ago I emailed this program to ask if any of the testbed schools were using open source solutions - guess what the answer was. Is this in breach of the e-envoy's rules? I also offered to help them by becoming a testbed, so far I have not recieved a reply.
Its simply missing an important opportunity. Personally I would rather they put say 10% of the research money into FLOSS development instead because thre has already been tons of research and very little conclusive coming out of it on learning. There are too many variables and too rapid technological change to be really scientific about the effect of ICT on learning. If we believe its good to use ICT, then let's just get on with it and invest the money in things that lower the cost and make it available to more people.
We can all be thankful to Becta for this one also: http://www.becta.org.uk/corporate/press_out.cfm?id=3098 Such a wise institution charged with protecting UK educational ICT falling for one of Microsoft's well documented lock-in tactics - surely not? http://www.iht.com/articles/96369.html
On new year's eve I sit comfortable in the knowledge that the future of our ICT provision is in such safe hands. Happy new year to all.
kind regards garry
ps. The laptop spec problem could have been due to a misguided attempt to protect us from the inevitable sharks (AKA suppliers) that prey on UK educational establishments.
-- ian <ian.lynch2@ntlworld.com>
participants (3)
-
garry saddington -
ian -
Paul Hornshaw