[ubuntu-uk] BBC Click

[alan c]

On 06/06/11 17:57, Paul Tansom wrote:
> I don't know how many people watch Click on the BBC News channel, but I thought
> I'd note that they had a piece on the Raspberry Pi on the last one (over the
> weekend), with a mention of Ubuntu as part of a piece on the lack of decent IT
> education in schools and the need to do it better - i.e. programming and more
> in depth knowledge rather than just how to use MS Office.
>
> It is available online at http://bbc.co.uk/click and for the moment is the top
> item.

With only an outsider's knowledge of current education it seems to me 
that education objectives for 'ICT' start with a given that you get 
the basics  by knowing which button to press for Microsoft Word etc. 
Our local adult education place has a computer room with (literally) 
wall to wall Microsoft, home made signs and posters full of 
Microsoft-eeze.

Courses there can only be run by accredited trainers (I asked about 
running one), and these have spent a lifetime learning Microsoft 
stuff, and they are busy enough even now to want to avoid a 
substantial change.

There is an overwhelming swirl and momentum of the broader 
establishment which pulls (I was going to say 'sucks'...) into 
Microsoft products.

I would expect that staff and students in a full ICT course all use 
Windows on their computers, even though they might on occasions 'use' 
Linux before they tick a box and go back to what they have on their 
laptop. I would guess that even in many higher level computing 
courses, this is also true, and Linux based OSs are on people's 
laptops for daily use in only a very few cases.

The Government and its predecessor, is actively keen to encourage 
wider use of open source: 'Government ICT Strategy' (March 2011) 
http://bit.ly/e6Xpb2
it includes requiring 'mandatory open standards' for example and 
explicitly mentions 'lengthy vendor lock-in'.

I talk to my local Adult Education Centre a couple of times a year, 
mentioning Ubuntu, and it is only recently that there has been any 
(even grudging) acceptance that FLOSS could be used, it seems that 
something, maybe the strategy document above, may be prompting change.
-- 
alan cocks
Ubuntu user