[ubuntu-uk] BBC Click

[Bea Groves]

Hi!

You may be interested to know that I'm an adult education tutor, ICT
being one of my subject areas. Just recently I've managed to get our
local adult education service (on North Tyneside) to put on a courses
this autumn dealing with both FOSS and GNU-Linux (specifically Ubuntu),
with me teaching them. Part of this came from the fact that my previous
'Microsoft-only' students have got used to the idea that good free and
legal software is available - and that it's just as easy to learn as the
MS equivalent. This was a deliberate policy on my part to include Linux
alternatives as part of the curriculum... and it seems to have paid off.
Specifically, they (the students) pressurised the powers-that-be for
courses that expanded on the small amounts they'd been introduced to.

Nevertheless. what I'm doing is still a rarity (and I guess I'm thought
of as a 'bit eccentric' because of my Ubuntu evangelising). Most ICT
tutors have never heard of Ubuntu, Linux, or anything else that doesn't
have MS written in front of it. They 'teach to the test', and use what's
given to them. Intellectual dumbing-down? Yes, I'd say that in most
cases we're selling our students short with what we offer them these days.

On 07/06/11 07:24, alan c wrote:

> 
> 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.

-- 
Beatrix E. Groves
BA Hons (Educ) LCGI MAPTT MIITT MinstLM MIFL QTLS
General Secretary, Association of Part-Time Tutors (APTT)
============================================
Email:	beagroves at gmail.com
Web:  	http://www.beagroves.net
Blog:	http://beagroves.tumblr.com
============================================

Random Quote of the Day (chosen by my computer) ------------->

“Freedom of enterprise was from the beginning not altogether a blessing.
As the liberty to work or to starve, it spelled toil, insecurity, and
fear for the vast majority of the population. If the individual were no
longer compelled to prove himself on the market, as a free economic
subject, the disappearance of this freedom would be one of the greatest
achievements of civilization.” (Herbert Marcuse)