[ubuntu-uk] The problem with Bug #1

[Avi Greenbury]

John Oliver wrote:
> If you're in education trying to teach children to word process it simply
> isn't faesable to try to explain the difference between proprietary
> and open-source software etc and then to get them to make a choice.

I think the notion of software freedom is absolutely the sort of thing
that people claiming to be teaching IT to kids should be teaching to
them.

I don't think the person teaching them how to use a word processor
should be doing that, but I don't think that should be the IT teacher,
either.

> Such a thing would be a massive logistical operation too -
> demonstrations on a projector screen would be wrong for everyone who
> chose the other system, and would have to be done again.

It depends how you teach it. If you teach concepts then you're likely
to find that kids will work out how to use both. If you teach the
co-ordinates that need to be clicked on in order to carry out a
specific task then obviously they'll only be able to use that one
suite, but you're also doing it wrong.

-- 
Avi