<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;"></meta></head><style type="text/css">.Normal { text-align: left; text-indent:0pt; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; }</style><body>The problem will never be resolved if non teachers can't see it from the teachers point of view, managing a class of 31 students all with different abilities working at different paces and keeping to government guidelines as to what they should be taught and get them through SATS tests in ICT too. With no OO resources for teachers how can they be expected to teach it? In my school, the IT teachers probably trained on Wordstar or Wordperfect on Apricots! We would love to use Open Source in our school. On the server side I use as much as I can and all of it has been self taught, I would love to replace my AD server but do not have the experience to use openLdap, it is very easy to get support in MS networking, I get tons of calls offering me support contracts, but how many support Open Source? To date I have found one, and they suggested to use Novell e-directory! I once asked Redhat to help out at our school to build us a Linux network, we would then demonstrate to all schools in our region, all they could offer was to send engineers at a high cost and provide us with expensive training. On the desktop, I'd love to use Ubuntu or some other Linux, but we have too many educational apps that solely run on Windows and there are only two of us managing a network of 360 PC's and over 1000 users, hence little time for testing and research. I believe that we cannot ignore Linux, currently 2% of are students use it at home but I believe this will grow. I like using Linux, but I should not impose my preferences on others. Surely students and teachers should be given a choice on what OS / Office app they want to use? Why not build a solution that gives this choice? Jonathan -----Original Message----- From: ubuntu-uk-bounces@lists.ubuntu.com on behalf of Dave Ewart Sent: Sun 12/24/2006 10:08 PM To: ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] EDM179 On Sunday, 24.12.2006 at 20:34 +0000, Phil Bull wrote: > > This is the problem. > > > > The kids are *not* being *taught* about word processors, > > spreadsheets or databases. They are being *trained* to use MS Word, > > MS Excel, MS Access etc. > > > > That's a very different thing, in my opinion, and not at all good. > > Learning *about* word processors and spreadsheets has little value to > employers - learning to *use* them is much more valuable, and I think > that's where the focus has been placed. School is not simply about learning things of value to possible, future employers, though, surely? Education should have a much wider scope than that. By the time my daughters (currently aged 2 and 5) enter the job market, the IT landscape will be totally different. Learning to use MS Word won't be relevant. Having a good all-round computing appreciation and understanding *will* be of benefit. Dave. -- Dave Ewart - davee@sungate.co.uk - jabber: davee@jabber.org - freenode: davee All email from me is now digitally signed, key from http://www.sungate.co.uk/ Fingerprint: AEC5 9360 0A35 7F66 66E9 82E4 9E10 6769 CD28 DA92 <HR style="HEIGHT: 1px"> This e-mail and any attachments are intended only for the recipients listed. If it has come to you in error please delete it and let us know. This message and its attachments have been scanned for viruses but we cannot guarantee them to be virus free.</body></html>