Dan Armak wrote on 2003-06-04:
> On Wednesday 04 June 2003 19:06, Beni Cherniavsky wrote:
> > So, since there *is* a motivation among hackers to provide schools
> > with free software that would benefit them, why won't the schools tell
> > us what they want? I'm thinking along the lines of some site where
> > schools/teachers can post "wanted" requests describing what they want.
>
> I don't know what special educational software schools need or want, as none
> of the schools I've been to used any (except for half a year of logo in
> elementary school, which I don't really remember anymore).
Then they don't try hard enough. There are a lot of things in schools
that computers could be used for. Gate logic classes could really use
a lab with a gate simulator. Electronics students could use
simulators (spice). Physics classes could surely benefit from some
field simulations, etc (and not only using excel to record lab
results). Math teachers could use a LaTeX or LyX course $:-)$ so the
math homeworks stop to contain RTL formulas [1]_. Etc. etc. etc.
. [1] I think children deserve at least a few hours of teaching
about proper typography in their life. I mean a lecture of
somebody with a clue, not the teacher explaining "your works
should use 12pt blue Arial headings". Then everybody would be
too spoiled to accept Word ;-).
> As far as generic (ie non-educational) software goes, though, the
> biggest problem (for me) is with all the schools using MS Office.
>[snip]
>
True, this is probably the primary thing to attack. I think this
simply boils down to OpenOffice + lobbying.
> Unlike most educational software (in my experience), using msoffice at school
> requires you to use it at home as well - for homework as well as for
> year-long assignments (we had half a year to create a big powerpoint
> presentation).
>
It could never hurt to be able to work with any education software at
home. The pascal lab hours at my school were too short and there was
no concept of computer farm [2]_. And the "dry" (on paper)
programming homeworks could benefit from an ability to test what one
writes.
It would also have a tremendous educational value if the teacher could
say "every program that you use here, you can take home, copy, use,
study and even improve (if you want)."
. [2] I doubt it widely appeared by now. Yet, it is a very basic
idea that students deserve computing services that can cover
all their learning needs and more, at least for the sake of
those who can't afford a computer. And what would a farm run
if not Linux?
> Another point is the compilers used in pascal and c classes. I don't know
> what's used for c, but I've had enough of turbo pascal (which the teacher
> requires you to get a copy of, too[1]). If they switch to e.g. gpc, they can
> use a better IDE too, like gideon. Although in my school, they make you write
> on paper 95% of the time, so that's not as important...
>
> [1] Of course, you can use any decent compiler without her noticing, but
> again, do we want teachers telling students to get illegal copies of tp?
>
Hacking is taught very badly at all but don't get me started on that.
One who learns 5 points like me gets no idea what a real program looks
like. I'll try to refrain from commenting on Pascal.
> I hope this is legible enough - I've strong feelings on this subject
> (just now finishing 12 years of school with ms software) which
> prevented me from writing a better organized post...
>
My brother is now in 8th grade so I've got strong feelings too (see
Arial reference above :).
--
Beni Cherniavsky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Three Laws of Copy-Protechnics:
http://www.technion.ac.il/~cben/threelaws.html
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