Adding my bit.
I'm no longer teaching, but am heavily involved with the IT at the school
my kids go to, and involved in decision making on purchases.
I think the original article is quite accurate - (compatibility with) Word
files 'rules'.
An interesting phrase "non-OS-specific computer skills" - how possible is
that really?
In one sense non-OS-specific computer skills are taught.
Students need to word process - so in your teaching programs you
demonstrate setting out and formatting and so on, skills easily
transferable to any package. Older students may learn about spreadsheets
and summing and insert functions and add graphs, which all spreadsheet
packages do.
However, as most homes (student or staff) with computers use MS word
processors et al, it is sensible to use MS products at school for students
to learn on. The students can complete work at home without compatibility
issues, or can practice at home without being confused eg where to find
particular menu items. File compatibility is important to staff, and
very important for administrative purposes. With MS products being common
on computers at home, the familiarity also means less money is required to
be spent on training for staff for this aspect.
I am as similarly prejudiced/enthusiastic about non-microsoft products as
others on this list. The school has only had a credible IT environment for
a couple of years. On deciding what to use we chose Linux as the server
OS (File servers, Print servers where appropriate, Mail Servers, Web..)
the students use Eudora for email,.. However we chose to use MS products
for the student workstations as the most practical solution, despite the
desire I might have to be linux-based.
I am looking forward to changing the school's current 'solution'.
Software such as OpenOffice will (hopefully) deal with one biggie.
Just to throw something else into the mix - the other biggie for the school
is "system requirements". You can run Office97 on a 486 with Win95 quite
happily. StarOffice (5.2) too seemed to run OK on older Pentiums with
Win95, but put the Linux version of Star Office on the same machine (with
Linux) and it ran like a dog. The school does not have workstations
capable of running the latest "pretty" versions of Linux. They can't run
XP either, but Win95 is definitely more aesthetically pleasing to students
than earlier packages of Linux. Aesthetics and GUIs seem to be very
important to staff and students (Pokemon excluded seemingly).
So until we can find an affordable source of sufficiently grunty machines,
MS OS's will continue to appear to be the only viable choice for our
workstations, influencing the choice of applications.
[Please note - if you know where we can get machines from which would be
potentially suitable for Linux-only use, I'd love to hear from you!!]
Eric.
----- Forwarded by Eric Pennington/CW/StatisticsNZ/NZ on 02/05/2002 14:57
-----
Yuri de Groot
<yuridg@paradi To: CLUG
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
se.net.nz> cc:
Subject: Re: Why Linux isn't on the
desktop yet
02/05/2002
14:59
On Thu, 02 May 2002, you wrote:
> >>I personally doubt that you can teach an old "dog" too many new tricks.
> >>
> >>It will happen probably over such a long time that you will have a
> >> generation rollover at the same time (which takes roughly ~25 years.
>
> That's the time frame I had in mind as well...
So how many teachers out there are teaching kids
non-OS-specific computer skills?
Out of curiosity, are any such teachers subscribed
to this list?
======================= SNZ Staff: Please Note =========================
The content of any email entering or leaving Statistics New Zealand is
automatically scanned, and may be opened and read by security staff.
SNZ makes reasonable efforts to ensure that its email is free of
software viruses. However, there is always a small risk that a new
virus will reach us before our anti-virus software can be updated.
If you have any doubts or suspicions about the nature or source of this
email, please report it immediately without opening any attachments.
========================================================================
Eric Pennington
TSS Consultant
Statistics New Zealand
Phone: (03) 374 8840
Fax: (03) 374 8759 - MS2 Fax Machine
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Home Page: http://www.stats.govt.nz
For up to date 2001 Census information, visit www.stats.govt.nz
====================== Correspondents: Please Note =====================
The information in this email, and any files transmitted with it, is
confidential and is for the intended recipient only. If you receive
this message in error, please phone us (collect) on 04-495-4600, or
notify us via [EMAIL PROTECTED]
The content of any email entering or leaving Statistics New Zealand is
automatically scanned, and may be opened and read by security staff.
Statistics New Zealand makes reasonable efforts to ensure that its email
has been scanned and is free of viruses. However, SNZ can make no
warranty that this email or any attachments to it are free from viruses.
========================================================================
