I was surprised to get a written reply from the Education Minister to my enquiries on this matter. I quote below, which may shed some light on the Department's decisions.
"The NSW Dept of Education & Training manages .... and currently installs, in parallel with Microsoft Office suite, Open Office on all Technology for Learning computers and runs appropriate servers on a Linux base. In sourcing applications all avenues are explored to identify the most appropriate and cost effective solution, taking into account platform migration costs and interoperability with current systems. ..... During the procurement process, a range of operating systems and applications was offered to meet the Department's requirements, including solutions based on Apple, Linux and Microsoft platforms. ... It was determined that a Microsoft based solution best met the Department's needs, particularly with respect to multimedia applications." L On Mon, 2009-05-18 at 15:47 +1000, Marghanita da Cruz wrote: > Adrian Chadd wrote: > > On Mon, May 18, 2009, Marghanita da Cruz wrote: > > > >> So, the school kids are being taught to develop content for four colour > >> industrial printing, rather than websites? > >> > >> Personally, I would think that school kids and FOSS developers time is > >> better > >> spent improving tools and adding to content in the online world. > >> What really erks me, is that no doubt a PDF newsletters will be produced > >> and > >> emailed around to be printed on home and school printers (no commercial > >> printer > >> in sight). - Tell me I'm wrong. > > > > I'd rather they'd be taught the difference between the two, so hopefully > > those who are smart enough to "get it" will have the oppertunity to. > > > > Don't dumb stuff down. Kids are smarter than you'd think. And god knows > > that FOSS developers could do with being exposed to stuff -outside- > > of the cool+hip FOSS environment(s) today. > > > > Far from limiting the kids chances, I was hoping for the opposite. There is > far > too much PDF/proprietary and "Desktop" published content/designed for the > printed page, on the web and not enough open accessible (HTML) web content. > > If the kids are going to be provided with education on all the different > formats, discussion about appropriate communication mediums etc, then fine > but.... > > > Comparison with RGB > > > > Comparisons between RGB displays and CMYK prints can be difficult, since > > the > color reproduction technologies and properties are so different. A laser or > ink-jet printer prints in dots per inch (dpi) which is very different from a > computer screen, which displays graphics in pixels per inch (ppi). A computer > screen mixes shades of red, green, and blue to create color pictures. A CMYK > printer must compete with the many shades of RGB with only one shade each of > cyan, magenta and yellow, which it will mix using dithering, halftoning or > some > other optical technique; this dithering produces a lower level of detail than > the printer's dpi suggests. > > > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMYK> > > It would also appear introducing CMYK images to the web adds further problems > ... see the discussion here: > <http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Comp/comp.graphics.apps.photoshop/2006-03/msg00067.html> > > Perhaps, in 12 months time we could do a survey and see how many kids laptops > have "the gimp" on them .... or whether the school websites are full of PDF > documents. > > I know, I might be a lone voice here, but I see it as atonement for once > recommending standisation on MSOffice in 1989 because it was the most > userfriendly - at the time, it wasn't as good as ?? for footnotes, or as good > as > ?? for table of contents and Excel just couldn't handle the data that Lotus123 > could. > > On the other hand, I was never a fan of Lotus Notes...and it would seem that's > been given away now.... > > Welcome to OpenNTF.org > > > > OpenNTF is devoted to enabling groups of individuals all over the world to > > collaborate on IBM Lotus Notes/Domino applications and release them as open > > source. > <http://www.openntf.org/Internal/home.nsf> > > Marghanita > -- > Marghanita da Cruz > http://www.ramin.com.au > Phone: (+61)0414 869202 > > -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
