Hi! You may be interested to know that I'm an adult education tutor, ICT being one of my subject areas. Just recently I've managed to get our local adult education service (on North Tyneside) to put on a courses this autumn dealing with both FOSS and GNU-Linux (specifically Ubuntu), with me teaching them. Part of this came from the fact that my previous 'Microsoft-only' students have got used to the idea that good free and legal software is available - and that it's just as easy to learn as the MS equivalent. This was a deliberate policy on my part to include Linux alternatives as part of the curriculum... and it seems to have paid off. Specifically, they (the students) pressurised the powers-that-be for courses that expanded on the small amounts they'd been introduced to.
Nevertheless. what I'm doing is still a rarity (and I guess I'm thought of as a 'bit eccentric' because of my Ubuntu evangelising). Most ICT tutors have never heard of Ubuntu, Linux, or anything else that doesn't have MS written in front of it. They 'teach to the test', and use what's given to them. Intellectual dumbing-down? Yes, I'd say that in most cases we're selling our students short with what we offer them these days. On 07/06/11 07:24, alan c wrote: > > I talk to my local Adult Education Centre a couple of times a year, > mentioning Ubuntu, and it is only recently that there has been any (even > grudging) acceptance that FLOSS could be used, it seems that something, > maybe the strategy document above, may be prompting change. -- Beatrix E. Groves BA Hons (Educ) LCGI MAPTT MIITT MinstLM MIFL QTLS General Secretary, Association of Part-Time Tutors (APTT) ============================================ Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.beagroves.net Blog: http://beagroves.tumblr.com ============================================ Random Quote of the Day (chosen by my computer) -------------> “Freedom of enterprise was from the beginning not altogether a blessing. As the liberty to work or to starve, it spelled toil, insecurity, and fear for the vast majority of the population. If the individual were no longer compelled to prove himself on the market, as a free economic subject, the disappearance of this freedom would be one of the greatest achievements of civilization.” (Herbert Marcuse) -- [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
