[HLUG] OSS in schools

[Mark Broadbent]

From: Phil Thane

Hello,

I'm a member of the North Wales LUG with an appeal to users right across the
UK.

Here in Wales the Assembly Government (WAG) is setting up a schools ICT
Strategy group to produce a draft consultation paper. OSS is part of the
remit, and as a result of some lobbying I've been invited to meet one of the
group. Hopefully once I've got that far I can get to meet the rest.

The meeting is not for about 3 weeks, but I don't want to go off half-cocked
so I'm doing some research and collecting opinions.

My starting point was to suggest that WAG (Specifically Jane Davidson's
Education Department) look at the example of Extremadura in Spain and consider
using/developing a distro for Wales. I got a bland civil service 'thank you
for your suggestion' letter back. So I pursued it and was told there would
be 'consultation'.

I pointed out that 'consultation' usually means civil servants and ministers
chatting amongst themselves, and that during many years as a teacher I've
been told that as a result of consultation we've decided this, that or the
other (or frequently this this year, that next year and the other after the
next re-shuffle) but I've never met a teacher who was actually consulted.
Result, they are calling my bluff and consulting me.

I still think Extremadura is a good example, after all it's a semi-autonmous
region with it's own language. It's bigger than Wales but has a similar size
population. It's largely rural mountainous and wet. It exports food and
water to the rest of Spain. It's IT industry was small and backward, but is
gaining ground. WIth free software for the entire population IT usage is
creeping up, benefitting employment and keeping rural areas in touch with the
21st century.

OSS aside, there are other problems in schools IT. I spent eight years doing
tech support for TechSoft. They supply CAD/CAM software for schools and
colleges right across the UK. There are a handful of schools with excellent
equipment and more importantly well trained staff, but most are frankly poor.
My recent experience at schools around here shows them to be pretty average.

Fundamental problem I see is that the kids (and staff) have a superficial
understanding of MS Office, Paint and IE6. They grab a picture and some words
off the web, paste them into Word and think they've done IT. Few understand
anything about image resolution and just shrug when the image comes out with
2mm square pixels. No-one edits the words or uses what they've found to
illustrate their own thoughts on the matter. No-one attributes anything.

At an actual IT level, it's even worse. The syllabusses avoid mention of a
particular OS or specific software, but in practice almost every school
teaches basic Windows. WIndows is THE OS, Word is THE word processor, Access
is THE database etc etc. To make life simple for the admins (who are usually
over worked teachers with little IT training) the system is locked down
tight, consequently the kids can't even see things like Control Panel, they
certainly aren't going to learn about hardware, drivers, installing/removing
software. Even screen res is usually set to the lowest common denominator
800x600 because it 'confuses the desktop' if the same user logs on to
different size screens. Why not allow user access to 'Configure the
Desktop'? - Too tricky.

Please email suggestions, examples, links, published research etc.

If we can make progress in Wales, maybe we'll let the rest of you join in
later!

BTW, for more info about me, see my website, url below.

--
Regards
Phil Thane

Bryn Villa
Penycoed Road (off Brook St)
Llangollen
LL20 8LR

01978 861677
07971 987623

phil at brynvilla.llangollen.co.uk
www.brynvilla.llangollen.co.uk



-- 
Mark Broadbent
Herefordshire LUG Master

* http://www.wetlettuce.com/
* http://www.herefordshire.lug.org.uk/

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