[Wylug-discuss] PDA's in schools

[Dave Fisher]

On Wed, Jan 10, 2007 at 09:35:56AM -0000, ALLEN, David wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I don't know if anyone saw the 10-o-clock news article last night about
> giving PDA's to school kids in the Midlands? It is due to get Government
> approval and is being looked at "with interest" by lots of other schools
> and even other countries. This project is being run by a friend of a
> friend of mine so I can give you some background info.
> 
> The guy running the project is a ex-head teacher and had no experience
> of computers/systems, so the first thing he did was go straight to
> Microsoft. No other technology was even looked at. Microsoft naturally
> jumped at the opportunity of selling 10,000's of PDA's to British school
> kids and gave him lots of free kit, trips to the states etc.
> 
> So, the future of computers in schools in the UK could well be stitched
> up by an ex headmaster who used to struggle to turn on his
> computer......

I am afraid that I've seen/heard/read practically the same story time
and time again over the last 10 years.

If nothing else, it's recurrence is confirmation that open source
advocates are pathetic at getting their messages over to the general
public ... mostly because their messages aren't even targeted at, or
digestable by, the general public (or teachers).

Sadly, I see no reason to expect an improvement any time soon :-(

Dave