[Wylug-discuss] "Microsoft Office 'not the only way for schools' "

[John Hodrien]

On Sat, 20 Jan 2007, Roger wrote:

> My guess is that most teachers neither know nor care about the M$ vs. FOSS 
> issue.  Sad!

But should teachers care?  They've got plenty of other things to be worrying
about.  I think the software stack that schools use should be considered much
more seriously higher up, and *that* is where the problems lie.  I think
teachers should care about their IT kit about as much as who their furntiture
suppliers are.  School management should take an entirely different view.

> From what I've seen so far, FOSS would be fine for a lot of what happens, but 
> either simply hadn't been considered - or was rendered impractical by media 
> suppliers/system installers.  Only one of the teachers I've seen was even 
> aware of the alternatives - and he didn't seem to care (though perhaps he 
> used to).

I wouldn't expect teachers to care particularly.  If the software they are
given doesn't suck, they don't care.  Give them stuff that crashes all the
time and they'll quickly care.  If they understood that they could simply hand
out CDs to kids with all the software they'd need for the year with no
licensing problems, then perhaps that'd appeal, but until there is such a
product, I'm not sure there's enough obvious benefit to the front line.

jh

-- 
"Keeping up with the Joneses was a full-time job with my mother and father.
  It was not until many years later when I lived alone that I realised how much
  cheaper it was to drag the Joneses down to my level."
                                                      -- Quentin Crisp