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Re: [LUG] detroit school moves to openoffice

 

On Tue, 2005-06-07 at 12:44, Jeremy Pearson wrote:
> Firstly, thanks everyone for their feedback and opinions on the
> "Linux/FOSS in schools" topic. Some of the issues can be very open-ended,
> and it's good to see people with enough real-world experience and
> technical knowledge to be able to form realistic ideas about how to take
> this matter forward.
> 
> I've read the BECTA report on OSS in schools, and also the excellent case
> studies of schools already implementing OSS solutions, but interestingly
> these focus largely on what we already know. For example, cost and feature
> comparisons of Windows & Linux, and of MS Office & Star/OpenOffice.org,
> GIMP/Photoshop, Apache/IIS etc.
> 
> Getting back to my original concern, nowhere in these reports (that I've
> seen so far) is there any discussion of how to meet specific requirements
> for individual subject areas (software for history, geography, maths etc),
> although I agree with both opinions raised here that (a) once enough
> schools adopt the Linux platform the software will follow, and (b) if this
> software was provided over a web platform then this wouldn't even be an
> issue.

Agreed ... you may have heard of it but have you tried the Seul site ? 
http://www.seul.org/edu/

Yes the choices are limited compared to the offerings for proprietary
platforms but they are out there. Other than that I can't go on enough
about getting teachers to adopt the moodle system. Its not just a course
content management system it also assists individual learning targets
and group interaction.

For general knowledge base refer to wikipeida. Inspire the students set
up you own wiki on your intranet and encourage them (and the staff) to
submit articles.

Technology should be about giving people opportunity to express
themselves and not necessarily about slick software that does the job
for the teacher. After all if it where universally possible to replace
the teacher with software, what would teachers do all day ?

When a user of software (educational or otherwise) out grows the
functionality of the software she is either stuck in the case of
proprietary software, or in a position to adapt the software and make it
grow with them. Which is the better choice ?

I think Semour Pappert was once asked by a parent what hardware and
software should he/she get for their child. His reply was that it wasn't
a matter of hardware or software, but more of a case as to whether the
parents would also be interacting with the hardware / software together
with and in support of their child.

but i digress again ....
> 
> Believe it or not, a substantial amount of the specialist software we
> currently use is actually written (or originally created) by current/past
> subject teachers, but it's mostly all closed source commercial software.
> Surely these of all people would understand the benefits of freely
> distributing software under a GNU-type public license.

Encourage them to use tools that open up their knowledge to the world.
Teachers will understand the value of freedom (in its many forms ...
expression ... speech ... thinking ... action) so make them understand
that proprietary software restricts their freedoms. When they ask whats
the alternative .... well we know the answer to that ;-)


> 
> Jeremy


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