Re: [school-discuss] Sad but true: Windows to linux to windows

[lee rodgers <sregdoreel@xxxxxxxxx>]

I've seen it come down to politics where 4x expenditures is OK, even though that money could've gone to a far more robust digital media environment replete with video cameras, MIDI keyboards, scanners, touch-screen stations, projectors, computer microscopes (probably Windows-only, but doable w/ dual-boot in the science labs), etc. 

In the article the staff had Citrix virtual desktops, etc., but the teachers weren't to be satisfied once mgmt screwed things up w/ laptops. I have to say, from my experience the Teachers are almost always the worst of the bunch insisting on MS applications even though they use 1/10th of the features. The pseudo-requirement for MS Word, Excel & Outlook should be a low priority.

 The inability of end users to adapt to slightly different GUI environments is a one problem, and lower grade school teachers, I'm ashamed to say, are the most desperately remedial users when they get near a computer. You'd think the introduction of
 Vista would render this point moot, since its interface is so renown for confusing users. 

In the end it's MS mandating look&feel & document formats that dominates management's attention. It shouldn't matter if Windows comes packaged w/ the machine, the actual application software is what's the deciding factor, not the OS driving the choice of productivity applications. Standardizing on Scribus, OO.org, GIMP, etc., would vastly ameliorate license costs even in a Windows-only network, but staff & mgmt are fixated on MS Office....

What really irks me about this is the easy availability of portable freeware & open source applications that could be given to the students for them to take home, license-free - either on USB sticks or on CD-ROMs. The kids would learn self-sufficiency w/out having to go download crack warez from bit torrent. But it's the staff & mgmt themselves who are addicted to payware and the warez they've sneaked onto their
 machines. 

The result is budget bloat that pushes taxes up w/out providing any enhancement to student education. Kids can't take payware home (Maple...), etc. What happens next? Eventually tax payers rebel & future tax proposals for teacher pay raises get rejected.

I wish I were exaggerating but I've seen this first-hand, our school district's machines running on warez. Were they to start actually tracking licenses & restricting installations the software budgets would end up going through the roof. Why? B/c the staff want the same licensed software that had been installed illegally! They weren't concerned about the fiduciary risk of installing warez, so why should they care about the expense!? But fully locked-down against illicit software licenses, a mid-sized school district 's end-user software budget can be driven into the millions of dollars, money better spent elsewhere.

W/out the school boards actually committing to the use of FLOSS in
 the schools nothing will improve & money will continue to be wasted. And the people who really need to drive this could be informed voters who understand the difference.

/leebert

Richard Andrews <bbmaj7@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>  
> http://www.itwire.com/content/view/16721/1090/
>
> Perkins mentioned in the story is one of the now active members in my LUG and
> has been an invaluable source of insight into what is wrong with IT in schools
> in Australia.
>
> If you have any questions for him I could try passing them on. No guarantee
> that he'll respond.



======
+---------------------------------------------------------------------
| "They really need to mount his finger on a orrery that points it
|  constantly to the moon so maybe people would stop looking at it."
|  -- YT, on
 news that more Buddha relics will be hosted in a museum
| 
| http://tinyurl.com/23je7l
+---------------------------------------------------------------------