Re: [school-discuss] "Educating Tux" + IT apathy

[Joel Kahn <jj2kk4@xxxxxxxxx>]

Marilyn Hagle wrote:

>Many in educational IT management - probably the
>middle managers who are misunderstood and struggling
>to keep everything running - are concerned about
>tightly controlling the teachers. After all . . .
>they have been breaking copyright laws, pirating
>software, and inviting viruses and spyware into the
>LAN.  So now teachers everywhere are in lock-down mode.
>Experimentation is thwarted, new ideas are discouraged,
>and creativity is scorned.

And let's not forget atrocities like the No Child Left
Behind Act, which forces teachers *and* students into
bureaucratic straitjackets and makes it incredibly hard
to even think about changing anything. A proprietary
software package that is marketed with wild promises of
a "guarantee to boost scores on standardized tests" has
a big edge over any wild and risky creative things like
GIMP or Tux Paint. If you allow those misbehaving kids
and teachers to start really experimenting with any
truly flexible software, who knows what kind of trouble
we all might be getting ourselves into. . . .

Joel



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