Re: [school-discuss] Re: [seul-edu] Another threat

[Lincoln Peters <peters2000@mindspring.com>]

Could you argue that the school should teach students how to think as a
computer user, rather than how to use any specific application?  I've
never seen a curriculum designed for this, but it should be possible.

For example, if a class is meant to teach word processing, wouldn't it
make the most sense if the class taught the concepts behind word
processing so that a student could then figure out how to use them in
virtually any word processor?

On Tue, 2002-05-14 at 05:45, Ed Lawson wrote:
> On Mon, 13 May 2002 14:14:50 -0700
> "Kevin Stiles" <kstiles@pasco.wednet.edu> wrote:
> 
> > With this in place it will be extremely difficult for any
> > alternative software to get into our schools.
> 
> I could not tell from the sites what was being required, but it did
> mention other Office Suites such as those of Word Perfect and Lotus.
> 
> Nevertheless, the purpose of many classes in high school business
> departments is to prepare students to work in the exisitng office
> environment by training them to use specific tools which are found
> there.  Until that changes it is unlikely anyone is going to train
> them on Open Office or whatever.  It might be a more  realistic goal
> to get schools to use AbiWord or Open Office in the lower grades
> where the instruction should be on concepts, etc. as opposed to
> teaching tools.
> 
> Ed Lawson
> 
> 
>