[Lias] An opportunity to grab!

[craigw-blue.net.au at mail-hub.bluenetgroup.com]

"As he coughs."

One of the biggest problems I had with the Department of Education while
trying to run ComputerBank NSW, is the deal with Microsoft. Every computer
regardless whether it was novell or mac, was include as part of the
licence plan per pc.


Offers of pc's where turned down, when approaching schools. Computers in
schools are managed at a regional head office level. Take for example,
Trangie Central School (my old school, central western NSW, all pcs are
managed from Dubbo, 54kms (1 hour away), same as with Bourke (4 hours
away)

Craig



> Hi all,
>
> I've cc'd all the FOSS education lists I know as I think here is a good
> opportunity for us to approach the education scene and solve the real
> problem of inequal access to technology. If you haven't seen the news yet:
>
> http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/teachers-revolt-over-computing-test/2006/03/11/1141701732607.html
>
>   "TEACHERS have voted to ban the year 10 Computing Skills Assessment
> test,
>   which was due to be held for the first time this year in all NSW
> schools.
>
>   They blame a shortage of computers in schools, a lack of teacher
> training,
>   poor technical support and "dinosaur technology that should be thrown
> out"."
>
> So, I'm going to call the NSW Teachers Federation on Monday, but I think
> we
> should all be thinking about this as a chance to talk about FOSS as:
>
> 1) a way to deliver sustainable and cheap technology to all students in
> Australia
> 2) a huge resource of information, documentation, software, code, and
> other
> tools to both help teachers teach and help students learn
> 3) a community of people who share information that would be a valuable
> resource to plug our IT students into at a young age
> 4) a HUGE amount of free software without license restrictions which both
> restricts the students ability to learn ("DON'T install that, we don't
> have
> an licence for it!") and restricts the functionality they have access to
> ("we
> can't afford that, sorry")
>
> Anyway, thought I'd bring up the idea, but this could be a great
> opportunity
> to present FOSS as a practical solution to a real problem. What do you all
> think?
>
> Cheers,
> Pia
>
> --
> Linux Australia
> http://linux.org.au/
>
>                       Jeff: Whatchootalkin'boutwillis?
>                             Pia: What's Willis?
>
> _______________________________________________
> lias mailing list
> lias at lists.linux.org.au
> http://lists.linux.org.au/listinfo/lias
>