[Linux-aus] New Federal Govt's Education/PC plans

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On Tue, 4 Dec 2007, Paul Coldrey <paul at ensigma.com.au> wrote:
> True. I was thinking from the point of view of a new starter which I
> guess are only a small part of the puzzle. My 4 year old son is a lot
> more comfortable using Linux than Windows,... it is all he has ever
> seen. I shudder to think of the cost of reskilling him when he starts
> school :-).

Children can adapt better than most adults, so there isn't much need for 
concern.

One defence raised by proponents of the status quo is, "children should learn 
what they'll be using in the workforce". This argument fails for several 
reasons. To name but a few:

* When I was a child, I was using DOS. How do we know what a five-year-old 
today will be using in fifteen years' time?

* The best workers are flexible workers. Children should learn computing, not 
Windows; word processing, not Word. They should be able to adapt to use 
whatever tools are available. This argument can also be extended to promote 
the importance of open standards and vendor neutrality.

* How is a child meant to learn anything at all if the hardware and software 
is too expensive to be purchased? You probably couldn't justify buying your 
child a copy of Photoshop just so they could muck around, but you would be 
more comfortable giving them a free copy of the GIMP.

- Sridhar

-- 
Need to fork out $$$ for the next software upgrade? Break the cycle!
http://www.linux.org.au/linux
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