[K12OSN] general acceptance of k12ltsp in schools

John Lucas mrjohnlucas at gmail.com
Tue Jan 9 11:09:35 UTC 2007


On Tuesday 09 January 2007 03:32, Terrell Prudé Jr. wrote:
> I have heard all of the following:
>
> "Look, we have to prepare our children for the 'real world', and the
> 'real world' uses Microsoft."
> "Microsoft is the standard.  Employers are demanding that schools teach
> the standard."
>

They need to remember when the "standard" was Word Perfect, and before that 
the standard was WordStar. Teaching concepts is more important than teaching 
particular applications. 

> "Nobody got fired for buying Microsoft."
>

But perhaps they should :-} It used to be "nobody got fired for buying IBM". 
Things change. Evolve or die.

> "Linux is for techies."
>

Why is that a bad thing? Linux is not *just* for techies.

> "Will it work with <insert special pet application>?"

Ask them if they have a site license for their special pet application (did 
they bring enough for everybody :-}

> "Where's Internet Explorer?  Where's my Outlook?  I can't take time to
> figure this out, I have to do real work!"
>

"Oh, those are the applications letting in all that malware, didn't you know?"

> "We'd have to retrain all our staff!  That's expensive, we don't have
> funding or time for that!" <Note: they seem to have no problem spending
> big bucks for Windows training.>
>

In my experience, many staff members were never trained in the first place and 
they learn from each other. 

>
> Of course, the mindset that you have to turn 3rd graders into "good
> little employees" is a little frightening to me....
>

Yes. If anyone thinks that the software world will be anything like today when 
these 3rd graders are ready to go into the workforce has not been paying 
attention to the rate of change; five years is an eternity in computer 
technology.

> --TP
> _______________________________
> Do you GNU!?
> Microsoft Free since 2003 <http://www.gnu.org/>--the ultimate antivirus
> protection!
>
> Barry Cisna wrote:
> > Hello All,
> >
> > I posed this question about a year ago, and am wonedering what others
> > have found,that work in the trenches, since there have been a lot more
> > people come on board to k12ltsp.
> > How has the administrative and teachers in general accepted k12ltsp in
> > your school? I'd like to hear actual "comments". Here is a scenario at
> > our school. Of course most teachers are very offish because " Its not
> > MS$". The last superintendent was very receptive to Linux/K12LTSP, but
> > having consolidated and a new super,I heard was " Well whether you like
> > it or not,it's a MS$ world out there". Enough said. How do you get any
> > farther than that?:(. Also Ive heard "It's free"? Mind turning,,, it must
> > not be worth much:(. Or "How much longer will it be free".
> > You can show all involved the benefits of the Educational software
> > bundled for all age ranges,right out of the box,in K12LTSP,but seems to
> > not offset it,, not being branded MS$. I've found if you told the higher
> > ups its going to cost thousands of $$ to get k12ltsp going they would
> > listen much more. Don't make sense but thats the way it seems.
> > Here's a good point too. I talk to an old timer on the phone for
> > hardware, that is a long time Linux guru,,that had his own business and
> > is a world traveler, He told me that the US would be the last country to
> > "flip" to accepting Linux,because the US is so "commercialized". Im
> > seeing he makes very much sense.:)You people in Europe/Asia/etc, are a
> > step ahead,in thinking i can see!:).
> >
> > Just curious what others have heard when trying to roll out K12LTSP in
> > your schools.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Barry Cisna
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > K12OSN mailing list
> > K12OSN at redhat.com
> > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn
> > For more info see <http://www.k12os.org>

-- 
        "History doesn't repeat itself; at best it rhymes."
                        - Mark Twain

| John Lucas                          MrJohnLucas at gmail.com               |
| St. Thomas, VI 00802                http://mrjohnlucas.googlepages.com/ |
| 18.3°N, 65°W                        AST (UTC-4)                         |




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