Your Mission (should you choose to accept it)

["Marshal Anderson" <marshal@marshal.co.uk>]

Hmmmmmmmm,

I've read the postings re a mission statement with more than a passing
interest. The following is a perfect example of jumping ni with both feet
and upsetting everyone having only glanced through the archives of this
listserv. But I feel, most 'umbly, that I must through in some stuff.

I think that the basic premise that there can be some identifiable
educational purpose (from a pedagogical pov) to using Linux rather than W98,
RISC OS, System 8 orwhatever is flawed. What we're talking about is the use
of ICT as a means to (hopefully) enhance the learning experience of students
in the broadest sense; the os such systems run in, or the language they are
written in is /largely/ irrelevant. Some points that are relevant will be
the stability of the system, compactness of code, ability to access many
forms of media easily etc. However, from the student's point of view these
are invisible. 50% or so of children in the UK use Acorns in school but have
PCs at home. Their attitudes towards these machines is not overtly based on
the OS, but on the software available.

Having said that - here, I am the learner. So, if you don't agree with the
above - tell me why. My interest in Linux is to do with many things, many of
them idealistic, but from a marketing point of view it's clear that every
package needs to be available on every platform; the hard lesson we learned
in the UK was that the innate quality of the platform is not an issue that
seems to impinge on the minds of those who hold the purse strings.

OK - there's more to say, but this is a long enough posting,

Comments

Marshal (ducks :)