Office applications Toolkit

Story: Becta takes Microsoft to the OFT

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Teachers are not Sysadmins

I think part of the issue here is that we are all still talking Bill's language when it comes to IT in schools. Everyone seems to be saying "We don't like being nailed into using Bill's stuff, but the teachers are used to using it." by which we don't just mean "using" it, but also maintaining and upgrading it.

The missing part here is that with a Unix-like system, like Linux, the machines in the classroom would be data-less clones, built and updated by automated, hands off systems like yum and apt. The teachers would not need to touch the OS. They would just have to get the hang of the alternative open source packages like Open Office, Firefox and Thunderbird. They would no longer spend their days stalking the corridors with a bag full of CDs ready to do battle. They could actually get on with teaching.

Once a Unix-like system has been set up and is in steady state, it will generally just keep on running until the hardware pops.

We also need to get away from the modern phase for teaching GCSEs in "How to use MS Word version x.y.z" and get back to actually teaching how to use computers.

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