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Becta warn schools not to sign deals with Microsoft....

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jont
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« on: October 29, 2007, 09:20:03 AM »
"The UK computer agency Becta is advising schools not to sign licensing agreements with Microsoft because of alleged anti-competitive practices."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7063716.stm
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stu_mob
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Stuart Smith, University of Manchester

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« Reply #1 on: October 29, 2007, 12:11:44 PM »
It needs to happen. The education field is dominated by one player far too much and thats got to be bad UK PLC. I am definately NOT anti-Microsoft but it concerns me the love affair the educational economy has with this one supplier.

Also, with the rest of world looking at other options e.g. One Laptop per Child, Indian government, China etc. We need to diversify our IT experience. In terms of ICT we need students who have transferable skills and at the moment we have too many who can use MS Word as opposed to being able to use a Wordprocessors.

So this a chance to look at other options and perhaps broaden the horizons of learners, educators and suppliers.

Stu
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Stuart Smith
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jont
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« Reply #2 on: October 29, 2007, 09:24:14 PM »
Yes indeed. I was told by a colleague that at an open night he was told, along with other parents, that they should all get Microsoft Office at home......and it is not just schools that have the obsession with MS unfortunately....

Interestingly, and I was going to put this on another thread sometime, on the desktop side of things  we are seeing a *lot* of users move away from Windows to Apple or Linux systems. Many of whom have in the past ridiculed Apple users.
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stu_mob
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Stuart Smith, University of Manchester

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« Reply #3 on: October 30, 2007, 05:30:44 PM »
Its pretty clear we are in broad agreement on this one. Your story about the parents evening is worrying and no its definitely not just schools.

I was doing one workshop on creating and delivering mobile objects and was using an open source bluetooth server to share some materials. The server was Mac only and when I told one guy he actually spat on the floor in disgust that I was using a Mac and not MS Windows - how disturbing is that???

Still it looks like the winds change of blowing and I think MS know, when I meet the guys and gals every now and again they seem pretty open to competition...

Funny ole world! Smiley
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Stuart Smith
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Di Dawson
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« Reply #4 on: November 10, 2007, 09:53:22 AM »
It's about time! There seems to be this fear to engage with the 'dark arts of the Linux world' amongst many organisations - certainly within the educational sphere.

I'm encouraging my son(14 yrs) to do his homework on Open Office running on one of my Ubuntu machines and he's finding the Powerpoint equivalent so much easier to use! How long does it take to make the teaching staff realise it's easier I wonder!!

After hundreds of years using PC based machines I've finally turned to Apple - having bought myself a Macbook last week and I'm in love!  Grin It's so easy to use, wonderfully simple and it's instant on - it takes less time to get started than my Smartphone (symbian) or PDA/Phone running Windows!!  Impatient woman as I am this makes a great difference...

I wonder why it's taken me this long to convert.... fear?!

As a MOLEnet mentor I'm seeing many colleges embracing hardware they might otherwise not touch - and introducing RIM or Apple servers etc so perhaps this is an era of change..... we'll see

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