The Brittish education minister Michael Gove called the current ICT curriculum "demotivating and dull" a year ago, BBC reports. "Imagine the dramatic change which could be possible in just a few years, once we remove the roadblock of the existing ICT curriculum. Instead of children bored out of their minds being taught how to use Word or Excel by bored teachers, we could have 11-year-olds able to write simple 2D computer animations, Gove said at the BETT conference for ICT in schools. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16493929
An extensive report on the failure of teaching boring office administration in schools, was made by Royal Society in 2011, inspiring the UK educational minister to change the whole curriculum. Basically blaming key Microsoft products for the whole mess. Then Microsoft nows tries to salvage the situation. http://royalsociety.org/education/policy/computing-in-schools/report/
Lying on your curriculum vitae may seem harmless. But in the eyes of the law, it is commiting fraud by false representation with a maximum penalty of three to ten years in prison in most western countries.
There are many examples of people lying on their CV to get a prestiges job. When the fraud is discovered, they get fired and maybe sued, judged an jailed. Not being an American, I guess US laws on falsifying documents are as tough as in UK and rest of Europe, as this examples shows in UK: A woman jailed for six months after lying on here CV
It's a false premises in calming that CEO's lies all the time, so adding a lie don't count as long as they earn chunks of money for their company. After the Enron bankruptcy December 2001, the Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX) was passed by the US Senate. In short, the law can prison lying CEO's for max 20 years if they give false information to the stock exchange or to investigating authorities. In such cases, a CEO who lies will be risking jail for months or years. someone brings it to court. It's before and after Enron. Dan Lyons at The Daily Beast may live in a world before Enron. The court system are more updated, Therefore lets wait for the court case against Yahoo who Daniel Loeb at Third Point has announced, and see how that goes regarding document fraud and the Sarbanes–Oxley Act: The Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX for short)
A quote from Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations 1776, is the best answer on James Murdoch worry for News Corporation's $32.996 billion USD revenue:
"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."
In 2004 twenty tons of computer equipment was sent from Oslo in Norway to Eritrea. This is the largest shipment of computer technology from Norway to a developing country ever to have taken place. The software chosen to accompany the computers was Skolelinux, a Linux distribution initially developed for, and successfully deployed in, hundreds of Norwegian schools. This was annonced at the EUs Open Source Observatory 12 October, 2004:
FAIR is an international non-profit NGO with its headquarters in Norway, aiding developing countries by supplying resources within ICT, such as hardware, software, training, information and support. By combining brand new hardware with first-class second-hand computers and the latest software upgrades applicable, FAIR aims to become a premier ICT supplier providing world leadership in cost effective computer networks and communication solutions.
The Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research has founded a report about free software in schools. It covers planning and deployment of Skolelinux/DebianEdu that currently includes 234 Norwegian schools, 33,000 client machines, and 101,000 pupils and teachers. It cover technical issues, economical and organisational issues. There are also feedback on how teachers uses free software in teaching.
The report basicly says that Skolelinux/DebianEdu has 30-40 percent less Total Cost of Ownership compared with proprietary solutions. This is based on experiences with free and propretary software at many schools operated centrally.
The situation is that there are to many evaluations of free software in education, but no one that really looks at the value of proprietary software. In Norway the number of computers has been doubled in education from the year 2000. With 250 Skolelinux installations as an exception, the most of the computers at 3900 schools has Microsoft Windows installed. Research done at the schools shows that the use of computers has stagnated, and in some courses it has decreased. Just in Norway it's done at least 3 evaluations of free software in Schools. Nobody has investigated if Microsoft software really works.
There are a heavy criticism of the use of computers at schools making the pupils to consumers with text-based tools with application e.g MS Office and some browsing of the Internet. The pupils use of computers at home is much more producer oriented with communication, gaming and making different things with picture and media clips. At home the pupils work with others on the Internet and exchanges what they have made. At schools the just work individually, not using their computer skills. MS Office is an individual application. That kind of office application has no communication value and it's heavily overrated as a teaching tool for learning. The scientists recommend a big change at schools, making more use of the pupils experience from home. If not utilise the pupils practice and experiences, they use of computers in schools could stagnate and the national plans using computers could be irrelevant in a future perspective.
The only thing Microsoft delivers is office applications and three communications application with e-mail, browser and a messenger (MSN). Teachers and the administration at schools takes it for granted that this i enough. But the don't at all give all the possibilities that the kids or a student use when they are using computers. In my opinion, if the science is done right, they will show that the immense selling effort done by the bureaucracy employed persons in the schools and higher education using office applications from Microsoft, is really hindering and crippling the learning process. When evaluating Microsoft product, the scientists will probably see that Microsoft immense and narrow focus on 5-6 applications has little or nothing to do with education.
So to investigate the use of Microsoft products could show that the products from Microsoft almost is irrelevant for teaching. The schools could easily replace Microsoft with free software where the educational applications could be used in a standard browser (e.g Firefox) and many of the educational programs that are available as free software.
Skolelinux is used by many more than the 93 that has told us that officially. They don't announce it because of the negative pressure from their ICT-department in the municipality. At least 5 municipalities has done fully migration to Skolelinux in all their schools. Thats a success because they starting using this Debian-based solution before it has reached 1.0...
We know that things takes time in spite of positively reports as the one from Statskonsult that concludes:
Skolelinux has taken the action plan "ICT in Education" seriously and made a product that is adapted to the school's situation and resources.
The user interface in OpenOffice[1] has already been translated to Nynorsk by The Linux for School project and tre regions in Norway. The total translation effort with quality insurance will take arround 4500 hours. (some older project-info in English http://developer.skolelinux.no/projectinf o.html.en )
Microsoft Norway tells one of the major newspapers[2] that The Linux for School project has nothing to do with the fact that the user interface in Office 11 will be translated into Nynorsk by the summer 2003.
MS Norway told Norsk mållag (an organisation which promote norwegian language) in april 2000 that translating would cost 30.000.000 norwegian kroner (4.100.000 Euro). After som debate MS told that translating would cost 10.000.000 NOK (1.370.000 Euro). Translation will cost around 2-3.000.000 NOK (275.000-412.000 Euro) was the message when Microsoft announced they should translate the user interface in Office 11 to Nynorsk 5. nov 2002.
Gaute Hvoslef Kvalnes, the main translator of KDE to Nynorsk, are altso working full time whith translating OpenOffice to Nynorsk. In may 2000 Gaute was rewarded with a price (Flower of Dialect) for his voluntary work for the norwegian language from Norsk mållag.
I have collected[1] at lot of TCO analysis on the Web. Unfortunately most of them is in one of the Nordic languages.
The most resent report from the The Technology-council in Denmark[1] says that a Linux-person can serv 3 times the amount of users compared with Windows NT/2000/XP.
Slashdot Mirror
The Brittish education minister Michael Gove called the current ICT curriculum "demotivating and dull" a year ago, BBC reports. "Imagine the dramatic change which could be possible in just a few years, once we remove the roadblock of the existing ICT curriculum. Instead of children bored out of their minds being taught how to use Word or Excel by bored teachers, we could have 11-year-olds able to write simple 2D computer animations, Gove said at the BETT conference for ICT in schools.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16493929
An extensive report on the failure of teaching boring office administration in schools, was made by Royal Society in 2011, inspiring the UK educational minister to change the whole curriculum. Basically blaming key Microsoft products for the whole mess. Then Microsoft nows tries to salvage the situation.
http://royalsociety.org/education/policy/computing-in-schools/report/
Lying on your curriculum vitae may seem harmless. But in the eyes of the law, it is commiting fraud by false representation with a maximum penalty of three to ten years in prison in most western countries.
There are many examples of people lying on their CV to get a prestiges job. When the fraud is discovered, they get fired and maybe sued, judged an jailed. Not being an American, I guess US laws on falsifying documents are as tough as in UK and rest of Europe, as this examples shows in UK: A woman jailed for six months after lying on here CV
It's a false premises in calming that CEO's lies all the time, so adding a lie don't count as long as they earn chunks of money for their company. After the Enron bankruptcy December 2001, the Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX) was passed by the US Senate. In short, the law can prison lying CEO's for max 20 years if they give false information to the stock exchange or to investigating authorities. In such cases, a CEO who lies will be risking jail for months or years. someone brings it to court. It's before and after Enron. Dan Lyons at The Daily Beast may live in a world before Enron. The court system are more updated, Therefore lets wait for the court case against Yahoo who Daniel Loeb at Third Point has announced, and see how that goes regarding document fraud and the Sarbanes–Oxley Act:
The Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX for short)
A quote from Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations 1776, is the best answer on James Murdoch worry for News Corporation's $32.996 billion USD revenue:
"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."
The press statement says:
Qt is already available under the GPL v2 and will continue to be so in addition to the GPL v3.
In 2004 twenty tons of computer equipment was sent from Oslo in Norway to Eritrea. This is the largest shipment of computer technology from Norway to a developing country ever to have taken place. The software chosen to accompany the computers was Skolelinux, a Linux distribution initially developed for, and successfully deployed in, hundreds of Norwegian schools. This was annonced at the EUs Open Source Observatory 12 October, 2004:
2 -debconf6.pdf
http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/3355/469
FAIR is an international non-profit NGO with its headquarters in Norway, aiding developing countries by supplying resources within ICT, such as hardware, software, training, information and support. By combining brand new hardware with first-class second-hand computers and the latest software upgrades applicable, FAIR aims to become a premier ICT supplier providing world leadership in cost effective computer networks and communication solutions.
http://www.fairinternational.org/
The Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research has founded a report about free software in schools. It covers planning and deployment of Skolelinux/DebianEdu that currently includes 234 Norwegian schools, 33,000 client machines, and 101,000 pupils and teachers. It cover technical issues, economical and organisational issues. There are also feedback on how teachers uses free software in teaching.
The report basicly says that Skolelinux/DebianEdu has 30-40 percent less Total Cost of Ownership compared with proprietary solutions. This is based on experiences with free and propretary software at many schools operated centrally.
http://developer.skolelinux.no/artikler/2006-04-0
The situation is that there are to many evaluations of free software in education, but no one that really looks at the value of proprietary software. In Norway the number of computers has been doubled in education from the year 2000. With 250 Skolelinux installations as an exception, the most of the computers at 3900 schools has Microsoft Windows installed. Research done at the schools shows that the use of computers has stagnated, and in some courses it has decreased. Just in Norway it's done at least 3 evaluations of free software in Schools. Nobody has investigated if Microsoft software really works.
There are a heavy criticism of the use of computers at schools making the pupils to consumers with text-based tools with application e.g MS Office and some browsing of the Internet. The pupils use of computers at home is much more producer oriented with communication, gaming and making different things with picture and media clips. At home the pupils work with others on the Internet and exchanges what they have made. At schools the just work individually, not using their computer skills. MS Office is an individual application. That kind of office application has no communication value and it's heavily overrated as a teaching tool for learning. The scientists recommend a big change at schools, making more use of the pupils experience from home. If not utilise the pupils practice and experiences, they use of computers in schools could stagnate and the national plans using computers could be irrelevant in a future perspective.
The only thing Microsoft delivers is office applications and three communications application with e-mail, browser and a messenger (MSN). Teachers and the administration at schools takes it for granted that this i enough. But the don't at all give all the possibilities that the kids or a student use when they are using computers. In my opinion, if the science is done right, they will show that the immense selling effort done by the bureaucracy employed persons in the schools and higher education using office applications from Microsoft, is really hindering and crippling the learning process. When evaluating Microsoft product, the scientists will probably see that Microsoft immense and narrow focus on 5-6 applications has little or nothing to do with education.
So to investigate the use of Microsoft products could show that the products from Microsoft almost is irrelevant for teaching. The schools could easily replace Microsoft with free software where the educational applications could be used in a standard browser (e.g Firefox) and many of the educational programs that are available as free software.
Skolelinux is used by many more than the 93 that has told us that officially. They don't announce it because of the negative pressure from their ICT-department in the municipality. At least 5 municipalities has done fully migration to Skolelinux in all their schools. Thats a success because they starting using this Debian-based solution before it has reached 1.0 ...
:-)
We know that things takes time in spite of positively reports as the one from Statskonsult that concludes:
Skolelinux has taken the action plan "ICT in Education" seriously and made a product that is adapted to the school's situation and resources.
It's now the action with migrating begins
The user interface in OpenOffice[1] has already been translated tof o.html.en )
t ml?articleID=429959
Nynorsk by The Linux for School project and tre regions in Norway. The
total translation effort with quality insurance will take arround 4500
hours. (some older project-info in English
http://developer.skolelinux.no/projectin
Microsoft Norway tells one of the major newspapers[2] that The Linux
for School project has nothing to do with the fact that the user
interface in Office 11 will be translated into Nynorsk by the summer
2003.
MS Norway told Norsk mållag (an organisation which promote norwegian
language) in april 2000 that translating would cost 30.000.000
norwegian kroner (4.100.000 Euro). After som debate MS told that
translating would cost 10.000.000 NOK (1.370.000 Euro). Translation
will cost around 2-3.000.000 NOK (275.000-412.000 Euro) was the
message when Microsoft announced they should translate the user
interface in Office 11 to Nynorsk 5. nov 2002.
Gaute Hvoslef Kvalnes, the main translator of KDE to Nynorsk, are
altso working full time whith translating OpenOffice to Nynorsk. In
may 2000 Gaute was rewarded with a price (Flower of Dialect) for his
voluntary work for the norwegian language from Norsk mållag.
[1] http://www.openofficeorg.no/
[2] http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/nett/article.jh
[3] http://developer.skolelinux.no/openoffice/
I have collected[1] at lot of TCO analysis on the Web. Unfortunately most of them is in one of the Nordic languages.
l
The most resent report from the The Technology-council in Denmark[1] says that a Linux-person can serv 3 times the amount of users compared with Windows NT/2000/XP.
[1]http://developer.skolelinux.no/rapporten.htm
[2]http://www.tekno.dk/top.php3?survey=1