Thoughts and Theories From Roger Andre
for the curious, and people getting to grips with computing and computers.
Tuesday 30 December 2008, 10:07 PM
Linux Confiscation At School.
After listening to the "the tech guy" 519 on Leo Laportes' Twit.TV
I was struck by one of the news items at the begining of the show. It was about a boy at school in the US who was handing out a linux distribution to his class mates. Apparently the teacher freaked out when she realised what was going on and confiscated the said disks, only to then go on and sing the virtues of microsoft and windows at the class, and that the kids were not to use this "linux" as it wasn't part of the school cirriculum and therefore somehow not relevent.
Well, I say fair play to the kid for looking beyond what schools call "learning about computers". The thing pointed out in the show is that todays children are growing up with computers around them in a way my generation never did. They are just a part of the funiture, a part of everyday life to these kids. To some of my generation the advent of computing was and still is an enduring marvel, something to gawp at and sometimes drool over.
What concerns me here is that schools tend to be teaching kids that using computers is about learning to use microsoft products such as word, powerpoint etc, all very well, but how about introducing elements of computer science into the classroom and not just leaving it as an option for further education. Anyhow, the event is fully talked about in the the tech guy podcast.
I was struck by one of the news items at the begining of the show. It was about a boy at school in the US who was handing out a linux distribution to his class mates. Apparently the teacher freaked out when she realised what was going on and confiscated the said disks, only to then go on and sing the virtues of microsoft and windows at the class, and that the kids were not to use this "linux" as it wasn't part of the school cirriculum and therefore somehow not relevent.
Well, I say fair play to the kid for looking beyond what schools call "learning about computers". The thing pointed out in the show is that todays children are growing up with computers around them in a way my generation never did. They are just a part of the funiture, a part of everyday life to these kids. To some of my generation the advent of computing was and still is an enduring marvel, something to gawp at and sometimes drool over.
What concerns me here is that schools tend to be teaching kids that using computers is about learning to use microsoft products such as word, powerpoint etc, all very well, but how about introducing elements of computer science into the classroom and not just leaving it as an option for further education. Anyhow, the event is fully talked about in the the tech guy podcast.
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