[wilhelmtux-discussion] Schulen ans Netz

Claude Almansi claude.almansi at bluewin.ch
Sam Feb 22 00:51:22 CET 2003


Hi,

I haven't followed the whole discussion in detail, because I was in
Geneva for the preparatory conference for WSIS (World Summit on
Information Society: African countries have no doubts whatsoever as to
the usefulness of Open Source - they can't afford the MS licenses for
one thing).

Yet re MS programs: I learned them in mucked-up-by-the-school-sysop
conditions, and without instructions, so it was quite an explorative
process - uselessly so, but a good training all the same. When my
daughter moved from a Mac to a PC with windows because she need Russian
characters, she asked for some coaching. It took me 5 minutes: "switch
the computer on" (the switch is artistically camouflaged on her
laptop)"enter the account with your name" "click on START" "click on the
little question mark in a blue circle and ask what you don't understand
- in programs, the question mark is top right". 

If she can do that, she can do it with non MS programs too. The problem
with school "computer teaching" is that usually, the help menu is the
first thing the guy in charge mucks up. The other problem is that the
bloke in charge of training teachers shows a lot of things and actions,
instead of letting people explore the functions in a task-based
approach. So teachers get frightened they've missed a point - and shit
their pants when a new version comes out - let alone at the idea of
using another text-editor, feuille de calcul etc

First time I decided to do a powerpoint presentation, I just adapted a
template. It was called "project post-mortem" ;-)

Claude