[wilhelmtux-discussion] Code question re Microsoft's Digital Literacy tutorials (part of the IT-Fitness initiative)

Claude Almansi claude.almansi at bluewin.ch
Wed Oct 17 22:28:23 CEST 2007


Hi All

In an exchange about whether IT-Fitness would or would not have a
stand at Ticino Informatica, Dr Meierhans , Corporate Affairs &
Citzenship Lead / LCA of Microsoft Switzerland also mentioned that the
Microsoft  Switzerland's Digital Literacy tutorials (the formative
part of IT-Fitness)  were already online in Italian at
<http://www.microsoft.com/switzerland/digitalliteracy/it/main.html>
(I'll use the German version
<http://www.microsoft.com/switzerland/digitalliteracy/de/main.html>).

From the titles ( *  Computergrundlagen * Das Internet und das  World
Wide Web   * Produktivitätsprogramme  * Computersicherheit und
Datenschutz   * Leben in der digitalen Welt), they seem to reflect a
rather  traditional notion-based more than problem-based pedagogical
approach, but maybe a  less Microsoft-loaded one than the test
questions.

The problem is that I can't open the linked  tutorials, neither with
firefox, nor with Opera, nor with Safari, nor with realPlayer.

I'm script illiterate, but per se the ones for the links (like <a
href="javascript:ajaxGetContent('basic');" class="itemNavigator"
id="basic">Computergrundlagen</a>)  sounded normal to me. Could the
explanation be in the following passage in the head:

<!--[if IE]>
<link href="css/ie.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
<![endif]-->
<!--[if !IE 7]>
<script language="Javascript" type="text/javascript">
var ie = true;
</script>
<![endif]-->

I.e. am I right in surmising that it means: "If you have an old
version of Internet Explorer, we'll show you the tuts through a style
sheet; If you have IE 7 you'll be able to see it directly through the
javascripts" with, as subtext: "if you don't use IE at all, tough
titty".

But if this is so, why don't they have a further "if not IE and if not
IE7" line  that opens a message saying  clearly, well maybe not "if
you don't use IE at all, tough titty", but "The tutorials cannot be
viewed with the browser you are using" or "You need Internet Explorer
in order to view the tutorials"?

Moreover, these tutorials are part of the IT-Fitness initiative, which
Microsoft Switzerland has  taken great pains to present as something
it is only one among several partners in, and not something it
excogitated to promote its products.   Isn't there a kind of
contradiction there, if I understand that code passage correctly?

Best

Claude Almansi


More information about the wilhelmtux-discussion mailing list