Microsoft Designs a School :(

[thegathering]

Originally Posted by JamesBrown

I would venture to guess that if the Segway crashed when people used it in unusual ways you would not start to talk about how FIRST was a bad Idea. Just because Microsoft's software is not perfect there is no reason to assume that this school is a bad Idea.

Well, I'd start talking about how FIRST was a bad idea if the Segway started crashing frequently even when it was being used normally, a requirement of FIRST was that you rode one whenever you were building the robot or at competition, and you were only allowed to ride the Segway with Segway approved accessories excluding accessories that improved the Segway's usage.

Putting the Microsoft monopoly aside, I still don't believe it is a good idea to have a school system ran by a private company. You can just imagine what kind of problems you'd have with product usage if you look at private Christian schools, many of which require teachers to attend the church to teach at the school. Imagine being forced to use the company's products as an example for the company to allow you to teach at the school.




However, I think a technology school on that scale would be wonderful. I would love to see a school DESIGNED with the technological planning and proposals from Microsoft (which we are already being forcefed their software) and leave the school management to the government under the public school system. Perhaps a project similiar to the jobs a government contractor would perform, having the school contracted to a private business for design and planning but leaving the management of the final school product to the government's usage.


Our technology school is similiar to what they are proposing. We use smart boards in every other classroom, have a total of 25 computer labs with an estimated 450 3.0GHZ 1GB ram computers at our disposal, and an entire IT corridor. Our classes use Microsoft Windows on almost all computers except for a MacLab upstairs and a couple more personal Linux conversion boxes. The courses we teach, though, allow an expansive amount of software that we can use. For example, in computer art classes, there is the option to use either Adobe Photoshop or The Gimp if you are comfortable with it. APCS can use multiple IDEs such as JCreator or BlueJ. Classes have the option to use different products if different products are available.

This allows for broader familiarity of software to prevent becoming reliant on on products or series of products. I fear that Microsoft will limit their students to using only Microsoft "kool-aid", limiting students to working with Microsoft in the future and continuing Microsoft's firm lead in the OS marketplace.

Personally, I feel that it is important for students to learn what options are available to them. Eating pizza every day would not allow you to experience a world of other flavors, not to mention it would not be very healthy for you. I feel that third party software and open source software provide these other flavors. They also may give a better learning environment by providing more dynamic features that would not be contained in the Microsoft product (look at Firefox vs IE 6).

Just my .02 and I'll let you guys discuss further.