Terry Collins wrote:
>
> Simon Bryan wrote:
>
> > There is a lot of truth in this. But don't necessarily blame the school. They
> > have trained teachers and educators trying to be accountants and financial
> > controllers, they are responsible to all sorts of people fro decisions regarding
> > finances (big and small) and so often cave in to 'get with the strength' or
> > should I say 'safety in numbers'. The old 'no-one ever got fired for buying IBM'
> > mentality.
>
> I think you have missed the import of what Rachel was saying.
> This was a free, set up and working system that cost zilch.
> They have wasted money by stupidity.
> More importantly, they wasted someone's time.
> Thankfully, the school I offered to help showed their mentality before
> I wasted too much of my time.
Similarly I think you missed Simon's point (sorry...) The staff most
likely didn't know or understand what Rachel had set up for them.
Because teachers are stretched to keep up with things they only get
around to thinking in terms of named packages rather than services. NT
is one of those named packages. Add to that the fact that DET is
pushing schools (gently) towards PC (and consequently windows) centric
networks, with free MicroSoft software for all, and you start to see the
picture.
I dare say it was good ole FUD that really made them waste the money.
Linux is still perceived as a non-standard solution (ironically). It
takes either a very brave or confidently well informed school to take
the "non-standard" route as you can be sure there will be a few parents
that know enough to be dangerous - and have attitudes and opinons to
match!
It's all too easy for us to overestimate how well schools understand
network technology. For the most part they don't.
> > The teachers themselves are flat out keeping up with curriculum
> > so they usually want almost a turnkey system, but one that is identical to
> > what they have at home so they can develop resources etc at home without
> > having to become expert in converting between platforms and OS's.
>
> Turnkey is not what they ever get. I can not repeat what teachers and
> support staff have said about SchoolNet, Oasis and the systems they
> have to deal with. Many are convinced that paperbased systems are far
> better.
>
> Funny about converting - my wife has this problem now - I refuse to
> provide any facilities for the conversion of microsoft proprietary
> format documents that come from any source. Once I explained it would
> cost us hundreds of dollars each year to legally obtain the software
> and open a whole pile of virus, trojan and other problems, she now
> insists on open format documents being sent.
>
> --
> Terry Collins {:-)}}} Ph(02) 4627 2186 Fax(02) 4628 7861
> email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] www: http://www.woa.com.au
> or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> WOA Computer Services <lan/wan, linux/unix, novell>
> snail: PO Box 1047, Campbelltown, NSW 2560.
>
> "People without trees are like fish without clean water"
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