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List:       suse-linux-uk-schools
Subject:    [suse-linux-uk-schools] OO and exam boards
From:       Paul Taylor <ptaylor () uklinux ! net>
Date:       2004-06-30 22:05:43
Message-ID: 200406302305.43417.ptaylor () uklinux ! net
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I take everyone's points on board and I was rather devil's advocating (English 
is such a wonderful language that you can invent words to suit..).  I am 
pushing  Ingots at my SMT Ian but the same argument remains from Tony and 
Thomas that it is tried and tested things that managemant want.  Many of the 
school's I have worked at the leaders have been very thin on technical 
knowledge so getting 60 more Windows boxes in is an easy option compared to a 
suit of LTSP.
On Thomas's particular point that it is tried and tested I did say that 
Edexcel's Units 24/25 can only really be taught by Cisco Academys and I know 
there are not that many about.  I would say there are as many people 
knowledgeable enough with Linux to teach it as there are Cisco Academys but 
obviously pressure and money have been applied there.  On Joe's more specific 
example that does not necessarily negate what I am saying as I too have 
taught with Linux material and at a recent AQA moderation meeting I was told 
that the chief moderator used LAMP stuff like Moodle but added that he didn't 
really promote it.  People who use Linux are generally more computer savvy 
and it would be a harsh examiner that penalised a student for something that 
they obviously knew as much about or more than a moderator, regardless of 
whether it was mentioned in the official syllabus.  This brings me back in a 
way to Thomas's more general point that it relates to teachers.  He says that 
in some way it relates to qualified teachers who can handle the units.  That 
is only partly true.  All exam boards offer Programming as a portfolio unit 
but I doubt there are more than 1% of schools in the country that have staff 
that could teach it properly (or networking, CGI, Computer Accounts et al for 
that fact).  I am no complete philanthropist and if I could write good C++ I 
doubt I would be fighting teenage rebellions in my classroom day in day 
out :)  I bet there are more than 1% of staff in schools in the UK who have 
dabbled in Linux.  Every school I have so far taught at in the SW has had 
some ICT teacher who has set up a Linux server for the school's web.
I suppose, again to answer Thomas's comments, I would create a unit to 
supplement the other units offered by the boards.  As Joe points out, it is 
easy to do database and networking units using Linux but only if you know a 
bit about it.  Why not have a general Linux unit to support the other ones.  
Every student could use Knoppix or similar (SuSE 9.1 live if this is still a 
SuSE site post-Roger) and not make a mess of the school's network and as Joe 
did (and in conjunction with Ian) everyone could write it up on OOo with 
their knowledge acquired from Ingot training.

Paul
-- 
De Omnibus Dubitandum

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