[Dfey-nw-discuss] Fwd: [sf-uk-discuss] Re: Sad mis understanding

[Tim Dobson]

Quote of the month!

"The student was showing the ability of the laptop and handing out Linux 
disks. After confiscating the disks I called a confrence with the 
student and that is how I came to discover you and your organization. "
(from:http://linuxlock.blogspot.com/2008/12/linux-stop-holding-our-kids-back.html)

--

I'm not sure I've encountered an attitude this obstinate, but I have had 
some problems from staff (mainly educational IT staff, about gnu/linux)

Tim

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [sf-uk-discuss] Re: Sad mis understanding
Date: Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:24:59 +0000
From: Ian Lynch <address@hidden>
Reply-To: address@hidden
To: address@hidden
References: <address@hidden>


On Tue, 2008-12-09 at 20:46 +0000, Steve Lee wrote:
> Seems some teachers need educating
>
> http://linuxlock.blogspot.com/2008/12/linux-stop-holding-our-kids-back.html
>
> (via linuxgirlie on twitter)

To be fair, this attitude is not that widespread, it's an extreme but of
course dangerous in people with authority and pretty obviously a
dreadful attitude to technological education. The vast majority of
teachers would like to migrate to open source if they were sure they
could run the software they are familiar with and wouldn't have any pain
in the transition. Of course learning new things is a chore (irony of
rhetoric about lifelong learning is that those that shout about it the
loudest for political reasons appear to be the least likely to do it
themselves) and no-one likes chores. Innovators aren't normal :-) They
try to adapt the world to themselves, then come the early adopters who
like new stuff for the sake of it which is the phase we are in now, then
the early majority who see sense in change and decide its inevitable so
let's go with it and on into the late majority before the laggards and
ludites get dragged kicking and screaming to new ways of doing things
because they are terrified of change. The example above is what happens
when you present a late majority/laggard individual with stuff at the
early adopter phase. It's well documented that until all the previous
categories are on board few if any of the next group will adopt. They
need the confidence generated by adoption by earlier groups. The
marketing lesson to learn is to identify and go for early adopter/early
majority and don't waste energy on those that are so change/risk
averse.

The good thing is that this sequence is common to many changes yet
change still happens.

--
Ian
Ofqual Accredited IT Qualifications
A new approach to assessment for learning
www.theINGOTs.org - 01827 305940

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www.tdobson.net
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If each of us have one object, and we exchange them, then each of us
still has one object.
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