Hi Rony. Good report. Infact if not for any thing (which really sounds like a joke ), at least education is best market for FOSS. And if what you say is true then this is the most dangerous thing to happen in education. Through one way or other Microsoft and company are currupting the education. This is becoming more like a cult where things are forced through sudo advantages being pushed down the throat of decision makers, educationalist in this case. This is exactly the way terrorists are cultivated. Sudo advantage, FUD against civil society etc. In this case the digital technology is the target and education is the platform. I think there are 100s of Free software which are used in many countries in education. Take an example of excla modura if I spell it correctly. This is a district in spain and the education is exclusively done using foss. I won't be surprised to know if they have such digital blackboards in classes exclusively running on FOSS. Other countries like brazil also have this policy. Happy hacking. Krishnakant.
On 27/06/11 16:47, Rony wrote:
Hello,
Nowadays there is a new trend among schools in Mumbai, to install electronic interactive black boards in classrooms. This concept is being marketed in a crazy way and there appears to be a race to install one everywhere. Marketing persons are convincing the school authorities that this is the only way to teach and will also help students that have learning difficulties. The systems run on Windows and teachers are being encouraged to do everything in MS Power Point slide shows by creating them every day. Another interesting thing is that they have a server installed where teachers must upload all their teaching material so it is commonly available to everyone. It appears that the hardware will be sold to the schools and the data made by the teachers may get used for marketing.
My question is that how much computing is needed in teaching today? Apart from showing educational films and slide shows in the auditorium, what more can be done in class using a computer?