Followup To "When Teachers Are Obstacles To Linux" 626
An couple of anonymous readers wrote in to let us know about a followup to last Wednesday's story of the teacher who didn't believe in free software. The Linux advocate who posted the original piece has cooled off and graciously apologized for going off half-cocked (even though the teacher had done the same), and provided a little more background which, while not excusing the teacher's ignorance, does make her actions somewhat more understandable. Ken Starks has talked with the teacher, who has received a crash education in technology over the last few days — Starks is installing Linux on her computer tomorrow. He retracts his insinuations about Microsoft money and the NEA. All in all he demonstrates what a little honest communication can do, a lesson that all of us who advocate for free software can take to heart. "The student did get his Linux disks back after the class. The lad was being disruptive, but that wasn't mentioned. Neither was the obvious fact that when she saw a gaggle of giggling 8th grade boys gathered around a laptop, the last thing she expected to see on that screen was a spinning cube. She didn't know what was on those disks he was handing out. It could have been porn, viral .exe's...any number of things for all she knew. When she heard that an adult had given him some of the disks to hand out, her spidey-senses started tingling. Coupled with the fact that she truly was ignorant of honest-to-goodness free software, and you have some fairly impressive conclusion-jumping. In a couple of ways, I am guilty of it too."
It simply illuminates a single fact. (Score:5, Interesting)
Teachers are incredibly undereducated when it comes to technology.
Why the colleges that teach these teachers are choosing to NOT require classes in technology is beyond me.
Where is any verification of any of this? (Score:5, Interesting)
This guy is getting a tonne of publicity for this (and apparently he is well versed in the art of getting attention for his projects in this manner), based upon nothing verifiable.
Maybe I'm just too internet shellshocked to believe anything any more, but it reeks of being a complete fabrication, in an era when Lying on the Internet is considered perfectly okay so long as you know to say "Ha ha! All a joke!" if caught, or perhaps the classic "This was just an example composite of various situations!".
I could be entirely wrong, but it all seems like a terribly thin ruse to me, with a ridiculous, one dimensional strawman (or women in this case) put up and then viciously knocked down. On the resulting torrent of perhaps gullible internet vigilantes, a hastily written cool-down appeared to, perhaps, try to divert them before they uncover the fiction of this (if it is fiction. My bets are that it is, but that's an uninformed opinion).
Then again, maybe I'm just too skeptical.
Hmm... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Obviously sign of jumping to conclusions (Score:3, Interesting)
Some "special needs" students are permitted to bring in laptops for use at school. My son is on a 504 education plan to help with his ADD and ambliopia. He qualifies to use a laptop or a typing device (Alpha Smart) but refuses to use either (for some reason using a laptop makes him stand out in a negative way but his blue hair was acceptable to him...still has me confused on that one).
Oh, Howard County Maryland is the school system. I haven't heard of any plans to allow laptops in general but they do have special exceptions as I mentioned above.
Re:Where is any verification of any of this? (Score:4, Interesting)
As one aside -- this story reminds me, somehow, of the guy who took donated computers and prepped them for needy kids or something, and some purported donor complained when he found out his donation was going to a "retard". My fiction senses are giving me the same vibrations.
But I can't find that computer donation one. Anyone have a link to it if you remember?
Re:Cheaper by the dozen (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Where is any verification of any of this? (Score:5, Interesting)
Found it, and it's the SAME GUY. Honestly when the correlation clicked in my mind I had no idea at all that it was the same guy, but somehow the hashing algorithm was colliding the two articles.
http://linuxlock.blogspot.com/2008/09/wasted-on-idiot.html [blogspot.com]
Wow.
Re:Obviously sign of jumping to conclusions (Score:5, Interesting)
Though the teacher grossly over-reacted, why don't some people understand that, especially at the lower grade levels, teachers have to teach to the standards?
Windows != "standards". And, by the time a 7th grader enters the work force, Windows will be less like the XP he's using now than Mandriva is like XP.
There are, of course, businesses that need some sort of proprietary, Windows-only software (e.g., Photoshop) but a spreadsheet is a spreadsheet, a word processer is a word processer. Each new version of Microsoft Word is less like the previous version or Word than that previous version was to Star Office.
Microsoft software in schools is a pitiful, ignorant waste of my tax money.
One shouldn't show up to a guitar class handing out trumpets to everybody and then expect the teacher to teach to both the guitar and the trumpet
But your analogy is completely flawed. More accurate is the kid is showing up in a guitar class with a Fender and the teacher is complaining that everyone else has Gibsons.
When I was in high school things like cell phones, cameras, pagers, and especially laptops were considered contraband!
That was the case when my daughters were in high school (my oldest is 23), and I and others fought that policy tooth and nail.
When I was in high school a computer needed a whole building, and it had less computing power than a Hallmark greeting card. But I'll get off your lawn anyway, Grandpa.
Re:Obviously sign of jumping to conclusions (Score:3, Interesting)
He wants his personality to stand out, not what others will perceive as deficits. Besides, these days having your natural color of hair is more likely to make you stand out than blue would. A lot of people are honestly surprised when they learn that I don't have any tattoos... even to the point of asking "why not?"
Re:Cheaper by the dozen (Score:3, Interesting)
I *am* computer literate (Score:5, Interesting)
At least she didn't threaten to set the FBI on him. [centos.org]
Note: it seems Dopey [robsell.com] has moved on, [tuttle-ok.gov] but his replacement's qualifications don't look too impressive...
Um... no. (Score:5, Interesting)
They now know that the teacher didn't know something in particular about computers and software. (I'm a geek, and I know there's plenty about how kids use computers today that I have no clue about, or only the most general notion.) It's not a surprise that she doesn't know everything - I'm pretty sure the kids were already aware that she's a human being. The question is, does she know about the topics she's teaching about and the techniques for successfully teaching them? Nothing presented so far hints that the answer is 'no'.
And as for "2", that's quite a jump, considering even the blogger parent acknowledges the kid was being 'disruptive'. If Linux (or software in general) wasn't the topic under discussion, then temporarily taking away the discs and directing attention back to the class - which is what seems to have happened - isn't "valuing obedience over correctness".
So, at most, the kids know the teacher has limited operating system knowledge, and she wants the kids to focus on the class. She did jump to conclusions based on the knowledge she had, but she addressed her message to the parent, and appears to be capable of learning when she finds out she's mistaken. That alone puts her above the 90th percentile among humans.
Re:Culture of Fear (Score:2, Interesting)
This is a major reason why I, as an adult male, no longer teach grade school: "Once accused, always guilty."
ebooks (Score:2, Interesting)
It's way cheaper to give a poor student over in east elbownia hundreds of ebooks and to keep that updated electronically than to try and provide hundreds of dead tree books. Way cheaper and easier. That was the main point of the XO originally. As to the US, we've made team sports and learning political correctness and to not question authority at all for any reason ever the primary goals of "primary" education. You get what you pay for, and in those regards it looks like it has been a successful and transformational social engineering project. If they really wanted to push "education" first, there's nothing stopping them at all, but they don't, that is way down their list of priorities.
Belcerebons (Score:3, Interesting)
You hit it square on the head and I think you do not even know it. There is a reason senators, parliamentarians, presidents and prime ministers have handlers, spokespeople and speech writers. When they say something, people listen. People listen for no other reason than they have a very large, very public soap box.
Arguing on the internet is not longer just packets floating passing in the night because, people are now paying attention. For better or worse and as scary as it is, these tubes now have a measure of credibility. Public figures care about their wikipedia profile, millions of people interact with social software and the internet has made a man President of the United States. It has also made many ugly things public and given an unprecedented voice to the vocal minority.
The internet is the largest and most public soap box in history. In this case, two people who appear to be very good at their jobs crossed paths. Their intersection occurred in a place of misunderstanding and the very real, very human fear of the unknown erupted in a hiss of venom and malice. It is unfortunate that the worst part of their interaction was placed on display for all to see. It is very heartening to see they have made effort to discuss their misunderstandings and learn from each other. Two people lost their heads and had a heater exchange. Normally only they and their close friends would know. They did it on the internet and shared their anger almost telepathically. Ironically, we use the internet to simultaneously blather on about meaningless trivia and share an almost telepathic bond.
Re:Culture of Fear (Score:1, Interesting)
Clearly the 'Ministry of Fear' is working in the U.S.
I assume you don't live in the U.S., otherwise you would know this by now.
Case in point: My brother takes his 2 sons to the park so they can play at the playground, and play with their RC cars. In return, he gets the evil eye from every woman at the park.
The end result of all the media saturation with 'think of the children' scenarios, has led the 1st assumption to be that an alone male with children, is an instant pedophile.
People are dumb, and can be convinced of anything if it is repeated often enough. This has been consistent throughout history. I personally have been guilty of such things, but have learned to cure myself of such stupidity.
As for the rest of society? It's probably going to get worse, before it gets better.
Re:Obviously sign of jumping to conclusions (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes I don't think the blogger was being too harsh (remember the teacher threatened to SUE him - an attack without merit), especially when you read what OTHER teachers have posted. Like this one:
I am a school teacher in the Austin Independent School District and while I don't know any "Karen", I am intimately familiar with the rhetoric and attitude. The author here is uncomfortably close to knowing what he's talking about when he speaks of the NEA. We are "encouraged strongly" to discourage the use of anything other than Microsoft products in the school district and between the Tech folks fearing for their jobs and the ignorance of all the "Karens" I deal with daily, it's a wonder the boy wasn't publicly flogged.
I have been trying to get our school district to use Linux for 3 years and I've been told that I am to desist with this quest if I want to keep my job.
Those who questioned the email's authenticity owe him(?) an apology. Of course as I peruse the comments of the sort, I note with a wry smile that you don't have the courage to sign your name to it.
Cowardice is easy. I wish this author well.
Tim Daily
Re:Obviously sign of jumping to conclusions (Score:3, Interesting)
I think I have heard exactly your argument as to why schools and government need to advocate for Linux, because open standards mean there is much less worry about compatibility, what software people have, and such. Loosely advocating or quietly necessitating Office 2007 for every student is absurd. I would much prefer "you can use the schools free and supported open standard, or get whatever product you like and it should be compatible / be easy to comply with standards". And subsidizing kids that just can't afford windows / office is a terrible "patch" to the problem. At my school I have had kids bring in documents for Claris and Correl Works, and honestly, the most difficult to work with till recently was
And yeah, things have changed. Some rooms now have "class sets" of laptops. The cell phone war was won by parents, but kids are asked to not be disruptive in class, technology related or otherwise, which usually means put on silent.
Many kids can stay more organized with a computer, not to mention that, particularly with FOSS, tools and educational games on laptops are cheaper alternatives to paper material. In my very small district of less than 2 dozen schools k-12, >$8M is spent per year on printer paper. Laptops are also much lighter weight than what I remember carrying in my backpack at that age. Extra money could be spent on development of any number of things that might help improve FOSS educational software.
oh well, I know I am dreaming.
Re:The Teacher's Identity (Score:1, Interesting)
Yeah, my gf post on craigslist for another girl, and this asshole responded to her, calling her names and whatnot, and I googled his email, which turned up a bbs post where he gave out the same email to help people with something, and had a homer simpson avatar.
I googled his screen name, and found several more bbs postings with the same avatar, and another email address, which led back to his personal website, which had pictures and full names of him and his children. From that, I found his 16/17 year old son on Myspace and some gothic personals website. I found the guy's myspace, too, which had guess what? A freaking Homer Simpson theme.
So I wrote the guy and told him not to be an asshole, since I know who he was. And wrote me back, correctly identifying the person whose wifi I jacked to write him. Funny thing was that on his business website, it stated he had an on-going contract with the local ISP, so the fact that he knew my neighbor's name was only more confirmation.
So I sent him links to his children, and told him to be more careful and kind to people. For if I were a sociopath, I'd involve them.
Portugese descent in the US (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Obviously sign of jumping to conclusions (Score:3, Interesting)
To the OP's defense, I think it people sometimes can't tell how well-known their locale is to people outside their geographical area because they don't interact a lot with people from other areas (and when they do, the chances of their own city coming up in conversation may be low).
For example, I grew up in Annapolis, and I expect that most Americans will know this is in Maryland, but only because it is the capitol. But non-Americans? I don't think they really know much about it, but why should they? Now I live in Baltimore, and I wonder how many Americans know where to find it on a map. I mean, it was once the largest city in the country, and it's near other very prominent cities, so I think most Americans know where it is. But it's not terribly exciting currently and has no foreign policy significance, so how many Europeans know where it is? Everyone around here can point to it on map, but until you see other people talk about it, or hear references to your home area on TV shows or movies, it's hard to tell how aware others are.
Re:Obviously sign of jumping to conclusions (Score:3, Interesting)
Though the teacher grossly over-reacted, why don't some people understand that, especially at the lower grade levels, teachers have to teach to the standards?
No one expected her to teach Linux. The kids were learning it for themselves.
Telling them that they should only learn what they are taught is the opposite of education.
One shouldn't show up to a guitar class handing out trumpets to everybody and then expect the teacher to teach to both the guitar and the trumpet.
Bad analogy. No one expected her to teach Linux.
I would not expect a guitar teacher to try to prevent their pupils learning the trumpet in another class. I would not expect the guitar teacher to claim that trumpets were illegal and threaten to sue anyone who gave children trumpets.
Oh my (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Cheaper by the dozen (Score:2, Interesting)
XP, Vista, and Office 2007 are nothing luke what they will encounter in the real world. They'll be dealing with Windows 2015 and Office 2015...
I really hate to break this to you, but newer versions are similar enough that you can take what you've learned with you.
considering the coming depression I expect more businesses to go toward open source solutions.
Given the current recession, I think most companies will stay put. If they're not going to spend money to upgrade, they certainly aren't going to spend money to move to an entirely new platform. They'll squeeze more out of what they have, just like people are now keeping their cars longer than they did just last year.
The rich run things. They are in charge. They will make sure that theirs are taken care of, and if theeir kids are forced to go to public school, it will improve. As long as the poor's children are forced to have incompetent teachers, old material, crumbling buildings and so forth we have a two-tier, unequal education system.
Ya, keep telling yourself that. Its not YOUR fault you're failing, or having problems. Its everyone else. Forcing "rich" kids into school won't change anything, sorry. I love how you ignore that private school teachers are better than public school ones.. so instead of getting kids into THOSE schools, you want to bring the "rich" kids into public schools. All the while stealing money from me for your own benefit. Wonderful.