Becta, the advisory body on the use of ICT in education in Britain, has released a report cautioning against the deployment of Microsoft Vista and Office 2007 in schools "... as the costs are significant and the benefits remain unclear." Becta give file format incompatibilities, particularly between Office 2007 and earlier versions as an issue, portability of documents between school and home should be ensured to prevent a digital divide and imposing an unnecessary financial burden on parents (ie by making a situation where they had to buy Office 2007). However  "...Vista can be considered where new institution wide ICT provision is being planned." they say. 

I am of the view that teaching children to use specific products at school is misguided and pointless. There is no way of knowing what they will encounter when they move on from school. It is far more important that...

a) they know how to use computers responsibly with regard to security, privacy and safety

b) they understand the underlying principles so that if they are presented with an unfamiliar environment they can find their way round it.

This suggests then that schools should be encouraged to have a bit of everything. There is no reason why an Art or Music department shouldn't have Apple Mac's, in fact they should have them as the Mac is dominant in the media world. Likewise if you are teaching ICT as a subject there should be at least equal exposure to open source products as to Microsoft, as Open Source is dominant on the Internet and gaining ground elsewhere.

A mixed environment has to be managed carefully to not get in the way of day to day learning. One of the advantages claimed of Vista by Microsoft is that it is easier (than XP) to deploy and manage in a corporate environment. This is indeed true if you are talking about a pure Vista environment but there are third party products that can manage mixed environments just as well, if not better (ZEN desktop management from Novell is my long term favourite, but there are others) so the management argument is not compelling.

Becta also say that "Pupils, teachers and parents should also be made aware of the wide range of free-to-use products currently available and on how to use and access them." Quite so.

If you are a school or educational establishment, particularly if you are located in the West Midlands or Shropshire, and would like independent advice on how to make the most of open source software, or how to manage a mixed environment, contact me at estm. 

The Becta report can be downloaded from here .

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