[BadVista Advocate] UK Becta recommending ODF/avoiding OOXML and Vista "not recommended"

[Fred Okuma]

A little bit off-topic now, but Becta gave one 
good reason in their report to recommend 'open 
software' in educational environment.

My summary:
- Some say students should be familiar with 
'industry standard' software (meaning Microsoft 
Office).
- Not true. Students are now highly computer 
literate. They can use many types of applications.
- Multi-vendor skill sets should enhance 
employability in the 21st century, not limit it.

Excerpt from the report follows. Becta recommends 
'freely available software' instead of so-called 
'industry standard software' in it ( 
http://publications.becta.org.uk/download.cfm?resID=35275 
):

---- quote ----
Addressing issues of mind set
6.12
Some schools and colleges take the view that they 
need to use a specific proprietary software 
product because that product is widely used in 
industry and commerce, and, the argument goes, 
students need to be familiar with what is in the 
Œreal world ¹.
...(snip)...

6.13
However, students today are usually highly ICT 
literate, and are likely to use a wide range of 
ICT software in school or college ­ possibly even 
a wider range at home. They can also happily 
switch from using computers at school to those at 
home or in the local library or internet café. 
They would be very unlikely to be incapable of 
using a particular version of an office 
productivity suite when they left school because 
they had become used to using (say) 
OpenOffice.org at school.

6.14
In summary, the Œfamiliarity ¹ argument is more 
suited to pupils of the 1980s and 1990s than to 
those of the 21st century. Indeed it would be a 
poor testament to today ¹s ICT education if, on 
leaving formal education, young people were 
unable to use a basic software package (such as 
office productivity software or a web 
browser)just because it had some differences in 
functionality, or in its user interface, from the 
one they had used at school or college. 
Multi-vendor skill sets should enhance 
employability in the 21st century, not limit it.

---- end quote ----

Fred