TER Day 4: Reflections

I am slammed. Outside life keeps demanding attention ... I have to get this sorted before practicum starts and deal to the first assignments, which I have yet to work on outside class.

Lots of time setting up IT systems - interacting with IT help staff was interesting exercize in communication... they know about the servers and the network setup, but not gnu/linux. Considering digital divide issues in many schools, and the use of free/open source in addressing this, it seems surprising but still... once tech support understood that expertise could be shared, we were able to collaborate to something of a solution. I'd like to do this faster but without scaring people so much.

It's been a while since I looked at the software re learning. I know a couple of strong MS advicates are in class ... I heard that a basic licence for windows and the basic tools for students (word, excell etc) comes to about $400 ... to be paid periodically in most cases (unless they have access via work).
Since many schools don't seem to directly pay for their IT this could be a hidden impact on students later.

However, commercial products should be seen as the alternative to free/libre offerings ... and many schools around Aotearoa/NZ (practise official language) are seeing things that way...
http://www.catalyst.net.nz/news/new-zealand-open-source-software-now-used-1000-nz-schools-myportfolio