Comment by iamNumber4 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by iamNumber4 | Hacker News Reader

We should all be taking offense by this.

This is the drug dealer play book, Hook the kids early, so that when they are adults they go with what they know, instead of being critical thinkers and evaluating the available products to pick the best technical solution for the needs at hand.

this is why small to mid-sized companies are struggling with MS server products, and are locked into this merry-go-round licensing fees. Other products that could alleviate are ignored because of F.U.D. Thus giving us Camps of Pro Apple, Pro Microsoft, anti open source, pro open source.

We should be teaching kids at a young age about all platforms, what they are good for, what they are not. So that we can educate the next generation of workers about computers in general. while not trying to indoctrinate them into a particular platform.

So educators and decision makers please take heed, and realize life is about choice., We should be teaching about choices, and then evaluating the choices once made. Then regardless of the choices we make, we learn from the outcome. If you make a poor choice, you are free to make a different choice the next time around.

"Hook the kids early, so that when they are adults they go with what they know"

What exactly do you think Apple (iPads) and Google (Chromebooks) are doing by encouraging the use of their devices in the classroom?

"We should be teaching kids at a young age about all platforms,"

Most schools don't have the budget to purchase a sampling of all the major products/platforms. You also can't train a staff on all platforms. Lastly, that's not the point of bringing these devices into the classroom - it's not "pick a future computing platform 101" These are tools and teachers want to give them to, and teach their students how to use them to accomplish their goals.

I think it's different from drugs in that it is not actually addicting and also is necessary. I don't think teaching kids about different operating systems is very necessary, most people just do basic word processing and Web surfing on their computers, which is pretty similar across operating systems

Parent is right, a mix of platforms is inevitable. Might as well take advantage of the opportunities, instead of trying to preserve a monoculture. The school board could quite reasonably insist that all digital school work must be submitted in open file formats. They could acquire a wide range of hardware, continuously, and allocate higher or lower spec machines depending on the actual needs of each class or grade year.

What the school loses in simplicity, they gain in budget flexibility. What the student loses in familiarity, they gain in resiliency. Change and diversity cannot be stopped or squashed. Open source does take a bit of work, but it pays for itself, partly in lowered risk, especially for large non-profit or low-budget organizations.

Is everyone a programmer or engineer in your reality?

I'd rather see an assortment of different products in schools. Web functionality is pretty much the only thing that has to be common for all.

Teachers should be taught the principles of connecting to Wi-Fi, just like the students. How to figure things out on your own is more or less the whole point of computers in schools. Maybe I just like the directed chaos of Montessori.

Apple IIs were all over US schools for this reason.

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