Re: [Sheflug] ShefLUG - May/June 2008 Meeting

["Bob Mottram" <fuzzgun@xxxxxxxxx>]

2008/5/24 Richard Ibbotson <richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>>Our IT teacher once threw us off the computers for mentioning open source!

These people are just displaying their ignorance, and are in need of
some education themselves.  As someone who has been in the software
business all his adult life I can say that if the current generation
of school kids aren't exposed to FOSS they simply won't succeed if
they want to become software engineers later on.  Unlike when I was
growing up computers are now an essential aspect of everyday life, and
children should be encouraged to learn as much as possible about them
(i.e. become an informed computer using citizenry), and I'm not just
talking about being taught to use Microsoft Word.  Children should not
be taught to be dependent upon proprietary software, like drones, but
then I'm probably preaching to the converted here.


> To relate back to my own school days.  When I was eight years old I
> began to take an interest in transistors.  This was at a time when
> everyone was still using valves.  When my teachers found out that I
> was using a Philips electronic kit to build a transceiver it was
> confiscated.  Same thing happened when I was thirteen.

I was a teenager in the 1980s and at that time "home computing" was
just starting.  Most of the teachers at school had no idea what a
computer was, let alone how to use one, and the kids were the real
experts.  I spent a lot of time hanging around with a small bunch of
kids who were also interested in software and electronics.  It seems
crazy now, but one of my school friends wrote a game and sold it to a
company for the princely sum of £100.  Today the idea of one person
writing a game of commercial interest seems insane.


> So, don't ask your teacher for help and you should be fine.  At least,
> that's how it was for me.  Recently there was a news item which
> claimed that something like 18 000 to 24 000 teachers had been proved
> to be incompetent.  Lets see where is it.....  Oh ! Here we go...


When I was at school (a long time ago) there were a couple of teachers
who were really excellent and from whom I learned a lot, but the rest
were mediocre at best.  Everything I learned about computers at that
time was either on my own or from other kids.

- Bob

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