BECTA urged to show strong leadership for UK Schools
by SoftwareGuru
posted Monday 10th November 2008 14:14 GMT
Before we can discuss the role of BECTA in the UK education industry, we must first place this blogpost in context. To do so, we must consider the core issue of interoperability.
What is it?
Interoperability is the ability of a system or a product to work with other systems or products.
Why is it important?
Schools and other educational institutions usually buy Microsoft software. However, BECTA has been criticised in the past for failing to adequately address a wider range of IT suppliers and vendors in the education market.
Recent reports have highlighted concerns from schools who are unsure whom to turn to for “impartial advice” on IT spending.
This is a fundamental concern both for schools and SAM UK. It is only through sharing honest, transparent and accurate advice on IT spending that both schools and a company like ourselves can work together effectively.
Microsoft's success worldwide and aggressive sales targets often make it the target for unfair criticism. Especially when in times of economic downturn, a corporation like Microsoft is uniquely poised to improve the lives of its customers and clients through value for money goods and services.
Interoperability is also a concern for large software companies (visit Microsoft Interoperability for more info) who are working hard to find the balance between running a hugely profitable global business and not ignoring free-to-use open source developments.
"We see the current economic climate as quite challenging," said Dave Mendlen, director of developer marketing at Microsoft. "For us, we're seeing that cost has become a barrier, so we're enabling people to get our tools at a lower price."
Earlier this year an open letter from Chris Capossela, Senior Vice President of Microsoft Office, was released outlining the company's ideas and vision for interoperability.
So it is all just talk?
It is vitally important for all sections of the education and software industries that BECTA shows strong leadership.
Freedom of choice as well as high quality products and services must be available to enable schools to get the best software available for their pupils so as to enrich the learning experience.
BECTA should not be bullied into making poor decisions by either open source zealots or software corporation giants. It must stand firm to uphold the interests of the pupils and teachers, getting the best deals done on behalf of educational institutions throughout the UK.
Are we likely to see open source operating systems on school PCs anytime soon?
It's almost laughable that this issue of interoperability has caused so much fuss given that many school children in the UK still leave education every year without the basic reading, writing and maths skills that they need for a successful career.
For anyone who can remember using MS-DOS at primary school, it seems even more ludicrous. Give me a windows learning environment any day of the week!
In fact, the hunger for knowledge in students should be so great that there should be the possibility in schools to try using not only Windows OS but MS-DOS, Linux and anything else that presents the opportunity to learn.
This is a new era and we should do everything we can to encourage school children to be inventive, innovate and have fun.
Especially when cloud computing and the forthcoming decline and eventual death of offline operating systems would make all of this a moot point!
For honest and expert advice on IT spending for schools, colleges and universities, why not give one of our friendly SAM UK representatives a call? Phone now on 020 7193 5335.
