[NCLUG] Public comments on Microsoft Anti-Trust Case Settlement requested

Daniel Miles dmiles at holly.colostate.edu
Sat Jan 12 01:52:03 MST 2002


Here's an interesting thought: Computers are tools and should be treated as such. Of course computers do not improve education just as a shovel does not improve the depth of a hole. The theory is that teachers will find themselves empowered to do better work with the students if they have the proper tools at hand, just as you find yourself empowered to dig a better hole if you have a shovel.

As far as choosing books for the schools? That's no problem either. Make a donation to the library and another to the texbook adoption office. That way each school will make the decision about which books to buy in a way that they're already using. They just have more power to do it.

A better idea still would be to have MS donate a huge sum of money and allow the school districts to spend it where they need it... Not all schools need more computers and not all schools need more books... Maybe they could hire an extra teacher or fix some holes in the roof, the problems are so varied that pre-prescribing uses for the money is a stupid idea.

On Fri, 11 Jan 2002 17:05:58 -0700
quent <quent at pobox.com> wrote:

> Maybe they should buy books for schools. Nice interface, no support
> required and kids get to use their brains.  I'm not talking about
> Microsoft Press books either :) Of course choosing the books would be
> highly contentious.
> 
> Computers do not necessarily improve education. They might help with
> vocational training but we need a population that can form critical
> thoughts.
> 
> 	Quent
> 
> On Fri, Jan 11, 2002 at 03:11:21PM -0700, Mike Loseke wrote:
> > Thus spake Eric Brunson:
> > > 
> > > 
> > > I'm totally against it.
> > > 
> > > Firstly, the largest portion of the "penalty" is in licensing costs.
> > > How much is Microsoft really losing by "donating" these licenses?
> > > It's already been stated that these are under-privileged schools which
> > > probably couldn't afford to by computers and software on their own.
> > > Microsoft is simply getting increased market penetration with minimal
> > > loss of revenue.  I seem to remember also reading that support
> > > contracts for these schools would be negotiated and a discounted rate,
> > > i.e. not free.  Anything they would lose in licensing they're going to
> > > make up in support contracts.
> > 
> >  Yeah, to make it a *penalty* they should have to buy a bunch of Mac's
> > with software and support for those underpriveledged schools. Now that
> > would be a penalty and the kids (I'm assuming they are at the lower spectrum
> > of the grade scale here) would have a nice simple interface that wouldn't
> > get in the way of learning.
> > 
> > -- 
> >                   | If you hear a Southerner exclaim, "Hey, y'all,
> >    Mike Loseke    | watch this!" stay out of his way. These are
> >  mike at verinet.com | likely the last words he will ever say.
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