Preparing to convince to shift to non-propriety documents formats

[geoffrey mendelson]

On Feb 5, 2012, at 1:00 PM, Oleg Goldshmidt wrote:

> Now, I would assume that most on the parents in this discussion are  
> qualified professionals with reasonably well paying jobs, and I  
> would not be surprised if most had multiple computers at home, etc.  
> Let's face it, it's not a representative sample of the general  
> population. IMHO, "it's not that expensive" just doesn't cut it.


It's not necessary to own a computer. Almost every school in the  
country has computers in the classroom and a computer room for the  
overflow. Student's are given "study periods" to do their homework.

There are also plenty of programs out there to provide new and used  
computers to poor people. I constantly see adds for people selling  
used computers and people asking for gifts/donations of them. I even  
see adds on the English language lists for people looking for the  
latest laptops free, or even a "basic" laptop which to them includes  
Windows and Word and Wifi.

I don't know if they get them or not, my requests for something older,  
e.g. a 386/486/Pentium(I) have gone unanswered.

When my youngest son was 4 (he's 13 now) I bought him a microsoft  
trackball (the one the size of a grapefruit) to try to get him to use  
a computer. He was at the time in a school specializing in educating  
students with physical limitations. It was a waste of money because he  
had been given lessons on using a regular mouse as part of his regular  
instruction.

As for emailed homework, Oleg, when you were in school, part of the  
instruction was to be able to pay attention in class, and write down  
your homework assignments so that you could do them at home.

These days part of the classwork is to be able to get an email with  
instructions and follow them.
It also saves duplicating costs, and you can't say that you left your  
book at school or you were out sick that day.

Geoff.

-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson,  N3OWJ/4X1GM
My high blood pressure medicine reduces my midichlorian count. :-(