[Edu-sig] Now I went and did it!

[Fred Allen]

Kirby,

It seems to me that you are spot on in asserting that you best
further your principal aims, which I admire greatly, by not
diluting the force of your argument with consideration of
tangential issues...e.g., as by advocating the cause of one or
another of the belligerents in the operating system wars.
Indeed, an evenhanded discussion of such peripheral matters
strengthens the credibility of your true advocacy.  For what
it's worth, I remain,

Respectfully,

Fred Allen

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	edu-sig-admin@python.org
[mailto:edu-sig-admin@python.org]  On Behalf Of Kirby Urner
Sent:	Wednesday, October 04, 2000 6:20 PM
To:	edu-sig@python.org
Subject:	Re: [Edu-sig] Now I went and did it!


>I suggest you explain what open source is, give some very cool
examples of
>open source software (hmm, we saw some killer astronomy apps
demonstrated
>recently that would do quite nicely).  Of course show  Python
and ALice
and a
>few others. And mention the open source office suites.

Again, I think it confuses the issue to make Python be some flag
ship
of the open source movement.  The question is:  does Python have
a role
in K-12?  If so, what is that role?

Apple has been aggressive in schools as well, and its OS is
likewise
proprietary.  Python runs on both Microsoft and Apple OSs.

There's nothing wrong with explaining what open source means,
what's
good about it.  It makes sense to praise Python for being open
source
and distributed royalty free.  But people will use Python in
various
proprietary ways -- so it just gets to be this involved
discussion.

Open source is not synonymous with useful in the classroom.
Lots
of open source stuff is too rough-edged and difficult to use
given
all the demands on time.  Sometimes it makes sense to pay money
for
some of those more polished products -- maybe just a few bucks.
And of course some of the open source stuff is very slick,
totally
cool, and absolutely ready for classroom use.

At least in my own "propaganda", I'm not planning to try pushing
too many messages/agendas all at the same time.  Even if I push
open
source in some contexts (I appreciate Linux, have Python 2.0b2
installed
on it etc.), I don't see the need to conflate this with my
pro-Python
initiatives.

Perhaps some of you ideologues want to educate me on why this
isn't
the right attitude.  I'm open minded and willing to change my
tune
if I'm able tune in other ways of looking.

Kirby



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