Application-Centricity in Our Schools? 87
bccomm asks: "Here on Slashdot, we continually hear about new successes in bringing free software closer to the desktop. What about schools? I am a student and was once asked to redo an entire presentation because I had used Prosper instead of PowerPoint. The explanation I received from him was 'the curriculum says I'm supposed to teach Word, PowerPoint, etc, not word processing and presentations.' How is this for irony: presentation has to be about volunteer work/hobbies, and I chose to show that my computer runs a daily NetBSD snapshot. I think it just lost some effectiveness. Is anyone else bothered by this?"
Re:Yes, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
My professors had a very simply policy. You were welcome to use whatever tools you liked to complete an assignment. However, if when you handed it in it didn't open or compile (as applicable) on the professor's machine (which was setup in a documented way) it counted as a fail.
A student saying "but it works on my computer at home" is the high-tech equivalent of "my dog ate my homework".