On 7/17/07, Pramode C.E. pramode_ce@yahoo.co.in wrote:

Check out:

http://www.abhishekkant.net/2007/07/microsoft-computer-varsity-at-bangalore....

Pramode

whew! just when microsoft was all set to join and bond us together for a greater cause....

okay guys, back to our usual bickering and in-fighting. [g,d,r]

hehehee

:-) niyam

Vikram Vincent wrote:

Hello,

On 17/07/07, Pramode C.E. pramode_ce@yahoo.co.in wrote:

...

http://www.abhishekkant.net/2007/07/microsoft-computer-varsity-at-bangalore....

Even if this specific threat has disappeared we should be prepared for such situations in the future.

There is no need to prepare, if we are ready to set things right that is... When it comes to IT/Technology education, IMHO the decision makers need to concentrate on the following: 1. Industry Acceptance of the Syallabi and tools used, (More or Less) - That takes care of legacy stuff like Pascal/Fortran/Cobol and TC++. We don't want people to design spaceships using slide-rules 2. Use Vendor Neutral Tools - This ensures skills can be easily applied to varying platforms. 3. Focus on Open Standards and Free & Open Source software wherever possible. - This takes care of longevity of skills against so called "planned obsolence".

This seems to be a clear win-win for both the Community, Industry, Students and the Educational Systems as a whole. My yardstick simply being: everyone gets more for less (money and time spent). But on the other hand it raises a host of other problems related to people resisting change that are better documented here:

http://www.lambdassociates.org/blog/hackers.htm

In such cases of deadlock, it is much better for the governing machinery to make a policy and push the policy through.

Well, those were my two cents. But I'll be interested in volunteering to make this happen.

Amol Hatwar