It can be argued that a dichotomy exists between the notion of education being the transfer of functional skills, and the need to prepare young people for the workplace. As such, the adoption of FOSS in schools is often stifled by the argument that our students will need to know specific proprietary applications in order to be employable e.g. do we teach using Microsoft Word or OpenOffice.org, Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape?

This session will address some of the issues surrounding that argument and aim to provide some strategic leadership for educators to enhance FOSS use amongst colleagues, students, parents and the wider community.

Possible areas of discussion could include;

• Promotion of FOSS
• Application vs. file format – which is more important?
• FOSS – more accessible at home?
• Harmony in a ‘mixed economy’