Do you know what Linux is? What about Ubuntu? Great, then let's move on.
Sometimes, there are local news stories that gain new life on the Internet, and back in 2009, this was one such story. In Wisconsin, a Madison Area Technical College student named Abbie Schubert alerted her local news team at WKOW to the fact that she bought a Dell laptop with Ubuntu installed as its operating system.
If you didn't already know about this story, we know what you are thinking. Why would a student call her local news channel to let them know that she bought a laptop with Ubuntu? Well, she took the laptop home and shortly thereafter gave up on being able to use the laptop for both connecting to the Internet and using Microsoft Word files. Then, she decided she had no other choice than to withdraw from school. Just check out the video below for details.
Shocked? So were the Ubuntu users and viewers with even elementary knowledge of the the operating system who responded to the WKOW story. Nevertheless, Schubert's situation brings up the kind of dilemma that campus tech support personnel have to deal with on a daily basis. (Well, hopefully they don't have to deal with anything this bad.)
If students don't know how to use technology, it can become a barrier to knowledge. And we hope your IT department would be better equipped to handle Schubert's concerns than the WKOW team proved to be.
Would you like to see more education news like this in your inbox on a daily basis? Subscribe to our Education Dive email newsletter! You may also want to read Education Dive's look at 10 startups that are shaping the future of education.