Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community
Here's why I dislike 'educational licenses' so much. It seems like a good idea: Microsoft is providing students with something like $3500 worth of Microsoft software development applications. But "Microsoft plans to verify individuals' student status by using "various reputable student databases to confirm student identities." In addition to that fishy sort of identity-collecting sevice, the upshot is this: people who can afford to pay tens of thousands of dollars worth of tuition fees get the free software, while people who cannot afford the tuition get nothing. Via GMSV, which also notices the irony of offering free software to wealthy Stanford University.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2024 06:15 a.m.

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