It really bugs me how everyone around me (kids and wife getting back into schooling during lockdown) is constantly talking about "Zoom" this or that... I run/take part in video conferences every day but haven't used Zoom (or any other proprietary service) in well over a year.
We're indoctrinating our entire population into thinking that they can't function without the miracle (**spits) of Zoom/MS Teams/Google Hangouts/Webex, etc. Well, that's bullshit. Talk about sowing learned helplessness & foreign corporate dependence. Why aren't our national educational authorities (yes, NZ Min of Ed, looking at you) organising a far more cost-effective, proven, *local* services for education, like using BigBlueButton? They have *no idea* what they're doing with regard to tech.
@lightweight same here in #Cymru #Wales
Worse, we are embedding dependency by considering our young people as skilled if they can use these platforms, without an awareness of understanding about the consequences or the #opensource counterfactual
@davidoclubb @lightweight Good point. Another place to watch for is the "Everyone can code" initiatives in schools, where the trap might be proprietary tools on proprietary platforms. e.g., Visual Studio writing Windows programs. Big corporations with vested interests will provide the tools for free and already set up as a VM image.