Linux in Italian Schools, Part 2: ITC F.Besta, Ragusa

If you have been following the Linux in Italian schools article series, here is the much anticipated part 2.

The first article in this series about Linux in Italian schools introduced ITC De Sterlich, where, even though a lot remains to be done, free software is a site-wide reality. This time we visit a Linux-friendly school in the smallest, youngest and southern-most province of Italy, Ragusa, which is located in sunny Sicily. The school is the Istituto Tecnico Commerciale (ITC, Commercial-Technical Institute) “F. Besta”. Linux is not yet an officially endorsed reality for the whole institute, which makes it an interesting case to study.

ITCs are senior high schools that prepare accountants for future work and offer several specializations. At ITC F. Besta, Linux is used in two of the courses mandated by the state curriculum for this sector. The first course is Trattamento Testi e Dati (TTD), or Text and Data Entry and Processing. This subject, taught in the first two years, replaced the previous topics of machine typing and shorthand writing with word processing, spreadsheets and HTML/multimedia authoring. Nothing is wrong with that offering in theory, but in practice, what many Italian students actually learn is the bare minimum of Microsoft Word and Excel. [Read the rest]