[CoLoCo] 1:1 laptops/tablets in Denver school.

[Jim Hutchinson]

On Sat, Jul 26, 2008 at 9:24 AM, David Overcash <funnylookinhat at gmail.com>wrote:

> While saying that Office 2007 is a must-learn for students is absolutely
> crazy...  I can understand their reasoning in wanting to at least provide
> instruction for it when most colleges and universities use Office formats
> and software.
>

But we already have instruction for ms office. My point was that the macs in
the library didn't need ms office. Students already get instruction if they
take pc apps and they get exposure in every lab (Linux lab has OO.o and so
does the other lab and a few choose it over ms). I didn't see how it was
necessary to have it in the library. Students can use Open Office (called
NeoOffice for macs and runs natively) in the library and not have any issues
writing or even opening and finishing a paper. The IT folks seem to feel
that it would be rediculous to not have ms office. I don't get it. It's just
a waste of money for something for which there are acceptable alternatives.
They even got a site licence for iWork for cheap but they think it sucks for
wordprocessing so they also bought ms office. I'm sorry, but they do not see
the big picture. It's not even about FOSS really. It's about making
intelligent choices on how we spend limited IT funds. Wasting money on
software when we can use free software - including google docs - is simply
poor management. Taxpayers should be pissed that money is wasted like this.
You can't honestly say that students in elementary school or even high
school really need to learn specificially ms office. Anyone who has used any
office suite can adapt to a different one without too much effort. What they
really need is exposure to lots of tools so they don't become locked and
inflexible (like IT staff).

If anyone has any ammo for this or similar arguments please share. This is
the year we write a new tech budget and I am going to speak very loudly
against spending money on software for which there are free alternatives and
some real data/research would help.

-- 
Jim (Ubuntu geek extraordinaire)
----
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
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