wish, we have OpenOffice installed but we have students using Google
Apps and even MS Word on their personal computers. The requirement is
that they be able to open, edit and print any document on all the
various systems.
They are required each time they use the lab to use a different system
then the last time they did. We use colored card to track this so we
don't have students saying they only want to use Macs or Windows or
what have you.
We have iLife and iWork on the Mac Apple gave use a great deal on the
bundle.
On Feb 11, 2009, at 10:37 AM, Matt Pearson wrote:
> My two cents (down from a nickel due to the economy),
>
> I find it interesting that you require three OS exposures for the
> student, but only one flavor of productivity software. I fully agree
> that multiple exposures are great and that it is not necessary to
> teach
> multiple office software types (even makes things worse actually).
> Instead, I find it interesting because it underscores the fact that we
> are moving more and more into the cloud (ala Google Docs, Ning,
> Voicethread, Blogs, Wikis <insert lots more open source web based
> stuff
> here>) and the device that you use to gain access to the cloud is
> becoming less and less important.
>
> We will always need the higher end content creation computers that
> exist
> to publish compelling content and code to the cloud, but what you
> use to
> interact with the software and services that exist there will soon
> be a
> very inexpensive device that we really don't care much about in
> terms of
> OS. The OS that wins or does battle successfully in that future
> market
> will offer huge bang for the buck and be very trim in terms of code
> base. Microsoft does not have blinders on and is shifting (have you
> installed Windows 7 yet?) and adapt to this market. However, can they
> compete in a world of Linux?? Time will tell.
>
> I currently subscribe to the Microsoft School Agreement and reevaluate
> this each year (you must pay for every system on campus regardless of
> whether it is installed, according to their agreement).
>
> Did you know you can get a great software package that gives you word
> processing, spreadsheet, presentation software, web authoring, best of
> class HD movie making, photo sharing and editing, DVD creation, all
> on a
> Unix based platform with regular updates and a huge support structure
> for just $1.00? The package is called iLife and iWork and the OS is
> OSX.
>
> cheers
>
> Matt Pearson
> Director of Technology, Security and Safety, MCDS
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: A forum for independent school educators
> [mailto:ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Greg Kearney
> Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 1:26 PM
> To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
> Subject: Re: OpenOffice: Beyond the Cost Savings
>
> We use OpenOffice due to the fact that we require students to learn to
> use three different operating systems (Windows, MacOS and Linux) and
> it is the only solution that will run on all three. I have found that
> OpenOffice 3 is much improved over the older versions.
>
> Even at the bargin price, and we have never been offered that price
> from Microsoft, equipping all of our computers with Office would cost
> use a considerable sum. When the issue came up a few years back I
> simply took the scholarship list into the committee and asked them to
> pick the three children that would not be getting a scholarship so we
> could pay Microsoft. That brought about a quick end to the
> conversation of using Microsoft Office.
>
> In the end student should be able to take what they learn in one word
> processor and apply it to any other.
>
> Greg Kearney
>
> On Feb 10, 2009, at 2:17 PM, Keith E Gatling wrote:
>
>> On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 3:45 PM, Jason Johnson <jasonpj@yahoo.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I would pay $29.95 for OpenOffice. I agree that there are things
>>> it does
>>> not do as well as Word (e.g. tables) and it can be slower. There
>>> are also
>>> some issues that would not be tolerated from word (e.g. wysiwyg
>>> loss of
>>> spacing after periods). But there are three issues to factor in:
>>>
>>> 1. Once out of college, most students will not have access to
>>> preferred
>>> pricing. This means $140 (list) or nearly triple what a school
>>> pays for the
>>> home version. And to get the full version will be around ($400).
>>> Those are
>>> very different costs that we implicitly steer students as a side
>>> effect of
>>> offering them access to the gold standard.
>>
>>
>> Actually, if you consider what used to be called the Student/Teacher
>> version
>> of Office, it's available for $150 and gives you three, count'em,
>> three
>> licences of Office to be used within one family. That means $50/
>> person. Not
>> at all unreasonable. I know that people are defining family rather
>> loosely
>> in order to get that price, but that's another issue, and nowhere
>> near the
>> $400 you cited. When Microsoft finally came up with student/family
>> pricing,
>> I could finally recommend Office to people in good faith.
>>
>> 2. There will be a small number of students who are frustrated
>> enough to
>>> consider improving the product. Because it is open source they can
>>> make it
>>> better. There will be a smaller number still who have the talent
>>> and will
>>> act on that impulse. But that is the promise of working with open
>>> source.
>>
>>
>> But is open source for everyone? Not yet, I don't think. If open
>> source
>> doesn't provide anywhere near the usability of "closed source," then
>> it's
>> worth asking why you're using it on a production basis.
>>
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