Microsoft's
way. I'm not sure Google, however, is the innocent Indy. <start =
privacy
mini-rant> Certainly Google Docs (which I use), isn't free. You pay by
giving up some of your privacy whenever you use it. That's a choice
consumers should be able to make, and I'd rather not make it on behalf =
of the
students and faculty at my school. Just how much privacy to surrender =
in
exchange for ease of use or financial savings should be made by each
individual, and I submit that our default position as administrators =
should
be to provide the highest level of privacy possible, which people could =
then
give up as they choose. =20
<End privacy mini-rant>
David Rossell
Administrator of Network Services and Planning
Norwood School
8821 River Rd.
Bethesda, MD 20817
(301) 841-2178
drossell@norwoodschool.org
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for independent school educators
[mailto:ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Greg Kearney
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 7:48 PM
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: Vista & Office 2007 on new student laptops
I always ask this question when this kind of thing comes up. "Which =20
children on the scholarship list do not get to come to our school so =20
we can send money to the richest man in the world? (Bill Gates)" You =20
should see the looks on peoples faces when I ask it. At times I have =20
resorted to taking the scholarship wait list into the meeting and =20
asking those pushing for the latest version of Office to select the =20
children that will not be able to attend by name.
We use OpenOffice and Google Docs and save our money for better use.
Greg
On Jan 30, 2008, at 5:00 PM, Norman Maynard wrote:
> I would echo the opinions that the move to Office 07 would be =20
> easier than
> the move to Vista; however, I would offer that perhaps a better move =20
> would
> be away from proprietary suites altogether. I absolutely do not mean =20
> to
> start any kind of OS-type flame war, etc., but the future, it seems =20
> to me,
> is in open-source and more so, web-based apps. Why not save money =20
> and move
> kids from Office 2003 to Google Docs, or Zoho, or Buzzword, which =20
> kids seem
> to really like? We've moved to OpenOffice, and though there has been =20
> some
> difficulties, they've been pretty minor.
>
> Bottom line, it seems to me that as educators we ought to be pushing
> collaborative models whcih invite learning and user involvement over
> proprietary, for-profit models. Add to that Office's troubling .docx =20
> format,
> and I see no reason for us to spend valuable resources on overpriced,
> overpowered, non-cooperative software.
>
> My $0.02
>
> Norman Maynard
> Principal, Upper School
> Thornton Friends School
> 13925 New Hampshire Ave.
> Silver Spring, MD
> 301.384.0320
>
> On Jan 30, 2008 5:05 PM, Karen Douse <douse@harpethhall.org> wrote:
>
>> A forum for independent school educators <ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU> on
>> Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 11:53 AM -0600 wrote:
>>> Would you stay with XP or go to Vista this summer?
>>
>> We plan to stay with XP - too many negative reports about Vista. XP =20
>> works
>> great and we don't see any advantage to changing right now.
>>>
>>> Would you stay with Office 2003 or move to Office 2007 this year?
>> We moved to Office 2007 for everyone on our campus last fall. We =20
>> did some
>> preview sessions in the spring and offered lots of training time =20
>> before
>> school started. The transition went as well as any of us could have
>> expected. The students learned it easily
>> and immediately, and most faculty members picked up the differences =20
>> very
>> quickly. I wouldn't hesitate on this as long as you prepare =20
>> everyone in
>> advance to expect the change.
>>
>> Karen
>>
>> Karen Douse
>> Director of Library and Information Services
>> Ann Scott Carell Library
>> Harpeth Hall School
>> 615-346-0116
>> douse@harpethhall.org
>>
>>
>> [ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
>> Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, =20
>> attribution,
>> non-commercial, share-alike license.
>>
>
> [ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
> Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, =20
> attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license.
[ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, =
attribution,
non-commercial, share-alike license.
[ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license.
