[K12OSN] Curriculum for using OpenOffice.org to teach basic computer skills
Petre Scheie
petre at maltzen.net
Thu Feb 10 16:48:09 UTC 2005
Short version: For those who are using OpenOffice.org to teach basic
computer skills, word processing, etc., to high school students, what
are you using for curriculum?
Long version: The technical advisory committee for my kids' school, of
which I am a member, recently passed a resolution that calls for
ninth-grade students to take a mandatory basic computer skills class.
The idea is to make sure that all students know how to use a word
processor, spreadsheet, search the internet, etc. (Many of the kids
think they know it all, but most don't know as much as they think they
do--just like in most other areas, I guess. ;-) ) We have people from
the local colleges on the committee and they all say the expectation is
that students will already know these things by the time they enter
college, and the colleges themselves do not provide any such
instruction. In the original draft of the resolution, it called for
teaching the kids Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, among other things. I
succeeded in getting the wording changed to word processing,
spreadsheets, and presentations, fortunately. The next point I want to
push is to have the teacher(s) use OOo for the class. I have two
reasons, that everyone on the list will be familiar with: free software,
so it can be given out to the students, and freedom to do whatever you
want with it. But I've learned that the key thing in getting the
teacher to use a tool for a class is to have a curriculum available;
they don't have the time or resources to write their own lesson plans
from scratch. Plus, they already have some sort of materials for
teaching MS's office, I'm sure, so to get them to use another tool, the
transition must be as easy as possible.
While free, no cost plans would be better, I'm not opposed to something
that would have to be purchased; I'm sure the MS plans didn't come free.
Petre
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