[K12OSN] Open Office

[Petre Scheie]

I continually work on crafting the perfect reply to the "the world uses Microsoft 
products" statement.  So far, the best answer I've come up with, and it's not great, is 
that the statement is somewhat like saying the world is blue.  Yes, when you look at the 
world (photos of the earth taken from space) there is a lot of blue.  But there are many 
other colors, too, and the closer you look, the more colors you see, and you quickly 
realize that saying the world is blue is an over-simplification.  As is the MS 
statement.  Yes, lots of people use it.  But upon closer examination, you realize that 
lots of people don't.  WordPerfect is still in heavy use, in legal realms for instance; 
I think Corel makes about $300M a year from it.  Home machines tend to have MS Works. 
And there are several others, as people have pointed out.  In the context of schools, 
the MS line sounds a bit like saying all students learn the same way.  It's inaccurate.

Now, to figure out how to say the above without the other person feeling insulted but 
enlightened rather, such that he/she becomes an ally.

Petre

Bob McCaa wrote:
> This has been a contention point in our district over the adoption of
> OSS:  Applications vs. Concepts.
> 
> Our Technology Coordinator feels that "the world" uses Microsoft
> products, so that is what we should teach.  "Word Processing" means
> using Microsoft Word, "Spreadsheets" means using Microsoft Excel, and
> "Database" means using Microsoft Access.
> 
> I believe in teaching the concepts:  If you teach the concept over the
> application, the concept will carry over to the next generation when the
> application is invalidated by time.
> 
> What happens when the student graduates, gets a job, and the employer is
> running Linux to reduce the TCO?
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, 2006-09-22 at 05:36 -0700, Mel Wade wrote:
>> On 9/22/06, William Fragakis <william at fragakis.com> wrote:
>>         Think how useful it would be to be leaving
>>         college now with an intimate knowledge of Word Perfect or Word
>>         5.0? (Not
>>         that there aren't places that still use it.) 
>>
>> Agreed.  However, in high school, where I teach, we must also give
>> them the skills needed to complete their education using products
>> available today. 
>>
>> -- 
>> Mel Wade
>> "The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do." -
>> BF Skinner
>> www.melwade.com 
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