[K12OSN] Open Office

[Huck]

Bob McCaa wrote:
> This has been a contention point in our district over the adoption of
> OSS:  Applications vs. Concepts.

> What happens when the student graduates, gets a job, and the employer is
> running Linux to reduce the TCO?

Devil's Advocate:

They implement WINE so they can run MS-OFFICE :)

Seriously I agree with you Bob.

It's not WHAT you teach but how you teach it...
Conceptually or Contextually.

We are using the MS-Office suite..therefore we will learn how to use the 
MS-Office suite..

which should read..

We want to have a firm grasp of how to create business documents, the 
tool we will use is an Office Suite..it doesn't matter which..we are 
learning how to create the documents necessary to function in a 
business. Lets go through some publications, a newsletter, a memo, 
merging mail documents, a business letter, a rejection letter, an 
acceptance letter, a job bid/proposal, a presentation of a new idea, a 
budget, an inventory tracking system.

Pick your tools and get the task(s) completed.

For SIMPLE word processing...Abiword can't be beat for speed and ease of 
use I've found, but for complex word processing it is extremely lacking.

GnuCash...wonderful little app for keeping track of budgets/accounts...
but far from a full fledged accounting app.