[K12OSN] OT: any OpenOffice vs. MS Office studies/cases out there?

[Peter Scheie]

For an easy catch-phrase to give to those who think OOo is 'culturally 
unacceptable', I believe it was Paul Nelson, one of the originators of K12LTSP, 
who said, "Spend your money on teachers, not software."  To do otherwise, in 
these lean times, I would argue, is scandalous.

Peter

David Hopkins wrote:
> At the moment, here in Delaware we are looking at across-the-board 20%
> budget cuts for everyone.  What we are doing at NCS finally got the
> attention of the new administration and they (Dep Secretary of
> Education and others) will be visiting soon to see the approach we use
> (and a big thanks to everyone on this list for helping me get this
> far) to mitigate those cuts.   They can speak with the NCS School
> Director if they want. He is huge advocate of Opensource and K12LTSP
> (and has been on several 'blue ribbon' committees wrt
> education-related initiatives here).  NCS has always been rated the
> top Middle School in Delaware since its inception, and has used
> Opensource for word processing by students and staff for the last 6
> years without any real issues wrt to compatibility. In fact, I have
> used OO.org to open MS Office files that couldn't be opened by MS
> Office (which I believe others have done as well).
> 
> Also, perhaps "culturelly unacceptable" needs to be rephrased "is it
> then more culturelly acceptable to layoff teachers and staff, cut
> school programs and otherwise degrade the educational system than even
> consider moving to an approach that has been shown to work across the
> US and around the world?" Maybe it is time to put a spotlight on those
> that have that attitude?
> 
> David Hopkins
> Newark Charter School
> Newark Delaware
> 
> On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 5:22 PM, Alan Hodson <aahodson at episd.org> wrote:
>> Having just heard at the highest level in my district that Open Office is "culturally unacceptable here" (border district of 63,000 students) I am wondering if there is someone in our community of users/believers that has come across data/studies that I could use disprove the MS ethos - I know than in Texas, both PlanoISD and SanAntonioISD are huge open source supporters, but I don't know if that has translated there, or anywhere else, into a document that we can hold up as a banner.
>> Any ideas?
>> Thanks
>> Alan Hodson
>> Instructional Applications Analyst
>> http://links.episd.org/
>> -=o=-
>>
>>
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