Software
Software Issues:
The demands of many classes and teachers have resulted in some software changes through the years. Teaching students how to use a particular software application can be demanding especially when we make major changes. Compatibility issues also give us cause for concern. Providing software tools for teachers and students that allow them to complete assignments and curriculum objectives is our major focus.
We believe that it is NOT as important what software students are using but that they learn. Applications are updated and go through major changes on a regular basis. Any application a middle school student learns will be revised as much as a half a dozen times before that person enters the work force. In the computer world that is an incredible amount of change. That said there are basic skills that ned to be addressed, word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software are the basics, as well as an ability to use a web browser. Operating systems continue to go through major changes and revisions and their choice is based upon ease of maintenance as well as compatibility concerns. Certain classes require specialized software that forces us to make decisions and changes in order to meet those requirements.
Productivity Applications (word processing, spreadsheet, presentations)
Lets examine some factors associated with our choices for productivity tools.
- Standards
- Cost
- Compatibility
- Access
- Ease of Use
Standards: Virtually all business and school use points to the Microsoft Office Standard. That means Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Any choices we make must be compatible with those formats.
Cost: Many computers come with some software pre-installed. Some of that is good and some is not so good. Even installed software can be for demonstration or trial only, these will have limited capability or work for a limited time frame. So the option becomes purchasing the most popular or the de-facto standard application. For general usage that becomes Microsoft Office (Word, Excel and Powerpoint). Educational pricing runs somewhere in the 45 to 55 dollar range (per machine) for a school district running over 200 computers that can still be a significant expense. For a typical consumer a quick online search finds Microsoft Office 2007 Standard at prices ranging from 198 to 408 dollars. In these economic times those are expenses I can do without.
So what are our options? For quite a few years the online community has had option of Open Source Software. At first it was software that people wrote and posted the code out on the internet and many people contributed to its development, mostly for the sake of learning and fun, not much profit. Some of that software has found its way into mainstream uses. A majority of websites run on an Apache web server and the operating system called linux are just two examples. The Open Source community has also developed a couple of productivity tools that are very sophisticated. Open Office is a fine example. This software can be freely downloaded (yes I said FREE) and it has a word processor, a spreadsheet and a presentation tool. (Mac users have been trying Neo Office and very recently seen and Open Office version available for them). If it is free, which it is, we now have to address the next issue: Compatability.
Compatibility: Since MS Office has become the standard it is important that files can be opened, edited and saved in that file format. No different than the issues we have when someone tries to use WordPerfect or Microsoft Works. Those files are NOT compatible with standard Office formats.
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