Who Makes the Decisions on School Software?

[henke54]

I received a phone call from one of the parents of a Reglue Kid a couple of weeks ago. She told me that her 7th grade child had to purchase a copy of Microsoft Office so she could complete her assignments, and could I provide her a license for said software.
I replied that I could not and inquired as to why the LibreOffice suite wasn't sufficient.
The teacher told the student that she needed to acquire the "Real Microsoft Office", and that her grade could suffer if she did not.
This single mom is raising three children, working two jobs and still has trouble getting food on the table and the rent paid. Even at a fully reduced student license, it's gonna cost her from 50-85 dollars.
That ain't gonna work.

My experiences (as an ex-head of a high school science department) are that teachers in general suffer from three fundamental problems : first, personal ignorance as to the better options that are open to them; second, considerable reluctance to step outside their learned/indoctrinated/regulated comfort zones; and third, the Microsoft trained and biased "moles" in high level government committees who prescribe Redmond software options for the Education Departments under the assumption that there is no universe outside of the Windows solar system. Put all of those together and it's like running into a brick wall head on, but just occasionally, and happily, there's a win and this one is a "biggie".
Very well done Ken, a soft approach really got results, and so yet another educator has seen the brilliant light that shines outside the dark prison room of Windows.

[kingfisher]

There is another factor. When their schooling is over, graduates will enter a business environment where the MS software is used. A local employment agency was teaching people to use the MS software and OO but decided to switch to the former only because the latter was of no practical use to people looking for employment.

A website I work on publishes events and research projects. Happily, some providers in the field send us information in a pdf document. It is not uncommon to receive it in doc or docx format and even pub format. In some 3 years or so I have never received a document produced by open source software.

[DACM]

+1 on kingfisher's point. My thoughts exactly.

And on that point, I would like to add that MS Office is the 'killer app' for Windows as far as the business world is concerned. I hate it that little Johnny in a single-parent home strapping for cash is forced into the realities of the business culture against their will, simply to participate in the public school system. That teacher should be under discipline for refusing to accept a PDF after the appeal, even if the fundamental agenda is to teach the office software that under-girds our worldwide economic system.

[keme]

I disagree in part in that yield to Microsoft's dominance.

The fundamental agenda for an employment agency is to build specific work skills, so focusing strongly on Microsoft Office is the only sensible thing to do. This far I agree with the MS choice.

The fundamental agenda for teaching 7th grade (and below) is to build general skills for the future, enabling pupils to function in an ever changing environment. Focusing on Microsoft Office may be the most efficient path, given most teachers' skill sets. Disallowing the use of other useable applications, where the pupil is self contained in learning the practical operation, is counter-productive at best.

The teacher in mention here is forcing pupils in state schools to acquire expensive remedies in order to complete their homework. In some parts of the world that kind of action is not only counter-productive, but conflicts with the laws of education.

[DACM]

You know, after adding my comments above, I was forced to face the reality that my own son attends a public/state school that is completely standardized on Google Docs for all classroom and homework assignments. As you know, this is available for free and likely worldwide, but assumes an internet connection even at home. He's in 9th grade so this school evidently adopts the philosophy that you teach the future (which is apparently cloud computing), or at least the best thing going for school-level projects at the present; after all, the cloud is far superior to USB flash-drives and even email attachments for document collaboration and delivery. I can attest that full-featured business software (MS Office) is likened to an add-in or expansion-pack to these kids, simply offering extra features that can be learned later, or on-the-job as needed.

The Google ecosystem has ushered in many changes in the business world. It has systematically shrunk the size of many IT departments as the need for full-time employees managing mail servers has diminished. And while businesses have been slow to leave their iOS (Apple) tablets behind for Android models, the cell phone market is now totally dominated by Android smartphones, particularly worldwide. Now the Google Docs paradigm has forced Microsoft to adopt a similar model with Office 360.

I've pondered before in these forums about the coming (now-present) irrelevance of AOO/LO, as more and more people adopt cloud-based computing -- both free and subscription-based models. The open source community has barely noticed that space. And why would they? Open source is not motivated by end-user needs, but by the creative juices that boil within. And I hate to admit it, but as long as open source leadership is age 40+ (like me), I don't see a connection between a rapidly changing computing world (tablets, cloud, etc.) and open source objectives. It takes good old-fashioned, market-driven economics to even attempt to keep up with the changing computing patterns, especially at the current rate. Who knew tablets would replace PC's in a matter of a few years...because nobody actually uses their PC for much beyond tablet-level duties (web-surfing, facebook, email, and media consumption)? Even though Android is somewhat open source, Google maintains very tight reigns for the ultimate good of Google, as with similar projects.

So in light of these trends, and particularly Google Docs and MS Office, I wonder if anybody in open source channels is willing to admit that AOO/LO is now irrelevant for the consumers of both free office software and business-level software alike. I think what's worse is I'm forced to wonder if the open source community even cares (if anybody uses their software, or even if they're irrelevant) since it's apparently all about the developer and anti-market-driven agendas.

Sorry to be so blatant here...but hopefully it's welcomed food-for-thought.

[keme]

On that I can agree. Google Docs can cater for probably more than 80% of my needs for producing office documents. Integration with mail and calendar makes it full-featured, and the possibilities in sharing and collaborative working stands out as a very strong selling point. With the Chrome browser you can even work offline. For education, that set of features is hard to beat.

Still, the <20% of my work that involves graphical editing, database connectivity, large docs where I need a unified set of styles, etc., makes me still prefer the installed app over the cloud based ones. The desktop app is not irrelevant yet.

[RoryOF]

I prefer to have an app on my computer(s) which permits me to write and edit my documents; if I travel, I bring a small laptop and an external drive also (for backup), and will often write when in my room, at night or early morning. I have been in many locations where there was no internet access, so Google Docs would be no use to me.

[DACM]

Absolutely agreed. The desktop and associated full-featured apps are not irrelevant, and they won't be irrelevant until or unless cloud computing and it's tablet/phone-based consoles can step-up significantly in features and usability -- perhaps particularly their off-line modes. You estimate that 20% of your own computing needs require a desktop-level app, and I would guess that's true of anybody in the content creation world. We're not to the point of ditching the last PC in the average household, and we're many years from that possibility in the business world.

If I've overstated the "irrelevance" of AOO/LO in the current computing environment, in light of free (Google Docs) and paid (MS Office) realities, it's because my focus was on school-use and the associated follow-up in the business world. I scarcely have an opinion on personal, non-collaborative work, since that's quite personal. After all, I am an avid Base user.

[henke54]

...the future (which is apparently cloud computing)...

Hmmmm ... cloud computing isn't going to take the 'whole pie' me thinks ->

As we recently discovered, Apple holds the key to encrypted iCloud data on its own servers—if law enforcement sent the appropriate subpoena, the company can easily decrypt your cloud-stored data and send it off to the authorities.

[DACM]

Very good point henke54. Which begs the question:

Do we take the same precautions with all forms of computing? Our home hard drive and USB sticks are under the same government jurisdiction as Google or Apple in terms of 'due process' which I would argue takes the form of 'soft tyranny' as needed, on a case-by-case basis. In terms of schools, I'm not sure our kids need/deserve much privacy. In terms of business, there are certainly proprieties and trade-secrets to consider. In terms of personal computing, you decide.

I use cloud computing and services today in the form of of Google applications and wider folder synchronization duties, but with the realities of subpoena and wider search warrants in mind...just as I do with non-cloud computing. TrueCrypt...it works with cloud-synced files and folders...enough said.

Edit: SpiderOak has now separated the encryption key such that it's stored and accessible only on the end-user's computer rendering the cloud-stored data completely inaccessible without access to the end-user's computer. This was always possible, but SpiderOak is the first cloud service to implement such distributed keys. Very nice!

[Hagar Delest]

There is also an aspect that I can't fully grasp: what about the bandwidth and the the energy needed?
Networks need more and more bandwidth for the ever more demanding mobile applications, energy is needed for that too. Will our kids care about this waste when a good old fashioned non web-based application could do the job?

About privacy: of course companies need to protect their communications and I doubt they will fully trust the cloud for that. If even states are victim of attacks, what about companies, especially if the key is held by a 3rd party. But even if our kids don't need it at first sight, I can't check everything they tell when they communicate with their friends. Could be some very private information about where the spare key is hidden at home or health information, ... It is already hard enough to educate them with this new digital age, I don't want to think about lack of privacy on top of that.

[henke54]

... so focusing strongly on Microsoft Office is the only sensible thing to do. This far I agree with the MS choice. ...

hmmm ... the French 'disagree' ... and they are right about that in my opinion ... ;

France's higher education institutes must offer their digital services and learning resource materials primarily as free software, the country's parliament decided Tuesday afternoon. A new law on higher education and research comes with an article giving priority to free software.
A joint committee of France's Senate and National Assembly had already agreed on the wording of the new law last month. It was the second attempt in three months time to adopt a law giving free software pre-eminence. Their first attempt, adding it to a plan to reorganise state schools, was substantially rephrased by the government when it came up for discussion in the National Assembly. This time the government could only oppose or accept the provision, but not change it.

[Hagar Delest]

Well, yes and no. This law is only for the higher education, that is after the High School Diploma (roughly).

Remember that a similar law for the first degrees of the education system (before High School Diploma) has done almost the opposite: Open source adoption on the rise in the French government. The minister removed the preference to the open source.

So it's only half a victory.

[keme]

@Henke54: That line you quoted from me was taken out of context, making up a disagreement that does not exist.

I supported the MS choice as the sensible one for employment agencies' courses, because most employers ask for MS skills/experience specifically.

My comment regarding choices for educational institutions is - as far as I can tell - entirely in agreement with the French law mentioned in your other quote.

[henke54]

Students and teachers at 160 high schools in the Brussels Region have started to use free and open source applications. Since April, the region's Informatics Centre (CIRB) is helping schools to modernise their computer classrooms, electronic whiteboards and networks. The project includes the use of open source desktop tools such as LibreOffice, an office productivity suite and Mozilla Thunderbird, an email client.

The CIRB has been helping schools with their ICT since 1999. This year's 'Multimedia Plan' is the first that includes Libreoffice. However, the switch to the free and open source office suite will not be new to everybody, as there are already a few teachers and schools that use OpenOffice, knows CIRB's Fabrizio Fuso, who is managing the implementation.