Sure basic windows and office usage is sure a required skill.
You don’t even use windows that much in any future job. You use the software solutions you are given as a wage slave. And most of them run in a browser.
Also cool that this school is unimportant for Microsoft. But for the students, teachers and parents its certainly ain’t.
You don’t even use windows that much in any future job. You use the software solutions you are given as a wage slave
So you’re assuming there aren’t “wage slaves” doing data entry on MS Office and also that 0% of those students won’t ever be managers or hold any other more high level job that does require those tools. So you must be against teaching financial literacy at school as well because “they won’t ever invest anything”. Great job, let’s keep the peasants illiterate in everything they actually need to climb the ladder.
Wouldnt you keep them computer illiterate when you teach them exclusively how to use Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office?
As I said on another comment:
Students can and should learn Linux / LibreOffice and can most likely do almost everything they need with it, however once they get into a job and the company uses MS Office they won’t be be able to pick the work right away and be as productive as their peers will be. Imagine one of those students tried to apply for a backoffice job at a bank, they’ll most likely test the person’s Office skills and the student may not be able to compete the assessment and have an inferior grade to another one who always had MS Office at his school.
I’m all for FOSS but we must be very responsible when it comes to what we expose young people to and how that may impact their careers on the long run. They should have exposure to Linux, LibreOffice and have a basic understanding of them but they shouldn’t be robbed of valuable jobs skills that may make a difference just because.
If you can only use a word processor because it looks like the one you have been trained on then you are computer illiterate. That’s not something a school should proliferate.
You aren’t wrong, but that’s besides the point. The point is that even if you’re decently computer savvy and you can switch around between programs you’ll always be better and faster at advanced features on the one you used more hours. If you say this never happens to you then you’ve never been exposed to a program for enough time to actually learn it from top to bottom.
Well that’s undeniable. But, coming back to this school, do you think that they could afford licenses for the latest MS Office and or MS Windows? No they would teach with one or more generations ago where things are laid out and function totally different.
So you get the same issues you are complaining right now and nobody gained anything.
But, coming back to this school, do you think that they could afford licenses for the latest MS Office and or MS Windows?
Microsoft typically offers licenses to education… and when it comes to Windows it doesn’t even matter as most retailers already sell machines with Windows licenses with very competitive prices. It’s usual to see bigger retailers selling computers with a Windows license at the same price a smaller retailer would do without license just because they’ve the volume and get good deals from both Microsoft and hardware vendors.
I’m not complaining, just stating something that should be taken into consideration.
Also this is much better than giving students locked down Chromebooks
Oh yes, but still can pose a problem. Imagine one of those students tried to apply for a backoffice job at a bank, they’ll most likely test the person’s Office skills and the student may not be able to compete the assessment and have an inferior grade to another one who always had MS Office at his school.
Sure basic windows and office usage is sure a required skill.
You don’t even use windows that much in any future job. You use the software solutions you are given as a wage slave. And most of them run in a browser.
Also cool that this school is unimportant for Microsoft. But for the students, teachers and parents its certainly ain’t.
So you’re assuming there aren’t “wage slaves” doing data entry on MS Office and also that 0% of those students won’t ever be managers or hold any other more high level job that does require those tools. So you must be against teaching financial literacy at school as well because “they won’t ever invest anything”. Great job, let’s keep the peasants illiterate in everything they actually need to climb the ladder.
Wouldnt you keep them computer illiterate when you teach them exclusively how to use Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office?
Also that’s a big jump to assume that I would be against financial literacy.
As I said on another comment:
Students can and should learn Linux / LibreOffice and can most likely do almost everything they need with it, however once they get into a job and the company uses MS Office they won’t be be able to pick the work right away and be as productive as their peers will be. Imagine one of those students tried to apply for a backoffice job at a bank, they’ll most likely test the person’s Office skills and the student may not be able to compete the assessment and have an inferior grade to another one who always had MS Office at his school.
I’m all for FOSS but we must be very responsible when it comes to what we expose young people to and how that may impact their careers on the long run. They should have exposure to Linux, LibreOffice and have a basic understanding of them but they shouldn’t be robbed of valuable jobs skills that may make a difference just because.
If you can only use a word processor because it looks like the one you have been trained on then you are computer illiterate. That’s not something a school should proliferate.
You aren’t wrong, but that’s besides the point. The point is that even if you’re decently computer savvy and you can switch around between programs you’ll always be better and faster at advanced features on the one you used more hours. If you say this never happens to you then you’ve never been exposed to a program for enough time to actually learn it from top to bottom.
Well that’s undeniable. But, coming back to this school, do you think that they could afford licenses for the latest MS Office and or MS Windows? No they would teach with one or more generations ago where things are laid out and function totally different.
So you get the same issues you are complaining right now and nobody gained anything.
Microsoft typically offers licenses to education… and when it comes to Windows it doesn’t even matter as most retailers already sell machines with Windows licenses with very competitive prices. It’s usual to see bigger retailers selling computers with a Windows license at the same price a smaller retailer would do without license just because they’ve the volume and get good deals from both Microsoft and hardware vendors.
I’m not complaining, just stating something that should be taken into consideration.
Because they can’t learn to put words and numbers in excel. How skillful do you think they’re gonna get from one semester in excel?
One semester in Excel you have time to learn how to use it for almost everything.
Good luck teaching middle schoolers how to use a pivot table when there’s barely enough time to teach the basics of Excel’s convoluted user interface.
Maybe they don’t give up that easily.
You can learn Windows pretty quickly. Also this is much better than giving students locked down Chromebooks
Oh yes, but still can pose a problem. Imagine one of those students tried to apply for a backoffice job at a bank, they’ll most likely test the person’s Office skills and the student may not be able to compete the assessment and have an inferior grade to another one who always had MS Office at his school.