>My son is learning something about using a spreadsheet - extremely >useful and I support it 100%. That he thinks what he is learning is >Excel is absolutely unforgivable, in terms of my understanding of >ethical norms that once prevailed in an institute of higher education. >
I guess it depends on whether that is what he was taught or if he was ever taught about alternatives. If this is an advanced class and was billed as "learn all the details about Excel" that's fine. If this is an introductory course I believe it should really start off with ... Excel is a spreadsheet. There are many spreadsheet applications available. All spreadsheets share these common traits .... >We understand that all the functionality he will ever need from Excel is >available for free in other spreadsheet software. > Probably. Anything beyond the common spreadsheet functions is almost certainly better done another way. >Do I care that he is within an institution that has lost its bearings on >fundamental matters of academic ethics. > Of course. More frightening to me than the ubiquitous use of MS Office is the omnipresence of windows. Every time a student sits down in front of KDE in our lab and says "Where is the internet?" I can only cringe. Microsoft may not own the internet, but that is not what we are teaching. I seriously get about 10% of users who are unable to see any other browser as performing the same function as internet explorer. If "what is a spreadsheet?" is pretty scary. "What is a browser?" is downright terrifying. >Do I care that I am made to feel that this point of view is somehow >radical on a educational forum that is an offshoot of an open source >software community. > Hmm... more like "preaching to the choir" isn't it? _________________________________________________________________ Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today it's FREE! http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/ _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
