Microsoft Losing Next Generation of Office Users by Delaying iOS Release

[Abazigal]

Chromebooks in school is a bad idea, as it won't get them used to what they will be using in the working world. OK for grade school maybe, as you wrote, but by high school, they need to be using full PC' and Office. Not because they/it are better, but just because that's the way it is now.

It will be 10-15 years before these elementary school pupils enter the working world. A lot of things can happen during this time. How do you know that office will continue to be the dominant word processing software a decade from now?

Besides, I also view it as a vicious cycle. If we teach the kids how to use office because that's what everyone is using now, it just perpetuates the whole trend of them continuing to use Office because that's the only software they know how to use and are comfortable with. Even if it may not necessarily be the best tool for the job.

How do you break bad religion? By giving it a fresh start. Start by introducing our children today to other alternatives other than Office and they may just start using, and clamouring for other alternatives when they grow up. Loud enough for bosses to actually sit up and take notice and start offering these alternatives.

Change has to start somewhere.

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Your last sentence kind of gives away the game.



What didn't you like about the collaboration in the current version of Office apps?



I'm not interested in a teacher who wants to raise the next generation of workers to shun or boycott what she doesn't like. I guess that makes reason #4,845,143 why we homeschool.



We use an iMac, two MacBook Airs, 4 iPads, an Android tablet, a Windows tablet, 2 desktop Windows machines, a Windows laptop, Office for Windows and Mac, Scrivener, and OpenOffice. My students choose the tools that work for them, I don't. And if they need such tools when it comes time to get a job, they'll have experience with all of them.

I don't know, since none of the school computers run the latest version of office, so I can't give my pupils that learning experience even if I wanted to.

I don't "boycott" Office out of some personal agenda. It just doesn't fit our use cases in the classroom. Everything the pupils do, some other tool does it better, be it google docs, some web tool like glogster or blogging.

 

[LordVic]

Chromebooks in school is a bad idea, as it won't get them used to what they will be using in the working world. OK for grade school maybe, as you wrote, but by high school, they need to be using full PC' and Office. Not because they/it are better, but just because that's the way it is now.

Ive had this similar discussion with a buddy of mine who works for some school in their IT department.

I think Chromebooks are an excellent computer fro someone who just uses web. really, thats all it's good for anyways...

But you are right in this. Chromebooks in a school setting, Especially when focusing on education of using a computer is another gross disservice. When you are educating someone, why limit the scope of your education by a walled garden?

it would be akin to teaching someone that an iPad is a full computer and they wont need to know much else about how computers actually work.

Chromebooks, i-Devices and the like are fantastic devices for their specific uses. But I'm tired of the education system jumping on them cause of their cheapness and popularity, versus a real education on how computers and technology work.

 

[Deguello]

I don't know, since none of the school computers run the latest version of office, so I can't give my pupils that learning experience even if I wanted to.

I don't "boycott" Office out of some personal agenda. It just doesn't fit our use cases in the classroom. Everything the pupils do, some other tool does it better, be it google docs, some web tool like glogster or blogging.

So you don't know what it does, but it doesn't fit your use case and other tools do it better.

Who knows - we may just raise the next generation of workers who actively shun or even boycott Office.

So it's not a personal agenda, it's just that you're just randomly hoping for a generation of workers who shun or even boycott Office because a version you don't know about supposedly doesn't fit the use cases in your classroom.

#4,845,144

 

[Abazigal]

So you don't know what it does, but it doesn't fit your use case and other tools do it better.

So it's not a personal agenda, it's just that you're just randomly hoping for a generation of workers who shun or even boycott Office because a version you don't know about supposedly doesn't fit the use cases in your classroom.

#4,845,144

Let me rephrase myself:

Office 2010, which the pupils use, don't meet our needs. Maybe the latest version of office does, but none of us have it, so it's a moot point. Unless you are offering to sponsor my pupils' upgrades, I don't see ourselves using office 2013 anytime soon.

In the meantime, we will continue to use the best tool at our disposal - google docs.

 

[Deguello]

Let me rephrase myself:

Office 2010, which the pupils use, don't meet our needs. Maybe the latest version of office does, but none of us have it, so it's a moot point. Unless you are offering to sponsor my pupils' upgrades, I don't see ourselves using office 2013 anytime soon.

In the meantime, we will continue to use the best tool at our disposal - google docs.

That makes sense, though it seems more recharacterizing than rephrasing.

It's also not clear what that has to do with raising a generation to shun or boycott Office, though. Your position certainly comes across as ideological, though I'm not sure who you sea as the beneficiaries.

 

[Arsenikdote]

I would say most of the people who use Excel today are power users, to be honest.

LOL!!! Thanks for the laugh. Great way to start the day!

Unless...1% = most

While I certainly don't agree with the condescending tone of JAT's post, I would have to agree with the overall sentiment. Most of the office staff that I know that use Excel are NOT power users. I would define power users as those who would know how to manipulate a spreadsheet to gain more than just a basic set of calculations. More than basic formulas and graphs. If they are CREATING advanced formulas, multi-tab cell comparisons, multiple tab/file linking, macros, multi-layer conditional formatting, etc... then I would consider them a power user. But I don't see many office staff having this ability.

However, most of them USE spreadsheets that are that complicated, it is just that someone else has created it for them to simply use. This is why Numbers will always struggle outside of the home or SOHO environment. It isn't a good fit for large companies and unfortunately, for healthy competition, I don't see Excel really being challenged for quite some time.

 

[LordVic]

That makes sense, though it seems more recharacterizing than rephrasing.

It's also not clear what that has to do with raising a generation to shun or boycott Office, though. Your position certainly comes across as ideological, though I'm not sure who you sea as the beneficiaries.

I have to agree. might not have intended it this way, but the post definitely made it sound like she was choosing intentionally not to use office out of some ideological reason in hope that she would end the "brainwashing" of Microsoft

The simple fact is that at that level, the tool itself isn't important. they should be learning what a proper document looks like, and the proper ways of creating them. The tool is less important as the Theories should be interchangeable between most platforms for that level.


on the Other hand. There are still things in the Corporate world that no other platform can touch. When you get beyond the simple letter and document writing that most people do up till highschool, Office is untouchable. it's integration with all microsoft products. The data sources, the complexity is just something that nobody else has come close to when you get beyond standard writing and documentation.

We use Word for example as a processing tool, that takes output from our backend system and can create detailed mailmerged reports that are done in multiple formats for bank statement creation. There is absolutely no other tool that provides this functionality.

 

[SandboxGeneral]

Mod note:

Please cease the arguing and bickering and stick to the topic of the thread.

/mod note.