"I
have never seen open textbooks work in a subject area that requires
frequent updates, such as fundamental computer concepts, or modern
application software (office suites...)."
Hopefully
this will change. I've contributed a lot of my learning materials
for OpenOffice.org to the Documentation
Project (documentation.openoffice.org/conceptualguide) under an
open license, including an eBook version of my paperback
title (ISBN 978-0-9778991-6-6), Moodle Course Package complete
with quizzes, exams, test bank, exercises, etc. and supplementary
materials. With the limited financial and human resources I have to
work with, I would say that it has been successful in providing
schools the materials they need to consider alternative, open source
applications for instructional use.
Best
regards,
Gabriel
Gurley
Contributor,
OpenOffice.org Documentation and Education Projects
I agree that helping schools utilize OpenOffice.org for instruction they provide is one of the best ways to get users acquainted with the office suite. I have written a book specially for use in educational institutions to provide instruction for OpenOffice.org titled "A Conceptual Guide to OpenOffice.org 2.0". More information is available at http://www.conciseconceptsinc.com/.
Both Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org have their advantages and disadvantages. From an educational standpoint, however, OpenOffice.org has one key advantage that makes up for the lack of some features: its licensing.
As a former educator, OpenOffice org was (and still is) a valuable learning tool. Because of its licensing, I have been able to distribute copies of the software to students who can't afford to buy a copy of Microsoft Office, even at Microsoft's educational pricing. This especially made a big difference to those who needed to complete assignments at home, but lived too far from school to return to the computer lab or whose jobs required them to work irregular hours. Because I was teaching the concepts of creating documents rather than learning a specific application by rote memory, the students were able to take what I taught them with OpenOffice.org and apply it to Microsoft Office or any other application they choose to use at home or at work.
Those interested in reviewing the lessons I developed for use with OpenOffice.org 2.0 in an educational environment can download a free evaluation copy of my new book "A Conceptual Guide to OpenOffice.org 2.0" at http://www.conciseconceptsinc.com/
One of the key reasons that alternatives to Microsoft Office haven't made substantial headway in government and educational institutions is because many users aren't aware of the alternatives available. Or if they are, they are unable to distinguish the advantages and disadvantages between the alternatives and Microsoft Office, and haven't received any substantial training using such alternatives.
As an educator, I began using OpenOffice.org and NeoOffice/J in the classes I taught or coordinated, along with Microsoft Office, to teach the fundamental concepts of preparing documents with office suite applications. Upon completion of the training, my students had a much better grasp of the differences between office productivity suites, their advantages and disadvantages, and which application performed better at preparing certain tasks based upon features. Moreover, those students could make better educated decisions of which office productivity suite to choose based upon their needs, not based upon which application has a greater marketshare or saves files in a specific format. Because of the benefits I witnessed from the instruction provided to these students, I ended up writing the book "A Conceptual Guide to OpenOffice.org 2.0" (www.conciseconceptsinc.com) that is based upon the handouts I prepared for those classes.
My hope is that the adoption of open source formats become a success. Users shouldn't have to choose to use a software package based upon the use of a closed source format tied to a specific application. Every application has its advantages and disadvantages, and every user needs specific features from an application when creating documents. Having applications standardize on open source formats, and have them compete on features/interface/ease-of-use/ etc., is much better for users in terms of choice and the assurance that documents created today are assessable by everyone for many years into the future.
As an educator, one of the problems I found was finding suitable documentation / textbooks for open source software. I often found a lot of great books and online guides, but they just didn't have the right mix of hands-on exercises and easy-to-understand instructions to make great learning text for my students in the classroom.
I have used OpenOffice.org quite a bit for classroom instruction, as well as for helping entrepreneurs with writing business plans and preparing other documentation. Because of the extraordinary value OpenOffice.org brought to my students as a tool for learning an office productivity suite, it inspired me to write a new book for OpenOffice.org especially for classroom and training use. I hope my book, A Conceptual Guide to OpenOffice.org 2.0, will help educators utilize OpenOffice.org more in computer lab instruction, as well as inspire others to write textbooks and documentation suitable for the education sector.
A free, downloadable evaluation copy is available here:
http://www.conciseconceptsinc.com/
Slashdot Mirror
"I have never seen open textbooks work in a subject area that requires frequent updates, such as fundamental computer concepts, or modern application software (office suites...)."
Hopefully this will change. I've contributed a lot of my learning materials for OpenOffice.org to the Documentation Project (documentation.openoffice.org/conceptualguide) under an open license, including an eBook version of my paperback title (ISBN 978-0-9778991-6-6), Moodle Course Package complete with quizzes, exams, test bank, exercises, etc. and supplementary materials. With the limited financial and human resources I have to work with, I would say that it has been successful in providing schools the materials they need to consider alternative, open source applications for instructional use.
Best regards,
Gabriel Gurley
Contributor, OpenOffice.org Documentation and Education Projects
I agree that helping schools utilize OpenOffice.org for instruction they provide is one of the best ways to get users acquainted with the office suite. I have written a book specially for use in educational institutions to provide instruction for OpenOffice.org titled "A Conceptual Guide to OpenOffice.org 2.0". More information is available at http://www.conciseconceptsinc.com/.
Both Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org have their advantages and disadvantages. From an educational standpoint, however, OpenOffice.org has one key advantage that makes up for the lack of some features: its licensing.
As a former educator, OpenOffice org was (and still is) a valuable learning tool. Because of its licensing, I have been able to distribute copies of the software to students who can't afford to buy a copy of Microsoft Office, even at Microsoft's educational pricing. This especially made a big difference to those who needed to complete assignments at home, but lived too far from school to return to the computer lab or whose jobs required them to work irregular hours. Because I was teaching the concepts of creating documents rather than learning a specific application by rote memory, the students were able to take what I taught them with OpenOffice.org and apply it to Microsoft Office or any other application they choose to use at home or at work.
Those interested in reviewing the lessons I developed for use with OpenOffice.org 2.0 in an educational environment can download a free evaluation copy of my new book "A Conceptual Guide to OpenOffice.org 2.0" at http://www.conciseconceptsinc.com/
One of the key reasons that alternatives to Microsoft Office haven't made substantial headway in government and educational institutions is because many users aren't aware of the alternatives available. Or if they are, they are unable to distinguish the advantages and disadvantages between the alternatives and Microsoft Office, and haven't received any substantial training using such alternatives.
As an educator, I began using OpenOffice.org and NeoOffice/J in the classes I taught or coordinated, along with Microsoft Office, to teach the fundamental concepts of preparing documents with office suite applications. Upon completion of the training, my students had a much better grasp of the differences between office productivity suites, their advantages and disadvantages, and which application performed better at preparing certain tasks based upon features. Moreover, those students could make better educated decisions of which office productivity suite to choose based upon their needs, not based upon which application has a greater marketshare or saves files in a specific format. Because of the benefits I witnessed from the instruction provided to these students, I ended up writing the book "A Conceptual Guide to OpenOffice.org 2.0" (www.conciseconceptsinc.com) that is based upon the handouts I prepared for those classes.
My hope is that the adoption of open source formats become a success. Users shouldn't have to choose to use a software package based upon the use of a closed source format tied to a specific application. Every application has its advantages and disadvantages, and every user needs specific features from an application when creating documents. Having applications standardize on open source formats, and have them compete on features/interface/ease-of-use/ etc., is much better for users in terms of choice and the assurance that documents created today are assessable by everyone for many years into the future.
As an educator, one of the problems I found was finding suitable documentation / textbooks for open source software. I often found a lot of great books and online guides, but they just didn't have the right mix of hands-on exercises and easy-to-understand instructions to make great learning text for my students in the classroom. I have used OpenOffice.org quite a bit for classroom instruction, as well as for helping entrepreneurs with writing business plans and preparing other documentation. Because of the extraordinary value OpenOffice.org brought to my students as a tool for learning an office productivity suite, it inspired me to write a new book for OpenOffice.org especially for classroom and training use. I hope my book, A Conceptual Guide to OpenOffice.org 2.0, will help educators utilize OpenOffice.org more in computer lab instruction, as well as inspire others to write textbooks and documentation suitable for the education sector. A free, downloadable evaluation copy is available here: http://www.conciseconceptsinc.com/