“New software agreements for schools are riling some teachers who are required to remove Microsoft Office from all Apple Macintoshes used in the classroom,” Stephen Bell Wellington reports for Computerworld New Zealand.
“The schools are no longer licensed to use Microsoft’s popular Office suite under the new contracts negotiated between vendors and the Ministry of Education,” Wellington reports.
“The change is simply a matter of value for money and appropriateness, says ministry ICT spokesman Douglas Harre. Macs in classrooms have now been equipped with the Apple products iWork and Kidpix in place of Office,” Wellington reports.
“Since the majority of Macs in the classroom are in primary schools, the Apple software offers better educational value, says Harre. ‘The average seven-year-old is not worried about programming macros in Excel,'” Wellington reports. “Mac laptops provided to teachers under the TELA scheme will still be licensed to use Office, as will Macs used for school administration.”
Wellington reports, “Dorothy Burt, e-learning leader at Auckland’s Point England primary school, says the removal of Microsoft software from classroom Macs surprises her… But, she says, ‘It’s not so much of an issue in the classroom. We’re using Google Docs, Google spreadsheet and other open-source software anyway. We did use Office in the classroom, [but only] because we had it.’ Burt sees the adoption of Iworks and Kidpix as a very positive move. ‘But [it will] be interesting to see how the connectivity situation works out,’ she adds.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Another Irish Dude” for the heads up.]
They should call it kiWork in N.Z.
Just proves NZ is smarter than America, and now their kids will be too.
“Teachers, leave our kids alone”
Pink Floyd – Another Brick in the Wall
Good. Maybe that generation will see that Microsoft is not the only alternative.
Microsoft is like a punitive tax on the worlds productivity. In many more ways than one too…
Good stuff. Now if Apple would get iWork ’07 out the door with the rumored spreadsheet, more institutions and organizations would be able to dump Office.
Why do we have to even pay for iWork? It should be a free download, dammit!
Beautiful decision for a beautiful country.
I fail to see how iWork can satisfy their needs since it is nothing more than an anemic Word Processor with a useless Presentation Application no one uses. iWork, .Mac, and Mac OSX GARFIELD are Apple’s 3 big embarrassments. Good news nonetheless.
They should skip iWork and just start using Google Docs.
This is great news. If those kids are kept away from MS stuff at the beginning of their school life, imagine what will they choose to use when they graduate from college?
Great news indeed and hopefully a trend that will soon wipe MS crap from the planet.
Macs have recently had a long-overdue price reduction here, and the education price is presumably even better. It’s good to see Apple slowly making headway down under.
iMaki!
How can Apple be embarrassed? Was it you who just embarrassed them?
weird.
New Zealand is an amazing place, and highly recommended to those who have not been there.
And now it’s even better!
Pages > Word
Keynote > Powerpoint
I must admit I laughed out loud at OS X Garfield.
I hope they realise how lucky they are being deprived of rubbish software.
Mac OS X Garfield would make Windows Vista, Odie.
since when is google docs or google spreadsheets opensource software?
iMaki,
Yeah, right! I guess that’s why my audience shits itself everytime I give a Keynote presentation. I also guess that’s why all their questions afterward are not about the topic but about how I “did that in PowerPoint”. When they find out it is Keynote, they want to know more.
Also, I guess it’s why Microsucks has copied extensively from Keynote for Office 2008.
Yes, iMaki, you are perfectly correct.
As much as I favour dumping Micro$oft bloatware, this is yet another “IT knows better than you” what you need to do. It rankles me everytime. They would have much better success bringing teachers into the decision process, rather than forcing it down their throats. Sigh.
Cubert,
Shouldn’t the audience be focusing on the topic?
Somebody should send them a link to NeoOffice.
And iMaki was his mother’s biggest embarrassment. He didn’t have a father.
Bandit Bill,
After they clean the shit out of their pants they do.
No, in all seriousness, Keynote helps me be a more effective lecturer AND it keeps the audience awake!
Can’t focus on the talk if you are asleep.