Acceptance of OpenOffice.org (was Re: Gov't , economics and technology (was Re: METROCAST BLOCKS RESIDENTIAL E-MAIL))

[Bill McGonigle]

On Mar 13, 2006, at 15:18, Christopher Schmidt wrote:

> So, although most of the computer related classes - Desktop Publishing,
> Word Processing, etc. - were taught on relatively modern machines
> running a recent windows version, the Computer Science courses were
> taught on the oldest computers in the school (for student use anyway).

My high school taught Pascal on Z/80 machines running CPM when those 
were 'out of date'.  I think they'd still be fine for learning Pascal.  
Heck, I learned assembly on a VIC 20 (3583 BYTES FREE) and the concepts 
are still the same today.  I'm still not convinced children ought to 
jump straight into Java as their first language - it offers enough of a 
library that you tend to do more engineering and less CS 
(exponentiation built-in!).

If anyone has influence in high schools I recommend the ACSL:

   http://www.acsl.org

as a good opportunity for learning CS in high school.  I went to a tiny 
high school in central NJ but we still managed to place in the top five 
nationally for several years.  A good teacher is essential (thanks, 
Jack DeValue!).

As for job postings requiring Microsoft Word and Excel - in 1990 they 
probably required WordStar and Lotus 1-2-3!

-Bill
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