Have you noticed that Microsoft Office is back on desktop computers in the IRC and labs? Microsoft Office programs have returned to Niles West computers for now.
This change was negotiated by the school board and teachers in the fall, when the teachers’ contract was being discussed. The initial idea was proposed by the teachers’ negotiating team.
“There’s still a matter of language in the contract that needs to be negotiated. The teachers wanted [Microsoft Office] back as a part of their new contracts,” NTFT president Steve Grossman said.
Because the contract language is still being negotiated, there’s a chance that Microsoft Office will be eliminated again from computers that students use.
Principal Kaine Osburn confirms the change.
“The inclusion of Microsoft Office was negotiated between the teachers and the school board, and the final language determining the parameters of that inclusion is not completed,” Osburn said.
The Microsoft Office change will not affect students’ netbooks, according to Technology Specialist, Tim Furman.
“The netbooks here, which run Linux, Libre Office, Open Office won’t be impacted,” Furman said.
Despite the fact that netbooks won’t be impacted by this change, some students are still glad it’s in place.
“I feel like this is a good thing, because it’ll be easier to use, and since most people are already used to Microsoft Word,” sophomore Maya Caballero said.
Other students don’t feel as affected by the change.
“It doesn’t make that much of a difference to me, or apply to me. Unless it was for my netbook, which I strongly suggest, then I’d be happier,” sophomore Sherlina Chauhan said.
Shrara • Feb 6, 2013 at 2:13 PM
Microsoft is sooo much better then all those other programs, it is way more advanced!
Anonymous • Dec 17, 2012 at 10:15 PM
Can someone give me some insight as to why teachers were so upset about it? It honestly didn’t seem that much different – both programs suites did fundamentally the same thing. The only complaints I heard were about all the extra bells and whistles not working, like animations or music, or text being slightly misaligned. That really isn’t that important, or much more than a slight inconvenience.
There are a lot of things about this that people don’t seem to understand. Libre Office is completely free. Microsoft Office is not, and licenses to use it cost the school money. At least in the hundreds. Thousands, even. Also, Microsoft Office cannot work on netbooks because the netbooks use Ubuntu, a free Linux distribution. Ubuntu is a completely different operating system – Microsoft Office has been tailored for Windows computers (there is also a version for Mac as well). If the netbooks had Windows on them, they would be able to run Microsoft Office just fine. But purchasing netbooks with Windows preloaded into them would also cost the school more money, because Ubuntu is free and Windows isn’t.
Before making complaints, educate yourself.