While the presence of Microsoft Office cannot be denied, it by no means is the "end all" office suite that comes with a 'must have, no questions' seal. I'm not sure of your age offhand, but think back to when you were in school. Did you use Microsoft Office? Or did you use something else? Perhaps AppleWorks? Word Perfect? I didn't have Microsoft Office until my later years, and even then it was only in one lab. See where I'm going with this? Software change and development happens at a crazy fast rate. It's inevitable, and we cannot avoid it. Even if you DID use Microsoft Office in school, how different does 2003 look to 2013? Change is inevitable. The only real option is to brace yourself for impact.
A monumental problem with education today is not teaching students concepts. If you teach them on a specific platform on how to do 'xyz' task based on this set of explicit steps, you are setting them up for failure. If you teach them from a conceptual point of view, so they can learn and understand the workflow of how you go from one task to another, you're teaching them a broader, more 'generic-ized' skill. When you understand what the software is doing for the given command you just gave, it becomes easier to piece together what the next step is, and execute accordingly. If you're just drilled on step 1, edit. Step 2, preferences, etc., then all you're doing is drilling specific steps into students in a robot-like manner. Reaction takes place without thinking about it. Being able to understand what is happening to thereby move on to the next step cleanly is a skill that truly does matter in the 'real world', since there are absolutely no guarantees in life that you'll end up on the exact same make/model/version software from what you were trained on.
This isn't exclusive to office suites. This happens to any and all devices and software. How do you *know* that your CADD classes will land you a job that specifically uses CADD software? Maybe you'll use something else. How do you know as a graphic designer you'll end up with Photoshop? I just read an article last week that suggested Gimp is being considered more and more as a way to curb costs. What about web design? What platform did you use then? What platform is popular now? When I took web design classes, CSS still didn't have much footing. Now, straight web coding is heavily dependent upon CSS.
We're not the only district facing this. A multitude of districts out in the world have jumped on board with Google Docs. Some districts even have done a 1 to 1 with Chromebooks. (Slightly off topic with personal opinion inbound...) I often question the point behind going with Chromebooks because Chromebooks actually require a management license with larger organizations (and believe me, you want that), simlar to the cost of a Windows license included on a computer. The cost of our Ubuntu systems was wildly similar to the final cost of Chromebooks, yet we get an actual full desktop environment where we can run a number of applications on it. With Chromebooks, there's the apps in the app store and everything web based. Sure, a lot of things are web based, but a lot of what we like to utilize is not, and therefore, the restrictive use feeling comes into play. (This is just my 2c though, as I still really like Chromebooks overall). And of course, we all know there's no Microsoft Office on Chromebooks, so what about the districts doing a 1 to 1 with Chromebooks? They could be asked the same question. Even the districts who are Windows based that I know about, they're almost all using Google Docs with MS Office on the back burner. Does it make sense to pay that kind of money for software that isn't going to be a front runner for your organization? Given that I value and respect districts who spend my tax payer dollars responsibly, I'd say no. It's one thing if you use that software and get your money's worth out of it, but far too often it's purchased and still Google Docs is the primary go-to.
That's why we, very proudly, use Libre Office and Google Docs. The fundamentals between Microsoft Office, Google Docs, and Libre Office are largely similar, but of course each has their own unique twist to some degree. They can all cut, copy, paste, select all, handle columns, bullet/number lists, formatting, and all sorts of other things that 99% of school districts out there (and the vast majority of real world users, I'd argue) truly 'need'. Likewise, Google Docs is accessible from home pending the students have an internet connection. If not, or if they simply prefer otherwise, they can utilize the already-installed Libre Office on their laptops already. I mean, how is that 'not' a solid win-win?
I recall being in a presentation about a year or two ago where my boss was giving an overview of basically what would amount to this 1 to 1 project as highlighted in the video above. A woman in the crowd asked him that same question, and he countered it with a question. "Did you use Microsoft Office in school?" "No." Nothing more needed to be said.
That all on the table, there's no denying that Microsoft Office is actually really nice. At the same token, there's no denying that the 'glory days' of school districts wild dependence on Microsoft Office in particular has largely dissipated. This doesn't mean you won't see Microsoft Office in schools, it's still quite the opposite, but I guarantee if you interview the districts in your area, 'something else' will also be mentioned in their software suite arsenal.
