When OpenOffice.org usage in education is discussed, it is often thought of in the context of using it for courses in office management, introductory computing courses enrolled by both IT and non-IT majors, primary and K-12 technology courses and perhaps even english composition courses. However, there are many other educational programs where OpenOffice.org is ideal, some of which are often overlooked.

One such educational program is also one that has been garnering a lot of attention among many state economic development leaders in recent years. Entrepreneurial training and resource programs for many states has been one of its primary economic development initiatives when trying to address rising unemployment, outsourcing by companies of productive works previously performed by salaried employees, moving of manufacturing facilities to emerging economies oversees and creating economic growth in rural areas. In the United States, for example, small businesses now account for between 60 and 80 percent of all net new job creations and employ about half of all workers.1

So while newspapers and local television news organizations splash headlines touting the occasional successes of large companies locating to an area and providing jobs, often with the caveat of reduced or the elimination of property and income taxes for those companies to even consider the relocation, small businesses without said benefits quietly, without fanfare, continue to be founded by local entrepreneurs that create sustainable economic growth and significant local job creation.

So you may be asking, "How does OpenOffice.org fit into all of this?" I feel I can best explain this by citing my own personal example while I was the director of a small business development center at a community college. These centers, often referred to as Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) in most states, are in part federally and/or state funded and often located at university and college campuses throughout the United States. They are established with the mission of providing one-on-one confidential counseling, training and educational resources to existing small businesses and entrepreneurs.

One of my first uses of OpenOffice.org for instructional purposes was when I was involved in a project providing instruction for local, small farmers in need of receiving computer skills training to assist them with better managing their farm operation records. These farmers came from diverse backgrounds, and raised a variety of livestock, as well as fruits and vegetables for various wholesale markets. Many of these farmers were carrying on with this occupation in tradition; many of them were the third or fourth generation of farmers within their families.

But there was one thing they all had in common; they all had been affected by what has become known as the "digital divide". Many of these farmers had little or no computer training. Most of them were still using a single paper ledger to manage their revenues and expenses. Or worse, their receipts and expenses were kept in a shoebox underneath the seat of their pickup trucks.

Moreover, they lived in areas where dial-up access was still the primary gateway to the Internet. Yet, despite their limited knowledge of operating a computer and using software to manage their records, the United States Department of Agriculture and local banks were increasingly providing electronic record and loan submissions as the only means to submit such documentation.

With the cooperative efforts of my Center, the local agricultural cooperative extension service office and the state cooperative extension service office at the local land-grant university, computer courses began to be offered to these small, limited resource farmers to help them utilize the personal computer as their primary record keeping and documentation submission tool. In the end, over 100 farmers received this training in my service area alone. These farmers started with the basics, such as developing proficient keyboarding skills and using the operating system. They then progressed to using word processors and spreadsheets so that they could become proficient enough to create documents such as business plans, balance sheets, profit and loss statements and cash flow statements.

And what was the primary word processor and spreadsheet application used for this training? It was OpenOffice.org Writer and Calc, as well as NeoOffice when instruction was provided in the Mac lab. There were many reasons for choosing OpenOffice.org, but three I found to be most important.

First, OpenOffice.org provided an alternative to proprietary office productivity suites such as Microsoft Office and AppleWorks, which were also used during the training. By having the availability of an alternative suite of applications for providing instruction, it focused the farmers on developing the conceptual skills of operating a computer and creating key documents, rather than focusing on learning a specific software application through rote memory. This proved to be an effective way of getting the farmers to realize there were multiple ways of approaching a task, as well reinforcing confidence in their ability to operate a computer and create documents in varying environments or when technologies change.

Second, the generous licensing terms of OpenOffice.org allowed copies of the software to be distributed to the farmers for personal use without incurring licensing fees. Upon completion of the series of courses, these small, limited resource farmers would be eligible to receive a personal computer donated by local businesses and agencies that were being taken out of deployment and replaced for newer models. The donated computers would be refurbished by training program administrators and volunteers to operational condition and installed with a legally licensed operating system and software. By making copies of OpenOffice.org available to the farmers, they would receive a full-featured office productivity suite capable of creating the various business documents they need to produce while saving both the donations program and the farmers money from having to purchase copies of proprietary office productivity suites.

Third, the use of OpenOffice.org added value to the instruction the training partnership provided, as well as to the local economy. The small farmers participating in the computer training program were excited to learn that they could receive a copy of OpenOffice.org on a CD at no cost to them. It inspired the farmers that had computers at home to load the software there and learn as much as they could outside of class. It also provided added value to the Center's training program and services; providing low-cost instructional solutions that instilled to those receiving the training that the Center and its partners were making an investment in their future and success.

Moreover, by freeing the farmers from having to utilize scarce financial resources to pay licensing fees for software necessary to help them better manage their farm operations and become more profitable, those dollars instead were, in part, used to buy other products or services provided in their local community. This scenario often leads to adding additional value to the local economy and creates additional jobs. Typically, 45% of money spent at a locally owned business or service provider remains in the local economy, whereas as little as 14% or less remains in the local economy when spent with businesses and service providers that are headquartered outside a local area.2

So the adoption of OpenOffice.org, when included in a broader inventory of instructional tools and resources, can have substantial benefits to learners, teachers and educational institutions alike. And when utilized in often overlooked educational and community support programs like that of entrepreneurial training, the possibilities for even greater positive effects can be too numerous to list.


References

1 United States Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, Frequently Asked Questions, 2008. Link: http://www.sba.gov/advo/stats/sbfaq.pdf

2 "The Economics of Buying Local", Denise Blaha, New Hampshire Carbon Challenge. Link: http://carbonchallenge.sr.unh.edu/newsletter/economics_buying_local.jsp