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