ECOMP 7010
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
OpenOffice Office Suite 1.1 Case Study
Robert L. Slater
Clearview High School
I. Introduction
With partial funding of The Senior Project and Portfolio for At-Risk Kids (SPPARK) Grant by the Ferndale Community Fund of the Whatcom Community Foundation Clearview High School will have a new computer lab installed in 2004. In order to maximize the amount of computer hardware and software the staff at Clearview is proposing a trial install of OpenOffice 1.1 Office Suite in the new computer lab instead of Microsoft Office 2003.
OpenOffice 1.1 Office Suite is the Open Source version of Sun Microsystem's StarOffice 7. Open source software is software provided free to all interested parties. The definition from www.opensource.org includes "The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software . . . . The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale." OpenOffice 1.1 Office Suite can be downloaded or purchased for the price of the media [disks] it comes on.
Our school has a total staff of seven and a student body of 65. Our student to Teacher ratio averages 20 to 1. This is optimal for piloting programs on a small scale. If we can demonstrate the viability of OpenOffice 1.1 Office Suite in our school it could expand to other schools in the district and provide significant value to the school district through cost savings.
II. Statement of Purpose
Our greatest need at Clearview High School is to have a fully-functional classroom set of computers available for our students. That full functionality must include an office suite software package to adequately prepare our students for interaction in the business world.
We must maximize our limited funding. Since OpenOffice 1.1 is a software package distributed for free to schools and their associated staff and students, by using OpenOffice 1.1 Office Suite instead of Microsoft Office 2003 we will save money that can then be spent on additional hardware.
Familiarity with this software will lead to more marketable computer skills because of the similarity with other more popular office suite packages, like Microsoft Office. Students and staff can also install OpenOffice 1.1 Office Suite for personal use at home to extend their understanding and comfort in using this product suite.
III. Budget Requested
- Purchase of one StarOffice 7.0. $79.95. Purchase of this program gives access to Sun Microsystems Free Training. This training includes: Teacher Training and Lesson Plans, Primary and Secondary (K12) Professional Development, The StarOffice Education Template Collection, and StarOffice Online Tutorial For Kids. No additional cost to district.
- 3 substitute days for Lead Teacher to examine Sun Microsystems Open Gateways Curriculum for Teachers. School District cost: at approximately $150 per day. $450.
- Training with students will occur within classes with the utilization of the free StarOffice Online Tutorial For Kids.
- Deployment of software will occur during Clearview's Technology support class. This course is a group of advanced technology students that have been rebuilding donated computers, maintaining existing systems and installing software. There will be minimal costs for CD backups, rescue disks and printouts describing installation procedures. $20.
- Documentation is available in electronic format, however for ease of student use some manuals will be printed out and photocopied. Binders, Paper and Toner costs. $50.
- Support and Maintenance. Maintenance of systems and software will occur from within Clearview's Technology support class. Any additional support will be provided by district tech staff, including building-based techs.
Anticipated Budget Expenses:
StarOffice 7.0.
$79.95
3 substitute days $150 per day.
$450.00
CD backups, rescue disks and printouts.
$20.00
Binders, Paper and Toner costs.
$50.00
TOTAL
$599.95
IV. Proof of Concept
In order to prove the viability of this study we intend to install OpenOffice 1.1 Office Suite in the 10 existing systems in my classroom writing lab. This installation will occur in the time period before our new lab is installed.
Lead Teacher/Facilitator will download and work through Sun Microsystems Open Gateways Curriculum for Teachers. Suggested completion time 3 days. After completing self-training with these and other free access materials Lead Teacher/Facilitator will present OpenOffice 1.1 Office Suite to staff to engage them in the process. Their ability to obtain anecdotal student response will be called upon to help prove or disprove the feasibility of this project.
We will focus on demonstrating the usefulness and compatibility of OpenOffice 1.1 Writer word processing software and OpenOffice 1.1 Impress presentation software over systems within our building and district.
One of the course requirements for Junior and Senior English students at Clearview High
School is a Careers portfolio that includes a Research Paper normally produced in Microsoft Word 97. OpenOffice 1.1 Writer will be used as a substitute for Microsoft Word 97.
To test the compatibility of OpenOffice 1.1 Writer, the word processing files will be opened by a variety of machines: Apple IMacs, G4s, EMacs, PCs of various ages running, Windows 95/98, Me., XP. and 2000. These machines run a variety of word processing software: Microsoft Office 95, 97, 2000, and Microsoft Works. In addition OpenOffice 1.1 Writer will be used to open files created by these machines and software packages.
Another course requirements for the Careers portfolio includes a PowerPoint Presentation normally produced with Microsoft PowerPoint. OpenOffice 1.1 Impress will be used as a substitute for PowerPoint 97. Compatibility will be tested the same as OpenOffice 1.1 Writer.
Lead Teacher/Facilitator will collect and collate student and staff feedback through surveys and informal interviews. After our next 4.5 week grading period we will present our experience and samples of our work to our administrator in anticipation of demonstrating our success at an open house for the requisite District administrators and Technology Managers.
V. Project Plan
- Approval of building administrator, Julia Besola, for preparation, research and sample deployment.
- Approval of Network Systems Administrator, Robert Keller, to install software.
- Individual self-training by Lead Teacher/Facilitator, Robert Slater.
- Creation of a specific install design which will enhance and support the classroom experience. Focus on Word Processing and Presentation software.
- Introduce other staff to program to demonstrate compatibility and flexibility. Our entire instructional staff includes: an Administrator, Julia Besola; a Language Arts teacher, Robert Slater; a Math/Science Teacher, Don Rieland; a Social Studies Teacher, Chris Perkins; an Art Teacher, Jackie Rodriguez.
- Plan introductory lessons on utilization in classrooms
- Introduce students to program. Require completion of introductory products.
- Include personal survey data as software is introduced and after proof of concept is completed.
- Prepare demonstration for building administrator, Julia Besola to be adapted for presentation to district technology decision-makers.
- Present demonstration to building administrator, Julia Besola.
- Debrief with students, staff and building administrator.
- Prepare demonstration for presentation to district technology decision-makers. These include: Jim Gibson, Director of Instructional Services; Robert Keller, Network Systems Administrator; Carole Briscoe, Secondary Network Administrator.
- Submit official proposal through building administrator, Julia Besola.
- District decision-makers will choose not to go with Open Source products.
- OpenOffice 1.1 Suite may not be as compatible within systems as it is advertised.
- OpenOffice 1.1 Suite may prove to be an unacceptable replacement for Microsoft Office.
- Proposal will not get administrator buy-in. Building administrator will not approve teacher-directed time for investment in this project as a reasonable expenditure in relation to cost of software savings.
- Proposal will not get staff buy-in. Staff may be uninterested in learning and promoting a new software package.
- Proposal will not get student buy-in. Students may not wish to convert to new software.
- Despite acceptance of OpenOffice 1.1 for utilization decision-makers will still not approve purchasing additional hardware.
VII. Assessment
The following are Acceptance Criteria in probable order of occurrence:
- Successful design of OpenOffice Suite software install.
- Successful installation of OpenOffice Suite software
- Buy-in and participation by staff
- Buy-in and participation by students
- Approval by administrator to present to district technology decision-makers.
- Quality products created by students and staff to present.
- Approval by district technology decision-makers of reallocation of funds.
VIII. Next Steps
Once approval to move ahead has been granted the following steps will be taken:
- Debrief with staff and students regarding successes and failures during Proof of concept. If there were processes and structures that did not work during the previous implementation they should be adjusted.
- Redesign installation structures if deemed necessary from feedback/debrief. Most software comes with extra features that can be installed which do not enhance a particular environment.
- Funds saved by installation of OpenOffice 1.1 will be used to purchase additional hardware systems in order to reach the most students with the best technology we can get them.
- After lab is installed, install software.
IX. Appendix
Supporting documentation on compatibility and usefulness.
"Expect to get upwards of 90 percent of the formatting correct, but there may be some tweaking required in documents that have to live on both platforms: as the OOo people say, this is also the case with any two variants of Microsoft Office." (Rupert Goodwins, ZDnet, October 20, 2003.)
"Best of all, it shares files effortlessly with Microsoft Office and other office suites."(CCV® Software. Retrieved November 30, 2003.)
"OpenOffice.org is the single largest open source application available, and it is huge. To go through all the available features would require a month’s worth of articles. Suffice it to say that, if you can do it in Microsoft Office, you can do it in OpenOffice.org—for free!" (Jack Wallen, Jr., TechRepublic, 29 November 2002)