New Computer Lab Needed!

Another weekend without Internet out here in the "boonies". Don't know what the problem was this time, but I'm back!

This was an interesting project, very similar to one I had to do for a previous education technology class. I was kind of amazed how much computer prices have gone up in the past year or so. I don't know why I was surprised, though. Everything else is more expensive!

My executive summary document has a link to my comparison spreadsheet, and both are now available for your viewing pleasure.

Executive Summary Document in Microsoft Word format

10/12/2008

Doddridge County Board
of Education

103 Sistersville Pike

West Union, WV 26456

Distinguished Members
of the Board,

While researching the
cost-effectiveness of different software packages for the students,
faculty, and administration of Doddridge County Schools, I have
become aware of office productivity software with the potential to
save the Board of Education a minimum of $12,000.00, while providing
every computer in the schools software that is comparable to, if not
better than, Microsoft Office 2007. Sun Microsystems OpenOffice
suite consists of six productivity packages which include:

• Base, a database
  management package, for creating queries and reports, and for
  tracking and managing information. Base is very similar in function
  and operating procedure to Microsoft Access.

  
  

• Calc, a
  spreadsheet package used for performing calculations, analyzing
  information, and managing lists. Calc is very similar in function
  and operating procedure to Microsoft Excel.

  
  

• Impress, a
  presentation software package for slide shows, meetings, and
  creating Web pages. Impress is very similar in function and
  operation to Microsoft PowerPoint.

  
  

• Writer, a word
  processing package used to create and edit text and graphics in
  letters, reports, documents and Web pages. Writer is virtually
  identical to Microsoft Word, in function and operation.

  
  

• Draw, a package
  used to create and edit drawings, flowcharts and logos. This is
  unlike any of the basic four packages included in the Microsoft
  Office 2007 suite.

  
  

• Math, a package
  that allows the creation and editing of scientific formulas and
  equations. This, too, is unlike anything in the basic Microsoft
  Office 2007 suite.

  
  

There is virtually no
difference between the four basic packages in the Microsoft Office
2007 suite (Access, Excel, Word, and PowerPoint), and the Base, Calc,
Impress, and Writer packages in the Sun Microsystems OpenOffice
Suite. Documents created in the Microsoft Office 2007 packages are
accessible to the OpenOffice packages, and documents created by the
OpenOffice package can be saved to formats that are accessible to
Microsoft Office 2007 packages.

From an economic
standpoint, OpenOffice has the great advantage over Microsoft Office
2007 in that OpenOffice is available as a free download. This not
only represents a $12,000.00 to $58,000.00
advantage to the Doddridge County Board of Education, but a
considerable savings to parents of students, who can now access
professional quality office productivity software for their homes
which will be compatible to, and hopefully the same as, the software
used in their children's schools. Virtually any student with access
to the Internet will be able to obtain, for free, the same software
that is available at his or her school.

I have enclosed a
spreadsheet showing the cost of three different licensing options for
academic use of Microsoft Office 2007, and a presentation with some
examples of documents created with OpenOffice packages. The
presentation is accessible with Microsoft PowerPoint, and the
spreadsheet is accessible with Microsoft Excel. I appreciate your
time in reviewing this information. If you have any questions,
please feel free to contact me any time.

Sincerely,

Doris Wiseman

Executive Summary Document in OpenOffice format

10/12/2008

Doddridge County Board of Education

103 Sistersville Pike

West Union, WV 26456

Distinguished Members of the Board,

While researching the
cost-effectiveness of different software packages for the students,
faculty, and administration of Doddridge County Schools, I have
become aware of office productivity software with the potential to
save the Board of Education a minimum of $12,000.00, while providing
every computer in the schools software that is comparable to, if not
better than, Microsoft Office 2007. Sun Microsystems OpenOffice
suite consists of six productivity packages which include:

• Base, a database management
  package, for creating queries and reports, and for tracking and
  managing information. Base is very similar in function and
  operating procedure to Microsoft Access.

  
  

• Calc, a spreadsheet package used
  for performing calculations, analyzing information, and managing
  lists. Calc is very similar in function and operating procedure to
  Microsoft Excel.

  
  

• Impress, a presentation software
  package for slide shows, meetings, and creating Web pages. Impress
  is very similar in function and operation to Microsoft PowerPoint.

  
  

• Writer, a word processing package
  used to create and edit text and graphics in letters, reports,
  documents and Web pages. Writer is virtually identical to Microsoft
  Word, in function and operation.

  
  

• Draw, a package used to create and
  edit drawings, flowcharts and logos. This is unlike any of the
  basic four packages included in the Microsoft Office 2007 suite.

  
  

• Math, a package that allows the
  creation and editing of scientific formulas and equations. This,
  too, is unlike anything in the basic Microsoft Office 2007 suite.

  
  

There is virtually no difference
between the four basic packages in the Microsoft Office 2007 suite
(Access, Excel, Word, and PowerPoint), and the Base, Calc, Impress,
and Writer packages in the Sun Microsystems OpenOffice Suite.
Documents created in the Microsoft Office 2007 packages are
accessible to the OpenOffice packages, and documents created by the
OpenOffice package can be saved to formats that are accessible to
Microsoft Office 2007 packages.

From an economic standpoint, OpenOffice
has the great advantage over Microsoft Office 2007 in that OpenOffice
is available as a free download. This not only represents a
$12,000.00 to $58,000.00 advantage to the Doddridge
County Board of Education, but a considerable savings to parents of
students, who can now access professional quality office productivity
software for their homes which will be compatible to, and hopefully
the same as, the software used in their children's schools.
Virtually any student with access to the Internet will be able to
obtain, for free, the same software that is available at his or her
school.

I have enclosed a spreadsheet showing
the cost of three different licensing options for academic use of
Microsoft Office 2007, and a presentation with some examples of
documents created with OpenOffice packages. The presentation is
accessible with Microsoft PowerPoint, and the spreadsheet is
accessible with Microsoft Excel. I appreciate your time in reviewing
this information. If you have any questions, please feel free to
contact me any time.

Sincerely,

Doris Wiseman

OpenOffice Assignment

Well, I thought I would never get a quote on Microsoft Office 2007, and I got two back in one day! I finished up the Executive Summary, etc., using the most thorough quote, which was also the best deal financially. I got it from Journeyed.com. My Executive Summary (done in OpenOffice Writer), spreadsheet with quotes (done in Calc), and presentation (in Microsoft PowerPoint, since the OpenOffice version won't upload to Goggle Docs yet) are all on Google Docs now. There is also a Microsoft Word version of the Executive Summary, and an Excel version of the quotes, if you would like to compare versions. It really is astonishing how much money could be saved with OpenOffice in large applications such as a school system!

Fundamental questions...

I am constantly moving files from my computer to other computers, and most recently this has been due to a problem with our router at home, which we have had to bypass in order to access the Internet. We use a network printer at home, which my computer cannot access right now, due to the same router issues. To move files at home, I use my 2 gig thumb drive. I use it also sometimes when I need to move digital photos from home to my work computer, or from work to home. I have also emailed items to myself at my Fairmont State email address, since I know I can access it from any computer with an Internet connection. The FSU ftp site is good, but I have had difficulties accessing it from different computers, so the FSU email is more reliable in those situations. My files are, for the most part, stored on my hard drive in my home computer. In addition, some of them are stored on the Fairmont State ftp site. Then, of course, there are Google docs and my blog, which I had never really considered as storage options before. To access the Fairmont State ftp site, I go to http://www.fairmontstate.edu/, acces the Library page, choose the ftp option, and follow directions there, depending on which browser I am equipped with at the time. For Google docs and my blog, I go to http://www.google.com/, enter my user name and password, and follow the links to my blog or Google docs. The big advantage of the ftp site, Google docs, and my blog is that they are all password protected. With the exception of some difficulty with the ftp site, they have all been readily accessible to me with any computer having an Internet connection. An advantage of my thumb drive is that it is on my keychain so it is with me anywhere I go, but a disadvantage is its limited storage space of 2 gig. That always seemed like a lot to me, until I took a graphics class, and making graphics files portable takes a lot of space, especially if it concerns stuff like iMovies. Pretty big files! Some links to my work are provided in the image above.

File extensions designate what type of file it is and determine what programs are able to access those files. Some more common file types are Microsoft Word Documents (.doc, or docx with Office 2007); Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets (.xls); PowerPoint Presentations (.ppt); Photoshop Documents (.psd); Portable Document Format File (.pdf); graphics files such as JPEG Images (either .jpg or .jpeg), Bitmap Image Files (.bmp), Graphical Interchage Format Files (.gif); and video files such as Apple QuickTime Move (.mov), Real Media Files (.rm), and Windows Media Movie Files (.wmv). The program being used should identify what types of files it can access and what "save as" options are available when saving project files.

Hooray! I got everything fixed!

Finally, all of the links in my blog work properly, even my Photo Story!

For those of you who read my FTP document about the Technology Conference in Morgantown, I have an update: I'm not going to be able to attend. Something has come up for work that I can't miss, and that upsets me, because I was really hoping to meet you all in person. Hope you all can attend, and have a great time. Maybe some other time I'll get to meet you folks.

Photo Story 3

My Photo Story 3 project is available now, after a few days without Internet service. I don't think I ever missed my Internet connection as much as I did this past weekend. My story introduces you to our farm, which has been a big part of my life for the past six years. I hope you enjoy it. Click here to view my Photo Story!

My FTP Experience

I was introduced to the Fairmont State FTP site in two previous Education classes, Educ. 2225 and Educ. 2226. I haven't used the site for about a year, though, and needed a "refresher". As with most things, I get rusty when I don't often use the technology I've learned. The document I posted on my ftp site is located here. Hope to see you at the conference. I plan to attend on September 30th.

Cover Letter

Okay! My Cover Letter is done, and is available for your viewing pleasure here. The position I "applied" for is Technology Integration Coordinator for Taylor County, WV. The URL for that position is here. I was kind of surprised at how good a fit that position was when I looked at both my job history and educational experiences. And I've still got 9 hours of technology classes to take before I graduate!

My Resume and Job Search Resources

My resume is listed with my Google Docs at "My Resume". To search for jobs in West Virginia, go here. For jobs in Pennsylvania, go here. For jobs in Maryland, go here. I'm still working on my cover letter, but watch for it soon! In case you haven't tried it yet, uploading documents to Google Docs is pretty easy, but I do have some lines in the second part of my resume that I can't explain, nor can I find a way to eliminate them. Anybody have any insight into this? I'd appreciate the help!

Personality Activity

Well, I just took the personality test. After looking at the possible personality types, I felt I was more of a Sensing type, rather than Intuition; definitely Intraverted rather than Extraverted; probably Perceiving rather than Judging; and I was undecided as to whether I'm more Thinking or Feeling. When I got the results of the test, I was actually quite surprised. The test showed me to be Sensing, Intraverted, Perceiving, and 50-50 on the Thinking/Feeling rating. The results of the test were exactly what I had guessed. However, I suppose it is possible for someone taking the test to adjust their answers to make the test come out however he or she hopes it will. I don't think it would be too hard to determine which answer makes one seem more of an introvert than an extrovert, or more of a "thinker" than a "feeler". I didn't do that, but it does seem possible that someone could.

My Google Calendar

I had forgotten how the Google calendar feature worked until I "poked around" a bit, and it's all coming back to me now. Not quite like riding a bicycle, but not too bad! The URL for my calendar is on the menu to the right.

Sometime soon I'll attempt to add my work calendar events so they'll all be in one place for a change. That would certainly be helpful, especially since I only have to do it once, and it would be accessible to me anywhere I have Internet service. Very handy, indeed!

Ed. Tech and Goal Orientation Surveys

I just finished both the Ed. Tech and the Goal Orientation Surveys. The Goal Orientation Survey was thought provoking. It makes you examine your motivation for choosing the classes you take. Very interesting. How much "stuff" do I take because it's easy? Or am I taking certain classes to prove my intelligence (?) to others? I never really considered either question...

My, how time flies!

Wow! It's been nearly a year since my last post. I had to drop Ed. 3307 last fall and was unable to take it in the spring, so here I am again! I'm looking forward to the class (until I get overwhelmed again!) and feel more comfortable with the technology involved this time (I think!) Good luck, everybody! Hope we have a great semester!