[Year 12 IPM] Database software for 2007

Thu Oct 12 15:26:34 EST 2006

Mark Scott wrote:
> and...
>
>   

It was interesting that's what I understood.
:-)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au]
> On Behalf Of margaret.lawson at konstantkaos.net
> Sent: Thursday, 12 October 2006 1:26 PM
> To: Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management
> Teachers'Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [Year 12 IPM] Database software for 2007
>
> Half of my IPM class this year used OpenOffice, the other half used
> Access.
>
> An interesting experiment.
>
> Margaret
>
>   
>> Couldn't agree more, the more I use Open Office, the more I like it.
>> Once you get over the "Office doesn't do it that way" you appreciate
>> that a lot of the differences are actually more productive (IMHO)
>> The persistent data sources for mail merges are very handy and context
>> sensitive dialogs are only just starting to be a part of MSOffice with
>> the upcomming version.
>> The major benefits I see are:
>> the open file formats - long term accessibility.
>> multi platform (Win, Mac AND Linux)
>> Oh and did you mention it was free for the whole school community?
>>     
> ;)
>   
>> Far more beneficial for students to be able to access the same apps at
>> home than only at school. If they can do more exploration/ development
>> at home, you break the mindset that some have of only learning and
>>     
> doing
>   
>> in the classroom with the teacher.
>> Cheers
>> Cameron
>>
>>
>> Mark Kelly wrote:
>>     
>>> [7th attempt - our whole school has been blacklisted by SpamCop - and
>>> we hope we are now off the blacklist!]
>>>
>>> Hi all.  Here's a frisky cat to throw among the pigeons.
>>>
>>> I'm curious what database management software will people be using
>>>       
> for
>   
>>> ITA Unit 3 Outcome 1 next year?
>>>
>>> At the VITTA presentation I did on ITA in August, I recommended that
>>>       
> if
>   
>>> we got organised and agreed on a standard tool we could be much more
>>> efficient when sharing tutorials, sample tasks, tips and hints,
>>>       
> sample
>   
>>> outcomes etc - all of which will be a big in 2007 as we adjust to the
>>> new course.
>>>
>>> The main DBMS contenders I see are:
>>>
>>>
>>> --- MS Access
>>> - Access is not a standard part of the average MS Office suite
>>>       
> (AFAIK),
>   
>>> so many kids are unlikely to have it at home, so it would be hard to
>>> assign homework or practice tasks using it.
>>> - It costs big money if kids have to buy it for home.
>>> - It costs big money for non-government schools.
>>> - For most people, it's not as easy to learn as Filemaker is.
>>>
>>>
>>> --- Filemaker
>>> - Even fewer kids are likely to have Filemaker at home, so assigning
>>> home practice would be nearly impossible.
>>> - It's easy to learn (especially creating programming scripts) and
>>>       
> easy
>   
>>> to use.
>>> - It costs big money if kids had to buy it for home.
>>> - It costs big money for schools to buy.
>>>
>>> (Having said that, it's the database I use for McKinnon's reporting
>>> package, and the database I'm most skilled with.)
>>>
>>>
>>> --- OpenOffice.org Base
>>> - It's FREE for students and schools.
>>> - It's compatible with MS Access (and can read Access database files)
>>> - It's pretty much as easy to use as Access.
>>> - There's some online support for it, but more is coming and we can
>>>       
> work
>   
>>> as a team to develop all we need!
>>> - Did I mention it's FREE?
>>> - It comes with other open source replacements for Word, Excel,
>>> Powerpoint, drawing software etc.
>>> - It even has its own equivalent of VBA for programming macros.
>>> - Oh yeah - and it's FREE!
>>>
>>>
>>> --- MySQL
>>> I only include this because I've heard of one school planning to use
>>>       
> it.
>   
>>>  I would not recommend it because it's far too complex for kids to
>>> learn from scratch in VCE: too much programming required to get the
>>>       
> job
>   
>>> done.  Way overkill, IMHO.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> If you get some time as the year winds down, how about getting a copy
>>>       
> of
>   
>>> (http://openoffice.org) - it's about 50M to download, and is
>>>       
> available
>   
>>> via WWW and Bittorrent.
>>>
>>> Have a play, see what you think.
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>>
>>> Mark K
>>>
>>>       
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