[Year 12 IPM] Database software for 2007

[Cameron Bell]

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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