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Tech: PowerPoint software ??'s
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Subject: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Sorcha Date: 18 Jan 01 - 06:32 PM I apologize profusely for starting yet another non music computer program, but I am totally at a loss, here:
Kate's teaches at school are requiring her to give PowerPoint presentations.......We don't have this program at home and have no plans to do so......it's almost $400 US!! I went to the PP page, and I still don't really understand why Kate has to use it......or what it is, and does.
There is a computer lab at the school, and the school has PowerPoint, but with 500 students and 6 computers, computer time is limited. I think she is expected to stay after school, or go in early to get on the lab schedule, but what good would 15 minutes do her? I need to call the school, which I will try to do tomorrow, but does anybody here have a clue about this program and why they are requiring its use? If they want me to use a $400 program, they can damn well buy it for me!! |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Linda Kelly Date: 18 Jan 01 - 06:42 PM power point is a slide generating package which is useful for designing presentation- I use it a lot at work and with it's inbuilt clip art etc you can produce fairly dynamic animation to liven up presentational works -why any child would need to present work of this standard at school is beyond me! Put your foot down Sorcha, the school should not impose priorities on you for spending your money -is it a smokescreen to disguise poor teaching standards (i.e he works crap but gee, it sure looks pretty!) |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Zebedee Date: 18 Jan 01 - 06:49 PM Powerpoint is the part of the Microsoft Office Suite, designed for overhead presentations. It does nothing that several other programs won't do apart from some nifty (but useless) ways of slide transitions. The school has 500 students, and 6 computers? Sorry but I can't believe that... Ed |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Sorcha Date: 18 Jan 01 - 07:32 PM Zeb, I'm not exactly sure how many computers there are, but there are not enough, I garuntee you that! I have MS Works at home, and it does not have PP. This is such a crock, as far as I am concerned! The real kicker is that she has been told she doesn't have to actually PRESENT the thing, just do it in PowerPoint. Does this make sense? |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Sorcha Date: 18 Jan 01 - 07:44 PM She says she is going to need this prog all through HS, until 2002, I have rec'd an offer of the prog from a Catter, he will send it snail mail, so maybe we have the problem solved.........I can burn a new CD and send the original back to him, I hope. Then she will just have to fool around in it until she learns how to use it, because the school did not see fit to teach her that either. |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: MMario Date: 18 Jan 01 - 07:48 PM be warned - it's a real memory and space hog! |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: wysiwyg Date: 18 Jan 01 - 07:50 PM It's actually pretty easy to use, BesBud. I think Amos uses it a lot, maybe if she runs into a jam he could help her out. Also let me know if the snail is delayed, OK? ~S~ |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Sorcha Date: 18 Jan 01 - 07:56 PM I was afraid it was a memory hog.......well, I still have 27 gigs available........WTF, right? Bloody mess...... |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: wysiwyg Date: 18 Jan 01 - 07:59 PM Ditch Works. Office is cool. ~S~ |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Snuffy Date: 18 Jan 01 - 08:24 PM I don't know abou the US, but here in Britain Microsoft do a special Student's Edition of Office 2000. It's the full Professional version with Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access, Front Page, etc, etc, which retails at about £325. But the same thing on Student Edition is £99. You go into your computer store and pay for the Student version. They give you an empty box with a form in. You take the form to the school and get them to put their stamp on it, send it off to Microsoft and in about 28 days you get a double CD of Office 2000 Professional through the mail. My daughter is very good about letting me use all these goodies. Wassail! V |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: AllisonA(Animaterra) Date: 18 Jan 01 - 08:32 PM I'm just learning to use PowerPoint at my teaching job and it looks like another nifty expensive toy to grab students' attention and maybe actually teach something. Once they get tired of it, we'll have to get another nifty expensive toy. Personally, while I will find it very useful for introducing some units, I plan to continue teaching music with my guitar and my voice most of the time. |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Sorcha Date: 18 Jan 01 - 08:45 PM Even forcing me to buy a Student edition gets my dander up! I thought US Constitution garunteed a "free" education? Hah! Where did all this shit come from, anyway? |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Mark Clark Date: 18 Jan 01 - 09:03 PM Sorcha, PowerPoint is the lingua franca in the business world. Nearly every presentation, document, and publication is prepared using PowerPoint. It's become so prevalent that for many purposes, the term document is assumed to mean a PowerPoint file. The reason is that modern business communication is moving away from literate prose---okay maybe it was never there in the first place---and has become a set of easily read bullet points often devoid of context. I have heard that schools are moving toward teaching this abbreviated form of communication. It seems that the new breed of business person lacks the attention span to actually read anything of substance. The good news is you may not have to spend any money. There is a great program called StarOffice that is distributed by Sun Microsystems for free (as in free beer). It has all the capabilities of PowerPoint and can store presentation files in the format used by PowerPoint. This means Kate could do the work at home and take her work to school on a floppy disk and everything will be fine. If they give her a PowerPoint file to work on, StarOffice will be able to read and process the file. You can download StarOffice from the Sun StarOffice Web site but be warned that the download file is large (64MB+). At 28.8 Mbps it would take many hours---like maybe nine or ten---to download it. The program is available on a CD that you can order for the cost of shipping. That's probably a better option for most people. If you have high speed Internet connection at work, you may be able to download it there and burn your own CD. Your local computer geeks will have this program already and will probably loan or ever give you the CD. Ask through local computer geek hangouts or clubs. We use StarOffice at home all the time to do work which must go back to our jobs and be compatible with Microsoft Office. I won't say that every feature is seamlessly duplicated but it's close enough for government work and a lot cheaper than buying Microsoft Office for home. If you have questions you can PM or email me. No need to turn Mudcat into a computer discussion group. Good luck, - Mark
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Bill D Date: 18 Jan 01 - 10:07 PM StarOffice is mentioned on the "Son of Spy" freeware website...under the list he calls Pricelessware considered to be the 'best' freeware in various categories. The newest version is even bigger than Mark says, but there are ways to get it..(using a download manager that can pick up where it left off if it doesn't finish.... is one way.)More info if you want.. StarOffice is a complete suite of stuff...here is one quote about it... "The STAROFFICE CALC application offers more functions than a standard spreadsheet program, enabling you to analyze figures, create lists, and handle Euro conversions with ease and accuracy. A scenario manager helps analyze and filter your data according to various factors, and several advanced layout functions simplify the task of presenting your data. For the finishing touch, create impressive 3-D charts with only a few mouse clicks. In the 5.2 release, you'll find major improvements that make the STAROFFICE CALC application even easier to use, with improved import and export filters for Microsoft Excel 97/2000, and a number of new templates and sample files that give you results you can rely on. When it comes to turning data into information, you can count on STAROFFICE CALC software to get the job done. "
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Bill D Date: 18 Jan 01 - 10:10 PM here is the quote from the main blurb on the same page "Completely cross platform, it runs on just about everything in your enterprise: PCs and UNIX® workstations, servers, or your internal LAN. That means you're free to choose any platform that works for you, rather than the one your software runs on. STAROFFICE components are highly integrated, so you can focus on getting your work done, not on which application you need to do it. All STAROFFICE applications run in a single desktop, enabling you to access other components and information with-out leaving the StarOffice environment. Includes Writer (Professional Document Creation and Publishing), Calc (Analysis and Calculation), Impress (High-Impact Presentations), Base (Data at Your Fingertips), Draw (Graphics and Illustrations), Schedule (Event Planning), Mail (Powerful Communication), Discussion (Newsgroups). " |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Sorcha Date: 18 Jan 01 - 10:13 PM sorry guys, the school says it HAS to be PowerPoint!! Jays, what a crock! I do have a pirated (ssshhhh) CD on the way, tho. We'll see what that does for her. Thanks, tho. |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: wysiwyg Date: 19 Jan 01 - 12:31 AM BesBud, learn about school finance. Yes, you are entitled to a free education. BUT-- your community also has to pay for it to occur and be available. Get involved! Yew know whut Ah tawkin' about! ~Yore Dearhearted Sissie |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Sorcha Date: 19 Jan 01 - 12:41 AM Oh yea, sissie! And I am calling the !@#$ school in the morning! |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: wysiwyg Date: 19 Jan 01 - 12:56 AM yEAH, START OFF RIGHT, WITH AN UPSET. tHEN THEY WILL BE SURE TO PUT YOU ON THE SCHOOL BOARD! Ooops. I am actually less crabby than those caps would suggest. Just. ~S~ |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Lin in Kansas Date: 19 Jan 01 - 01:40 AM (A bootleg from John in Kansas - we haven't solved the multi email thing so I can register, and Lin keeps leaving her machine on) When you talk to the school, you might note that about 6 months ago the Chief of Staff at the Pentagon issued a TOTAL prohibition against the use of PowerPoint slides in Pentagon briefings. I haven't heard how successful it was, but his opinion (and mine) was that people were spending too much time 'making pretty' as a substitute for thinking. Any word processor can make good presentation slides, if you print on transparent stock. Just keep the type up to at least 14 or 16 points. If you really have to, you can paste in artwork. The fancy fades and dissolves just waste time that could be used for thinking and understanding. (You may guess I'm something of an old fossil - but I have encountered the overuse of gadjetry far to often, and I'm agin' it. |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Jon Freeman Date: 19 Jan 01 - 02:12 AM Sorcha, if StarOffice is truely compatible, the school will be none the wiser. I would be inclined to give it a try. All that matters is that PowerPoint can read the files produced by StarOffice and that StarOffice is capable of producing the effects that the school might ask Kate to produce. Unfortunately PowerPoint is the industry standard and schools do insit on its use. In my course, we are no longer asked to give a presentation but to give a PowerPoint presentation and the ones we have had so far have had to be on screen presentations so using a WordProcessor to produce slides is out of the question. I am amazed and disgusted that Kate's school are apparently forcing the purchase of the product though. If they wish to insist on a particular program, they should provide the facilities. Jon |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: mej Date: 19 Jan 01 - 09:33 AM Bill D Thank you for the link to Pricelessware! I will definitely be trying some of their stuff out. Mary |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: A Wandering Minstrel Date: 19 Jan 01 - 12:17 PM Probably not a lot of help but you can use the Word clone in Works to prep the text content of the slides(heading and bullet lists and paste in images) at 1 slide per page. Save this file and when your daughter gets to use the school copy, she opens up Powerpoint selects a pretty background from the available styles and imports the Works file. This should generate an instant slide show. My own sprog uses Microsoft Publisher for all her school presentation work. so If thats on your "I never saw it" disk load that up too if you have room. In fact if you get Office you should dump Works altogether. |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Jeri Date: 19 Jan 01 - 10:13 PM I don't know if it's still the same, but I bought Office, and only had to get the upgrade version because I had Works on my computer. It's a lot cheaper. |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Skeptic Date: 20 Jan 01 - 08:00 AM Seconding Lin in Kansas: Powerpoint is generally viewed by professional trainers as the triumph of style over substance. In a former job I had to do a lot of training and took a couple of high-priced seminars on making effective presentations. Rule One was "No PowerPoint ever". My sister-in-law is a teacher and took courses on using computers in the classroom. She said their take was that PowerPoint was right up there with with the Three R's. When I was teaching (substitute), I ended up helping grade student presentations (History Class) given in PowerPoint. All the neat effects and transitions counted as high as the content. I suspect that in business, the fact that it is style over substance is the point. Why business and schools bought into it is a mystery. And sad. Regards John |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Mrrzy Date: 20 Jan 01 - 01:01 PM Sorcha, you can also call me, I use it all the time in work and especially teaching... email me at home. |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Mrrzy Date: 20 Jan 01 - 01:10 PM Also, if you have Office, you can do it in Word, click Tools - Office Links - Present It and it will convert to Powerpoint... Once within powerpoint, everything works like Word once you click either the title part (you can center, bold, whatever) or the text part (hit tab to indent, shift-tab to unindent, and so on)... it's really really easy if you know other MS stuff. |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Sorcha Date: 20 Jan 01 - 01:31 PM OK, thanks guys, for all the help and advice. (sshhh--I have a copy on its way, should arrive Monday, so that solves the Actual Problem!!) As to the other stuff, I went to the school Friday, and tried to talk to the Ass't Principal.
He happened to be in the Outer Office (with the recepitonist, ya know?) He wouldn't even look at me, just tried to go through the swing gate to go back to his office. I got right in front of him, and said,
"Hi, I am Kate's mother, and I have some questions about PowerPoint."
I did a quick and dirty relative to what I have learned about it and said that I was confused as to why the students were even required to use it......He said, very abruptly--
He said, well, you will just have to see the teacher involved. I said, then let's go.......
Oh no, her free period is not until 1:40 and it is only 1:15. I said I would wait. Oh no, she is busy today, we'll set up an appointment on Wed. (no shcool Mon and Tues). I said fine, I'll be here.
The school also INSISTED that Kate had been trained in PP, all the students had, and that she has every Tues and Thurs afternoon available to be in the lab. Kates said--"BS!" I am going to insisit that they show me a roll sheet with Kate marked present, among other things. The Asst Principal was IMO, borderline rude, and he did not want me there asking questions, etc. I promise you guys I did not go in there breathing fire. I just tried to act like a confused, concerned parent. I do not expect to get any satisfaction from the teacher; I suspect she is just doing what she is told. Looks like maybe I get to go to war with the School Board......ah well, I can do it if I have to. |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Bill D Date: 20 Jan 01 - 06:20 PM lordy!! the schools nowadays don't want to DEAL with anything...they just want to post requirements and not think |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Sorcha Date: 20 Jan 01 - 06:40 PM Ain't it a crock, Bill? I am so mad I can hardly see, but I promise to try the Diplomatic Way first, before I blow up.......which can be truly spectacular!!! I have all these ducks in a row, see....... |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: wysiwyg Date: 21 Jan 01 - 12:24 AM Look, I used to be one of THE leading experts in school-community-home relations... please throw a rant my way and get this out of your system so we can discuss it effectively, OK BesBud? ~S~ |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Sorcha Date: 23 Jan 01 - 07:54 PM Thanks to a fellow Catter, who prefers to remain nameless, I now have PowerPoint in my computer, and Kate spent all afternoon finishing her project!! It's FINISHED!! Thank all of you for your help, and esp. You who knows who you are........Onward and Upward.....(through the fog.......) |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: GUEST,Penny S. (testing a new connection) Date: 24 Jan 01 - 02:11 PM So what about all the others who don't have your connections? This needs something done about it. tutoring children at school is one thing, but demanding it to be available at home is another. I've used it with primary children, because we happen to have it in woth Office, and it's a quick and easy way of introducing multimedia - all bells and whistles - but I can't really see the point of it... it does make nice handouts, but why bother with the show, then? Oh am I a Luddite? Penny |
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Subject: RE: NON Music: PowerPoint software ??'s From: Sorcha Date: 24 Jan 01 - 02:14 PM I know. I am trying. |
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