Access to Microsoft Office 'will transform Thai education'

[webfact]

Access to Microsoft Office 'will transform Thai education'
The Nation



SOME 8.4 million Thai students and teachers are set to benefit from Microsoft's largest cloud education partnerships to date.

BANGKOK: -- Last week, Microsoft (Thailand) signed a memorandum of understanding with Thailand's Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) to provide 8 million students and 400,000 teachers across Thailand with access to Microsoft Office 365 for Education.

Anek Ratpiyapaporn, the Obec senior adviser in Technology for Teaching and Learning, said Microsoft's support would ensure educators and students could access the solutions and platforms they needed.

"This initiative will play a key role in our preparations for ASEAN Economic Community integration. [it will] drive the development of 21st century skills that are vital to the Smart Thailand 2020 strategy, whose key objective is to foster sustainable national growth and raise the standard of living through technology," Anek added.

A 2013 IDC study commissioned by Microsoft found that proficiency with Microsoft Office applications ranks high at number three of the top 20 in-demand skills globally. The study also found that 29 per cent of high growth/salary occupations call for Microsoft Office or Microsoft Office-related skills such as word processing, spreadsheets and financial reporting.

Haresh Khoobchandani, |managing director of Microsoft (Thailand), said, "Microsoft has always seen technology as an important enabler of quality |education, and this memoran-dum of understanding underscores our long-term commitment to Thailand and our vision of a holistic transformation of the Thai education system".

The agreement, which also includes the extension of the Partners in Learning initiative to 2019, represents the single biggest cloud service deployment for Microsoft in the education sector globally.

Conceived in 2003, Partners in Learning is a global Microsoft programme that fosters innovative use of technology in education to help students and teachers around the world maximise their potential. So far, the programme has provided training to more than 12 million educators and enhanced the learning experience for 200 million students in 119 countries.

-- The Nation 2014-05-26

[Fiddlesticks]

Like every computer in Thailand doesn't already has a bootleg copy of MS Office on it! Now because MS offers legal copies the entire Thai educational system will blossom?!?!?! Yeah, right!

[ThaiRich]

hahahahahaha. ROFL

This will change absolutely nothing. Schools have had pirated copies of MS Office on their computers for many many years. More hot air coming out of a government office.

[focus27]

hahahahahaha. ROFL

This will change absolutely nothing. Schools have had pirated copies of MS Office on their computers for many many years. More hot air coming out of a government office.

True, but hot air has been coming out of Microsoft for years too - bloatware.

This will help cloud-babies learn their place as the future cloud-serfs.

[Somtamnication]

I'll continue to use Open Office.

[TimCM]

Every school I worked in had pirated MS windows and office. How will this change anything?

[impulse]

Learn on MS Office 2014, and you'll have to relearn the interface when they come out with MS Office 2015 anyway. They change just enough each upgrade to make it irritating and time consuming.

May as well save money and teach the skills on Open Office at no cost. Spreadsheeting concepts are spreadsheeting concepts. The interface is simple once the basics are understood.

Clever strategy from MS, though. If they learn on MS in school (even bootleg MS), they'll stick with MS when it's time to actually spend money on software. Worked great for Apple in the '80s and '90s.

Edited May 25, 2014 by impulse

[canopy]

I wonder why Office 365 was chosen over google docs which is free.

[noitom]

Someday the Thais will log on to MS Office cloud and get a blue screen and not be able to boot up their bootleg copies. The MS cloud will hunt them down and lock them up.

[thumper101]

Now we will have even more of the world speaking 'American' English, when word constantly tells them they are making spelling errors when they are not.

[SheungWan]

Excellent news and congratulations on securing the agreement. The initial headwinds will be in the area of staff development using the software. Staff should be comfortable using Word and PP, but most only the most rudimentary knowledge of using of a MS Excel spreadsheet. MS Access? I doubt they will touch it.

[MaxLee]

Microsoft Office was there long long time ago,... for a discount of 300-400 Baht in Panthip, MBK or anywhere else in the IT black market of Thailand...

[UbonRatch]

Would at least be of more help if all the kids first had tablets or electricity to access it, despite its not having an ounce of affect upon poor teaching content.

[UbonRatch]

MS Access? I doubt they will touch it.

Any timeline for when they will touch MS Project? 10 years after it gets deleted, perhaps?

[iancnx]

What they don't realise is how their cloud can suck money from you, and almost render your PC useless unless you have the expertise to override / reconfigure the MS settings. The default MS setting is every keystroke is sent to the cloud and every media file, and without a good speed connection you are left in cyberspace waiting and waiting. I should have thought for education outside of the big cities this is the worst possible solution. Just giving my experience on a laptop pre loaded with OEM ms office purchased in UK last month. First few weeks working with it was a nightmare!

[BSJ]

Well congratulations to MS for getting their snout in the government coffers. No congratulations to the people at OBEC. The Open Office software they could have had for free could have done everything the MS software does with no loss of functionality.

[TimCM]

Now we will have even more of the world speaking 'American' English, when word constantly tells them they are making spelling errors when they are not.

You can change the language preferences

[Hockeybik]

I wonder why Office 365 was chosen over google docs which is free.

Google Docs isn't free for enterprise either.

[keemapoot]

It's gonna be pretty hard to promote "cloud education" when you can't access the cloud frequently. My understanding is that even at top Universities in Thailand the internet is not reliable. One can only imagine the state of access at schools nationwide. Perhaps I'm wrong? Most of us who pay for premium access still complain.

[Eliot Rosewater]

Now we will have even more of the world speaking 'American' English, when word constantly tells them they are making spelling errors when they are not.

You ought to be thanking us for that; if it wasn't for "American English," the English language would be about as widely spoken as Portuguese

[Credo]

But can they have the access to the cloud if they have the illegal version of Microsoft Windows?

[cacruden]

Dam shame they are trying to sell the future of these kids to a for profit corporation (and brag about it). There are lots of good enough open-source solutions out there. You have lots of students and teachers probably learning to program, if they really wanted to they could organize higher level assignments to contributing to an existing or new open-source project and brag about that.

It's like getting a 50% discount on textbooks and bragging about it when the current technology and existing teaching resources should be more than sufficient to create a community textbook that costs 0 baht and lowers the cost of a thai education.

[AyG]

Now we will have even more of the world speaking 'American' English, when word constantly tells them they are making spelling errors when they are not.

You ought to be thanking us for that; if it wasn't for "American English," the English language would be about as widely spoken as Portuguese;)

Legacy of Empire, old chap. Nothing to do with a renegade colony that decided to tinker with perfectly fine spellings.

[NeverSure]

Now we will have even more of the world speaking 'American' English, when word constantly tells them they are making spelling errors when they are not.

British English is soooo yesterday. American English is the language of world trade, of the internet, and all of the most popular websites are American. British English is used on some tiny fog shrouded island somewhere off the coast of Europe by a tiny number of people who the world has passed by.

Wake up! Shakespeare died already.

[cacruden]

Get ready to learn a new language, the American Empire is dying! (everything goes in cycles)

[keemapoot]

Now we will have even more of the world speaking 'American' English, when word constantly tells them they are making spelling errors when they are not.

British English is soooo yesterday. American English is the language of world trade, of the internet, and all of the most popular websites are American. British English is used on some tiny fog shrouded island somewhere off the coast of Europe by a tiny number of people who the world has passed by.

Wake up! Shakespeare died already.

One good thing is that watching how the British empire refuses to die and slip into obscurity it makes me realize that our empire (America) will go down slowly and with a huge fight and will terminate with extreme prejudice.

Edited May 26, 2014 by keemapoot

[gabruce]

Now we will have even more of the world speaking 'American' English, when word constantly tells them they are making spelling errors when they are not.

British English is soooo yesterday. American English is the language of world trade, of the internet, and all of the most popular websites are American. British English is used on some tiny fog shrouded island somewhere off the coast of Europe by a tiny number of people who the world has passed by.

Wake up! Shakespeare died already.

Don't forget Canada. We too spell words correctly. The americans get some of them wrong.

[Cloggie]

I hired Thai staff from Universities that were NOT able to add two cells in Excel - they still used a calculator to do that. Will not talk about Word and Powerpoint....

Why not as mentioned before - Use Google Docs or Libre Office which is free ?

[Ianatlarge]

Bloatware. OpenOffice.

How about encouraging Thai students and teachers to mix and match. Try new things, experiment, rather than accept a "package".

[Gomyway]

It is proven that people who use a computer, partially dramatically reduce the possibilities of mental arithmetic or thought.