Access to Microsoft Office 'will transform Thai education'

[WhizBang]

Good grief. Someone needs to tell Thailand's Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) that OpenOffice is FREE.

Plus access to any office suite is NOT what Thailand needs to 'improve' education. Thailand needs a complete overhaul (reform?) of the educational system. Please, put the horse before the cart.

[Thaddeus]

Lots of people skating past the point here,I think! (Although several have touched upon it.)

Here we have a whole bunch of Thai people getting all excited because they believe that using a Microsoft product is going to improve their education and their English.

That's what it boils down to. As many here have pointed out, Excel and the other programs are not forerunners

This is the same blind hope that the '"free tablets for all school children" was clutching at - that, somehow by using technology, the process of learning is made easier.

The teachers themselves don't have a sound grasp of English! There is simply NO shortcut to educating a nation. It takes massive government commitment and funding.

And until the day that Thailand takes this course, all the dodges and gimmicks in the world are just smoke and mirrors.

R

100% agree.

Given the quality of teaching, at least in the Government schools I have experienced, from stone and chisel, chalk and board, pen and paper to Word 2014.

The only advancement is more crap, faster.

[ChrisY1]

Teachers are the only way to improve childrens education standards.......right now....electronic systems will have very little, effect on the standards....if there are no good teachers...there'll be no good education standards.

At this time in Thailand, there are very few good teachers...english speakers or not....the standard of teaching here is abismal unfortunately.

Good education is the ONLY way to develope good citizens.......!

Well educated citizens will enhance any country......Thailand can do this, but starting now, it may take 2, 3, 4 or more generations to change the current mindset.

Edited May 26, 2014 by ChrisY1

[cacruden]

And Open Office can be used on a mac or pc and it is free.

Comparing open office to MS Office is like comparing an Indian made Tata car to a German made BMW. If you're only going to drive your car to the corner store then the Tata might be ok. But if you really need to do some serious driving then the BMW is probably the better choice.

You are right though, it is free. Free is definitely cheaper than $1.67 a month. Tatas to BMWs or Open Office to Microsoft Office..to each his own. Microsoft has definitely introduced a competitive pricing model that will sway some to actually purchase a subscription plan MS Office 365. With billions of computers running pirated or actual programs, that small number of pirated MS Office users that might switch because of this could mean billions in revenue for Microsoft. Now office can run on I-Pads, Macs, Surface tablets and PCs.

Microsoft is back!

People buy MS Office and use only 5% or less of the functionality. Why buy a BMW at 10x the cost if you are only using it to drive to the corner store on a road where everyone dents each others cars

How much functionality do you think is going to use? Write an essay then plop in a chart?

[Basil B]

This is to get the kids hooked on MS Word & Excel so in later life they will buy MS products.

Why not use Open Office? it is free and will be free when the kids grow up.

With MS Office Thailand will see it balance of trade affected with a dependency on a product that will see billions of Thai Bahts going to the Billy Goat Foundation.

Edited May 26, 2014 by Basil B

[Frank James]

Do you guys even know how much Microsoft Office even cost? If you knew, maybe you would buy it too. If you only use MS Office occasionally, then maybe the pirated version is better. However, if your entire existence depends on it, the paid version is noticeably better.

Yes, here are the latest prices from that other outfit we all use, but still love to hate:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Microsoft%20Office

Expensive for what you get, especially considering that the excellent Libre Office, and Open Office are FREE, and contain all the essential features, including the ability to create documents in PDF. It all started when the head guy at Sun Microsystems (R.I.P.) decided to stick it to MS and put out a full featured Office program free to the world. he should have gotten a Nobel Prize for doing that. Instead, he got a hostile takeover.

I never asked for it, but the three laptops I have purchased in Thailand all came pre-loaded with bootleg MS Office. (Full Photoshop, too!) However, I have always used and preferred to use Open/Libre Office.

[richard10365]

Do you guys even know how much Microsoft Office even cost? If you knew, maybe you would buy it too. If you only use MS Office occasionally, then maybe the pirated version is better. However, if your entire existence depends on it, the paid version is noticeably better.

Yes, here are the latest prices from that other outfit we all use, but still love to hate:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Microsoft%20Office

Expensive for what you get, especially considering that the excellent Libre Office, and Open Office are FREE, and contain all the essential features, including the ability to create documents in PDF. It all started when the head guy at Sun Microsystems (R.I.P.) decided to stick it to MS and put out a full featured Office program free to the world. he should have gotten a Nobel Prize for doing that. Instead, he got a hostile takeover.

I never asked for it, but the three laptops I have purchased in Thailand all came pre-loaded with bootleg MS Office. (Full Photoshop, too!) However, I have always used and preferred to use Open/Libre Office.

That is one price. Another price for university students is 79.99 or $1.67 a month for 4 years. Compared to how much MS Office use to cost, this is really cheap.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/university/

[daveAustin]

All I can say to much of the above is what a load of old twaddle! Yank bashing, Brit bashing, Thai bashing, Martian bashing

Regards op:

Access to Microsoft Office bright, free-thinking teachers and interesting books 'will might help to transform Thai education'

[AyG]

Good grief. Someone needs to tell Thailand's Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) that OpenOffice is FREE.

Oh, I'm sure they already know that. They also know that there's no opportunity for graft when the price is gratis.

[AyG]

Comparing open office to MS Office is like comparing an Indian made Tata car to a German made BMW. If you're only going to drive your car to the corner store then the Tata might be ok. But if you really need to do some serious driving then the BMW is probably the better choice.

Yet the Tata* can be driven in any country in the world, whilst MS Office is restricted to Windowsville and Appletown, both of which tax you heavily to be there.

Meanwhile, in Linuxworld, almost everything you could possibly want is free.

* For the record, I don't agree with the characterisation of OpenOffice/LibreOffice as Tata-like. They have every bit of functionality I have ever needed and am likely to need, and they are perfectly robust.

[casindonet]

How? I'm sure they been using legal or illegal ms office for years, did the education level change?

Sent from my GT-I9200 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Frank James]

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

King James also died, you know.

Apparently, China now knows that Abby Lincoln is also dead.

The sad part here is that US just doesn't get English humour, yet we developed it and u lot turned it on its head.

Diapers for lunch anybody? I'd sooner prefer nappies. WT f is a diaper?

Then again, I'd prefer a cup of hot tea than 'ice-tea'. You even ruined that. - nice... << steaming hot!

This is Abbey Lincoln:

Singer. Actress, Civil Rights Activist (1930 -2010)

This is Abraham ("Honest Abe") Lincoln:

16th President of the United States of America. Savior of the Union.

[iancnx]

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.

You are spot on, this will result in an impossible IT solution for kids who need to work off line, regularly, and without the stupid 3rd party warnings which will only confuse. As I said earlier, it took me 3 weeks to reconfigure my new laptop last month to rid it of all the Microsoft nonsense designed to coerce max additional expenditure, or, put up with an OS that freezes on a regular basis.

[stubuzz]

My classroom is filled with new technology; unfortunately, most of it has been destroyed by the students.

Edited May 26, 2014 by stubuzz

[Frank James]

Why are we hassling about US vs UK English? Most of the popular software gives you a choice. I believe spellings like centre, theatre, honour, colour are a legacy of that fabulous year 1066. Vaguely...dare I say it-----FRENCH! Oh no! Sacre Bleu!

[AyG]

Diapers for lunch anybody? I'd sooner prefer nappies. WT f is a diaper?

It's a perfectly cromulent word. Even the Great Bard himself used it:

Let one attend him with a silver basin

Full of rose-water and bestrewed with flowers;

Another bear the ewer, the third a diaper,

And say, "will't please your lordship cool his hand?"

- The Taming of the Shrew

I'm pretty sure it wasn't a nappy that was being proffered, but a piece of diapered cloth, a diaper being a repeated diamond-shaped emblem or motif.

[chotthee]

I wonder what software vendors in Pantip would say?

[TimCM]

Not to mention that Americans can't pronounce aluminium.

Alooinum

The reason they pronounce it differently is because they spell it differently. Aluminum. They omit the second i, therefore their pronunciation is correct.

You are most wise good man

So not only can't they say it right, they can't spell either.

At least Norway crosses out their mistakes

[losworld]

Welcome to the hub of education. Welcome to the hub of hubs.

[iancnx]

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.

And India, and Australia, and New Zealand, and South Africa. All of them can spell better than the Yanks.

It's not a question of spelling - Americas have utterly butchered the language by atrocities such as:

1. Confusing the use of 'have' and 'do':- "Have you a pen?" "Yes I do got one" instead of 'Yes I have".

2. Removing pronouns of consequence such as 'if' and ' then':- " You get up late, you'll miss the bus."

3. Not being able to understand when to use 'and' or ' but':- "I wanted to go to Paris and and I wasn't able to."

4. Failing to understand proximity and the use of 'this' and 'that','here' and 'there' and 'bring' and 'take':- "Don't forget to bring your swimwear when you go on holiday.'

5. The past tenses of many words seem too hard to remember, so we have :- instead of spit/spat there's only spit - the same with fit/fitted - but then there's not dive/dived it's dive/dove etc

6. Hundreds of lunatic distortions such as " burglarise" instead of "burgle", "societal" instead of "social', "normalcy" instead of "normality" and so on . . .

BUT THEN you can add the complete confusion of different vocabulary for the same items as proper English, (muffler/exhaust, nappy/diaper, braces/suspenders etc etc etc). And add to that meter/metre, center/centre, honor/honour, color/colour etc etc etc.

Every European nation which is taught English as a 2nd language, in school and further education, uses the correct grammar and vocabulary of British English, and mostly they master the language better than the British people do. America is just one country and that nation might do well to remember it is only one amongst over 200 others.

How the poor Thais will ever get to grips with all this is anybody's guess. I imagine this is the reason that emerging and 3rd-world nations favour American English/vocabulary so much - it comes as default on their MS Word spellcheckers and that means they don't need to use one ounce of brain to be . . "able to write".

R

Excellent post!

[connda]

Libre Office is free.

[h90]

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.

That is the problem of Open Office. If you get 10 % tea-money on the purchase, which is better Microsoft Office or Open Office (0 Baht * 10%=0 Baht)

[cup-O-coffee]

These people have clouds in their heads. One more cloud will only add to the foggy conditions.

I am reminded of that first scene from 2010 A Space Odyssey, and theThe Dawn of Man, showing those monkeys sitting near a very interesting rock.

The significance and potential of Office 365 to these people seems most similar.

[khunken]

Ignoring the US vs English English and the fact that MS tried this years ago in Europe and it failed, the heading that 'Access to MS Office will transform Thai education' is nothing but BS.

Tablets won't do it, nor will any software when Thai children are taught not to think. Hardware & Software are merely tools to assist those who can use them beneficially. The Thai education authorities are the main problem, preferring quick fixes which don't address the real problem, which is authoritarian teachers trying to impart 'boring' subjects to students who can't ask questions - only give answers that will have been copied from the few bright ones.

Another problem not addressed is the size of classes which just reinforces the authoritarian methods. Finally, before introducing any extra tools it would be a good idea to teach the teachers how to use them first. I'm sure that many of the students are more familiar with using computers and software (via game playing) than the teachers.

[northernjohn]

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!

I kind of took it to be a program that will work with the Thai students and teachers. Not just the normal things they have available to every one. Coming from Microsoft it will be far superior to what the students have been given to date on their cheap useless pads.

I still maintain that learning requires 2 years in learning logic and the ability to reason before teaching them how to suppress those abilities with a computer.

One other thing I do not have a bootlegged copy on my desk top or laptop. So you are wrong rite of the bat.

Edited May 26, 2014 by northernjohn

[lucifer666]

Every person i know in Thailand has a pirated version of Windows and Office already. No one will notice the difference.

[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!

I kind of took it to be a program that will work with the Thai students and teachers. Not just the normal things they have available to every one. Coming from Microsoft it will be far superior to what the students have been given to date on their cheap useless pads.

I still maintain that learning requires 2 years in learning logic and the ability to reason before teaching them how to suppress those abilities with a computer.

One other thing I do not have a bootlegged copy on my desk top or laptop. So you are wrong rite of the bat.

So, you never heard of hyperbole?

[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;)

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

Keep telling yourself that, couse it sho nuff ain't true

[northernjohn]

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.

Good point.

I have been maintaining rite from the word go that the reforming of education and the police department should be on the top of their list of things to do.

I realize that the basic work on this project was done under the PTP not the present government. This government has allowed them to go ahead with it. Now if they would put an end to the phony tab policy and look around for a sensible pad and electricity in all schools. I have made no bones about it I am against the pad's being introduced in their first two years of school and the current method of teaching those two years needs reform. Teach them to reason and use logic then give them useful machines.

[belg]

after the : everybody rich campaing, now the : everybody super smart in 6 months ?

as some stated, illegal windows version + illegal MS office, photoshop and many other programs offered when you buy a pc ...

but also: many times, the computer is infected with spyware or even trojan, from the start up