Relative Advantage of Using the Basic Suite for Learning

I first chuckled when I read this week’s blog post requirement, which was to provide a rationale for students and/or educators to use basic suite applications such as word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation tools. I had not realized there were students, and, more importantly, teachers, who did not use any of these tools. Then I wondered. Since the question is being asked, perhaps the individual who doesn’t know the power and relative advantage that the basic suite provides is not as endangered as I thought. What would they rather use? Pen and paper? Chalk? Cuneiform tablets? Finger paints? Basic suites save time and increase the efficiency of distributing information. There are some issues of privacy when using the online capabilities of basic suite tools such as Google Workspace, where “Google appeals to educators with well-designed technology and to cash-strapped districts with affordable prices on the front end, but they then collect and extract information from students and educators on the back end” (Krutka et al, 2021), as a recent filing in federal court case, New Mexico v. Google alleges, but overall basic suites are in fact close to some of the simplest and safest software running on a device.

In my work environment, there are three basic suites being used at the same time. We offer the Mac and iOS suite of Pages, Numbers, and Keynotes for staff and students. We offer Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to staff. We also offer Google Workspace for staff and students. From preference surveys done in the past, staff prefer Microsoft to Google by slim margins, with Apple far behind. Students prefer Google over Apple, but use iOS products for specific projects. Depending on the grade level students may not have mastered the basic suite, but even 1st grade students know how to start a Google Doc or a Pages document and use the dictation capability of their iOS device to use speech to text. Skills progressively increase until high school as our librarians and digital learning specialists help craft specific lessons and projects that promote their use. However, we still show tricks to seniors, and our optional staff training on basic suites are well attended.

One thing that has changed over the years is the training that new students bring with them. Even as recently as five years ago, we offered a training day in August for students enrolling in middle and high school so they gained experience in using basic suite tools, as well as how to effectively use an iPad and Schoology, our learning management system (LMS). It is now the rare middle or high schooler who doesn’t know how to use Word, Pages or Docs, how to operate a tablet, and how to use a LMS. As for staff, six or seven years ago the overwhelming majority of new hires who were recent graduates could use basic suite tools, but that was not necessarily true for more experienced teachers who were making the transition into our district. That too has changed, and we no longer provide basic suite training in our August New Staff Orientation. Many of our staff members in fact seek and obtain certifications, whether they be Google Educator Level 1 and Level 2, Apple Teacher, or Microsoft Office Associate

As far as the relative advantage, anyone old enough to remember having typed papers on a typewriter, filling out lesson plan templates by hand, or attempting to reconcile a checkbook appreciate the ability to instantly correct documents, use spellcheck and word count, receive grammatical suggestions, use formulas and functions to perform complex calculations, and use the thousands of features available in basic suite tools. Personal computers would have never gained a foothold in American houses without the availability of the basic suite, and while technology complexifies and constantly changes, the basic suite remains an anchor for the production of communication and information.  

References

Krutka, D.G., Smits, R.M. & Willhelm, T.A. (2021). Don’t be evil: Should we use Google in schools?. TechTrends. https://doi-org.libproxy.boisestate.edu/10.1007/s11528-021-00599-4