Yesterday, I inadvertently found myself in a “comment” argument when I reacted to an Engadget post about the Microsoft student advantage program. I first simply pointed out that the author had a strange way of explaining why the program would be useful to students indicating students needed “word processing, PowerPoint and Excel”. My comment indicated that students could make use of word processing, presentation, and basic numerical analysis tools in various content areas, but multiple companies offered such tools. Word, PowerPoint and Excel were just one flavor. This comment brought positive reaction and what I regard as Microsoft talking points – the Microsoft software is what those in business need and Google does not meet FERPA requirements. At this point, I should have stopped, but could not. I responded that the tools 9th graders will use in their work will likely be very different eight years from now and this notion that business knows would have students and the rest of us using BlackBerries. I also indicated that the Google for education program was different than many of them had experienced as independent users. My point was not so much that what Microsoft offers a poor solution for the classroom, but that Google and Apple also have models for and an existing presence in education settings. I did not see individuals identifying themselves as educators that were part of the early discussion and thought that perhaps those who had responded were misinformed.
I do think Microsoft is in a tough spot. When your business model is focused on selling software and you are competing with companies that primarily sell hardware or ads, this creates a challenging situation. Apple and Goggle can give away the software. Google is possibly in the best position because their model is hardware neutral and Apple hardware is more expensive. I think it is great that several of the big companies and many other players are interested in classroom use of technology. Uninformed perspectives or not, it has to be better to have a variety of sources for hardware, software and services. I also think that we all should be reacting to the assumptions of these companies. I assume that these companies want to do the right thing and need the comments to shape their policies.