[quoting Tripp, 5 Apr 96] My argument: Skills are always specific, and the more skilled you are the more specific they become. Let me illustrate. I can drive. This is a skill. When I rent a car I have certain problems. Like I can't find the windshield wipers, etc. Some of my skills from driving my own car transfer, but only when they are identical in the rentacar. I reach to turn on the windshield wipers but nothing happens.
Steve's assertion may be correct but he needs a better example. It may take a moment in a rental car to find the windshield wiper control but permit me to suggest that finding the wiper switch is not really a driving skill. The important skills are starting, stopping and steering a car. We all do this in a rental car with no trouble. That is because the human/machine interface is so standardized in most cars that it takes a marketing guru to differentiate one car from another.
[quoting Cassidy, 5 Apr 96] This reminds me of a perpetual argument I have with our local community college. I have been teaching various computer courses there on and off for 10+ years and they are very high on teaching specific application programs (Word Perfect, Lotus 1-2-3, Paradox, etc.) and don't allow instructors to stray from this list. My argument is that they should be teaching word processing (knowledge) NOT Word Perfect (skill)...
In the days of DOS, as in the early days of the automobile, there was a great difference between various word processors, databases, etc. In the early days of the automobile there were all sorts of steering devices. Macintosh and Windows (GUI interfaces) have diminished these differences. When one has been taught to word process, as opposed to typing on a word processor, one develops certain expectations about what can be done on a word processor, or database, or spreadsheet. I would think the fundamental skills can be taught on any brand of application. I find myself using one or another because of some highly specific feature but they all perform all the basic functions, and quite similarly.
Could it be that the high cost of licenses is what makes the administration keep to a short list of applications programs?