this is about the most irrelevant argument i have heard ... as though the only stat package is SAS ...
there are many excellent stat packages ... even their "student" trimmed down versions are better that excel add ons ... and, hundreds of institutions have cheap software purchase options ... at penn state for example ... the full package of minitab is about 90 bucks ... that's not bad for an excellent tool that will serve one's analysis needs well in addition, students could go to http://www.e-academy.com ... and find that they could lease minitab for 6 months for 26 bucks ... or a year for 50 bucks ... i challenge any person to try a real package (doesn't have to be minitab) and see what you can do and THEN gravitate back to excel's add ons ... finally, i find the implied notion below that what we need are "free" things ... and that's the way to go ... as the way to operate ... to be professionally appalling ... most institutions SHOULD have a good statistical package on their lab systems ... so, students can learn with a good tool then, when and if they decide that they would like that tool (or another) in their professional array of tools ... THEN they could shop around and look for some stat package that is within their own or their employer's reach the bottom line here seems to be: since excel is free ... and around ... use it. even though we know that it was never designed to be a good full serviced package in statistics and graphics we do our students a huge DISservice when we knowingly push tools (just because they are cheap or free) RATHER than introduce them to better more useful resources serious companies and institutions and agencies ... DON'T use excel to do their mainline statistical work ... At 03:58 AM 1/9/02 +0000, you wrote: >Why bother teaching students SAS if nobody can afford their annual license >fee? > Spreadsheets works because many people owns MS Office and chances of their >using skills learned in class is greater. > >Ken > > > > >================================================================= >Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the >problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at > http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ >================================================================= _________________________________________________________ dennis roberts, educational psychology, penn state university 208 cedar, AC 8148632401, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://roberts.ed.psu.edu/users/droberts/drober~1.htm ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ =================================================================
