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I concur. http://www.spss.com/education/ gives many options for student packages or rental. I didn't go through the details, but if memory serves the prices are not very much and IF MY MEMORY IS CORRECT SPSS had no problem with students sharing as long as there was only 1 copy on 1 machine. In addition, in the past, the standard agreement SPSS had with Federal agencies allowed employees to take SPSS home for agency work and for self-education. (This was very helpful when we were dislocated because of the anthrax events.) This may be true for other kinds of employers too. Using spreadsheets instead of stat packages undermines the need to provide the meta-data of a piece of research. Most particularly variable and value labels and distinguishing kinds of missing data. Students need to learn that quality assurance is a fundamental part of analysis. Dennis Roberts wrote: > 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/ > ================================================================= --------------B959A4D6FCA2A833B28E3DCE Content-Type: text/x-vcard; charset=us-ascii; name="Arthur.Kendall.vcf" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Description: Card for Art Kendall Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Arthur.Kendall.vcf" begin:vcard n:Kendall;Art tel;work:301-864-5570 x-mozilla-html:FALSE adr:;;;;;; version:2.1 email;internet:[EMAIL PROTECTED] fn:Art Kendall end:vcard --------------B959A4D6FCA2A833B28E3DCE-- ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ =================================================================
