"A.J. Rossini" wrote:
> >>>>> "k" == kenmlin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> k> Sorry I pissed everyone off. My argument is more relevant to
> k> teaching introductory statistics course to non-stat majors who
> k> might not have access to stat packages at their own department
> k> or when they leave school. I felt that teaching Excel is
> k> beneficial in a sense that they might actually be able to use
> k> what they learned since Excel's more readily available. I also
> k> found that I had next to no time to cover the software while I
> k> was teaching intro stat course.
>
> k> I understand that it's very important for many of you to teach
> k> stat package because it's what you are familiar with and you
> k> have access to it. (The stat dept I belonged to didn't have
> k> the budget for a decent computer lab so I always had to come up
> k> with ways to work around with the lack of resources.) I
> k> apologize for being practical. I myself is now a SAS
> k> professional but I think differently if I am teaching.
>
> There are plenty of reasonable FREE packages, ViSta and R come to
> mind.
That's all fine and good, but I can see kenmlin's point. Yes, excel is lousy
at statistics, yes, their attitude towards errors in the software stinks, and,
yes, there are real statistical packages available for students at little or no
cost. However, in a business school I have absolutely no illusion that any
of my students will ever be statisticians. They will be consumers of
statistics,
and they will occasionally produce simple statistics themselves. I teach the
use of minitab in my classes, by I feel that I would be remiss if I didn't
also teach them how to use excel (and warn them about potential pitfalls),
since there is no reason to suspect that they will have acess to a statistical
package once they are out in the workforce.
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