OSAPAC

Visiting the OSAPAC website was an interesting experience. I had knowledge of the "Ministry Licensed CD" and understood that in many cases this CD was the backbone of many of the the software programs that we were using on our computers. What I didn't know was that the site provides some upgrades, and grade specific ideas on what to do with these programs. Great service, but like some good things, few people know about it and perhaps even fewer take advantage of it.

The board that I'm with has been working with a standard image for it Mac computers for a couple of years and is, I understand, in the process of developing an image for PCs. With all the discussion around "standardization" in education, I wonder if there will ever be a standard image for Ontario schools? If OSAPAC is made up of teachers and computer people from around the province is this an unreasonable thought? Does it make sense?

There are one or two programs that we have on our standard image that do not appear on the OSAPAC site, so I am assuming that our board has purchased the license for the software. It so happens that I believe it (Comic Life) is a great piece of software and I'm glad that our board has it. In the end if we are all teaching the same curriculum using the same reporting system would it make sense that we have access to the same resources.