Reflection on the Lecture…

Last August 27, 2008, we conducted a lecture about the use of MS Excel. It was part of our midterm grade to conduct a lecture as part of the requirement in Seminar of Technology in Mathematics. Our audience was the freshmen and sophomore math major who were free that day. We rendered the lecture in room 308 (speech lab).
So lets take a look the advantages and disadvantages of MS excel.
The following are the advantages of Ms Excel:
· First and foremost, if you have the Microsoft Office in your Pc, you don’t need anything else to be installed in your computer. You are good to go and can start wit your programming right away.
· Second, if you are a beginner, you can easily learn the Excel VBA Programming because you are half familiar with programming platform that you are going to use, which is excel.
· Third, you can start with small Excel database application and as the need grows especially on records that are getting huge, you can still use the same Excel PPLICATION and upgrade your database platform from Excel to other high-end databases like Access, SQL server, Oracle, MySOL, etc.
· Fourth, Excel is capable of connecting directly to OLAP databases and can integrate in Pivot Tables.
· Fifth, you don’t need to create your own financial modules. Excel is rich in financial functions liked Fixed Assets Depreciation, Amortization, etc.
· Sixth, Excel is portable. You can send it to someone through email.
The following are the disadvantages of Ms Excel:
· Not easily sharable (except for Tools, Share workbook)
· Non relational (except for lookup & reference commands like VLOOKUP)
· Not scalable (limited to 65536 rows in Excel 2003)
· Limited Data Validation (except for Data Validation)
· No Forms (except for VBA or Data form)
· Poor Reports (except for Pivot Tables)

So with that, I know now the advantages and disadvantages of using excel. On the other hand, I must consider its limitations. I must use not use Excel all the time. Excel makes less time in computations and accurate, but using manual method makes me sharper and helps me to develop my inner skills.