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Michigan To Purchase Record 130,000 Laptops

Posted by timothy on from the must-not-have-been-spending-enough dept.

goombah99 writes "The Detroit FreePress reports that Michigan state is planning the largest single laptop purchase/lease ever, over 130,000 wireless laptops--enough for every 6th grader. And of course future purchases for each new class. The main competion is between Dell and Apple, with Apple having the edge in classroom integration experience. But price points will matter since the school districts may have to pay $25 per pupil. And the Gates foundation has a foot in the door. No word on what OS the Dell laptops would run. What would be your choice for middle school classrooms with minimal sys admin?"

6 of 641 comments (clear)

  1. My choice by ninthwave · · Score: 5, Insightful

    With minimal sys admin resources I would go with apple les patches and updates and virus protection needed. (Not none just less)

    --
    I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said: "I drank what?" - Chris Knight (Val Kilmer)- Real Genius
    1. Re:My choice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      umm... giving laptops to 6th graders?... i know it sounds cool and all, but lemmie repeat...

      Laptops to 6th graders

      what the heck for, its going to get broken, stolen, and not used to its full potential.
      all they need is a browser, and a word processor.

      they could prolly get away with a palm before they need a laptop.

  2. Does this really make sense? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I know I'll get howled down by all the techheads around here, but I'm truly wondering if spending somewhere between 500 and 1000 bucks per student on something that depreciates so incredibly fast makes any sense. History books, saxophones and art supplies do not depreciate nearly as quickly and cost a lot less. So do teachers -- in fact, most of them *appreciate* instead with greater training and experience. That's a shitload of money spent on computers where more fundamental educational infrastructure might make more sense?...

  3. My choice... by Chris+Parrinello · · Score: 5, Insightful
    What would be your choice for middle school classrooms with minimal sys admin?


    I dunno... maybe a blackboard, some chalk and a couple of erasers. Paper, pens and pencils would be apropos. Textbooks I hear have a pretty low TCO.
  4. Misguided Spending by mopslik · · Score: 5, Insightful

    over 130,000 wireless laptops--enough for every 6th grader

    Great. Now every 6th grader may not be able to write a coherent sentence or multiply two fractions, but they'll be able to point-and-click their way to the job of their dreams.

    Computers aren't the solution, but tools to help aciheve one.

  5. Re:the ONLY Choice by clmensch · · Score: 5, Insightful
    More correctly, as a brainless Wintel droid, you choose what YOU like. Computing concepts should be taught at the root level. They shouldn't be taught what buttons to push to get something to work on a specific platform...they should be taught the underlying principles of a desktop GUI so that they can use any OS they are put in front of. Sure every OS has its idiosyncracies...but by understanding the core concepts, a student can teach himself how to maximize his computing experience.

    High quality versions of the applications necessary for a young student to thrive are available on every modern OS...spreadsheets, word processors, presentations, web browsers, and other internet utilities. It's even arguable that Macs have better tools for creating multimedia content for projects, which may excite the students even more.

    The purpose of the laptops isn't to teach them how to maintain a computer, it's to use the computer as a tool. That being the case, why wouldn't the state choose the platform that is more easily maintained, more secure, has a lower cost of ownership, and has fewer headaches in general?

    --
    There is no gravity...the earth just sucks.