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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?"

9 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?...

    1. Re:Does this really make sense? by JPM+NICK · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I could not agree with you more. As a newly graduated college student who majored in computer engineering and electrical engineering, I think this post is right on. I have my computer from my freshmen year, which was fall of 1999. It is a PII 333mhz with 128mb of ram. When I got this, it was a great box. It came with NT 4.0 on it, but now has red hat. For most users, Win 98 would be the only other choice, as XP needs more system requirments that this. So what good would this box do for Joe User now? (I actually have it is a file server, but most people would have chucked it by now after the hard drive crash of 2001). What good is a laptop going to do for these kids besides cause a headache? When I was in 6th grade I had enough trouble remembering my house key and glasses where ever I went. I would never trust 6th grade me with a 1000 dollar laptop. Between hard drive failures, cracked cases, failed LCD's, and general misuse like file sharing and music listening, you are just asking for kids to get in trouble. Imigine the attention span of a 6th grader in class with something as cool as a new laptop next to him with a teacher droning on about History. Forget it. The money should be used for computer labs and teachers to supervise them. That way, kids can go after school to do reports or use the net. Giving away laptops is an insane idea, the cost over the next 5 years will be the same as the inital layout, which will be a massive amount of money and time. Another thought: if students are required to have these laptops, I am sure the cirruclum will be written to include these in everyday classroom activities. What will happen if your laptop dies, or you lose it. Its not like a text book where you can share and all the information is the same as the one next to you, your laptop is unique with your personal information. Will you then get a failing grade?

    2. Re:Does this really make sense? by SychoSyd · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'm a newspaper reporter and I cover the local school board as part of my beat. One of the biggest problems with this, according to the administration, is that the state is purchasing these laptops on a two-year lease. Nobody knows what's supposed to happen to these computers once the lease is up and the computers are obsolete. Will schools have the option to buy them (even though they're outdated) so that 6th graders don't have to give them up before they're finished with middle school, or will the state just reclaim them? And nobody knows where the money will come from two years from now when it's time to upgrade. The state has all kinds of money for this initiative now, but next time they might say, "Okay, public schools! It's your turn to foot the bill this year!"

      Oh, and to answer the main question in this thread... they'll probably run whatever OS a majority of Michigan schools are already running. If the kids are learning how to use XP in the computer labs, it's the most practical (though not necessarily the best) solution to stick XP on the laptops too, for consistancy's sake. As beneficial as it would be for kids to leave middle school knowing how to use both XP and OSX or Linux, it ain't gonna happen.

  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:what? by orthogonal · · Score: 5, Funny

    my girlfriend has a 900mhz iBook, and I have to tell you, I'm not really sure where my extra $1000 went.

    A Slashdotter with a girlfriend.

    And he's missing a thousand bucks.

    Ahem.

    I think we can all connect those dots.

    Just how much are those web-cam "girlfriends" per-minute, anyway?

    --
    Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
  6. 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.