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Apple Tests Well in Education
wongaboo writes "Business Week has some interesting insights into Apples in schools. I remember when I was in K-6 an Apple was about the only computer you could find. Then in high school there were some PC's around but it was still mostly Apple. In college is was just the reverse: all PC's and no Apples. Now they are giving kids in high school a laptop when they show up; will it be an Apple? Either way, it makes me want to be a kid again."
The public school board offers a curriculum which involves all students to have a laptop, specifically an iBook. Apparently the kids take rather well to them too. When I was speaking to one of their techs, he told me they recieve less calls for help since they've made the mac 'switch'.
I would have assumed it'd be the other way around, since the kids were already used to windows.
My old high school dropped all their PCs for OSX Macs the year after I graduated. On one hand I was pleased, but on the other hand I was kind of pissed. It's as if they were waiting for me to leave!
Sarcasm and conspiracy aside, I'm glad that so many schools are realizing the benefits of upgrading their pre osx Macs and/or replacing their PCs. The world needs more *nix and less wintel.
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
In district 26 in Queens, the school board refused to let schools buy Apples, even when the entire school was in favor of it.
Please inform the Mac developers who are reading of the Windows applications that are not available (or have equivalents) for Macintosh. You can be specific or describe categories.
Seriously, it would be very useful. I've been researching this for the last two weeks and have still yet to find a good market niche. If on the other hand you are simply trolling, please excuse my reply.
I graduated from high school in 2001. My senior year, my private K-12 prep school in St. Paul MN, Mounds park academy, started an apple iBook program (only grades 9-12) that continues today. Despite my fervent support of Macs, i was dead set against the program because i thought it was an expensive distraction. (we also started horrible block scheduling the year before, which drove me nuts). We got the Clamshell models, but these have now been replaced by the white iBooks. (software licensing was WAY expensive)
Overall it was useless much of the time, but it also taught everyone in our class the fundamentals of TCP/IP, an important skill in the Modern Age. As we were seniors, the administration didn't pick on us too much, but they tried very hard to crack down on the younger kids, particularly boys. They didn't want people installing games, of course, but they also decided to ban the use of the CD-ROM drives, a bizarrely unenforceable rule given that we took the computers home every day (these rules are No More). Since the Techs would often erase a computer as a first resort when fixing it (spotting warez along the way), I had to step in and deal with things all the time.
There was a real problem with understanding how the "private space" of an object owned by the school actually worked. I recall being commanded not to tell people that the MacOS had a handy "Encrypt..." command in the File menu.
The unfortunate irony of the program was that the kids who were formerly the most obedient in school--ie the geek types--were placed in a position of violating rules left and right if they wanted to set up their computers in a comfortable sort of way with the usual warez etc. So the good kids got in trouble, and some otherwise harmless guys basically got caught in enforcement feedback loops that disheartened or chased them right out of the school.
Also it was interesting to run AirPort packet sniffing and watch AIM conversations and unencrypted email passwords. Since then, instant messengers have been blocked. There were a lot of technical snags that year--infuriating and time wasting. As I tend to be easily distracted sometimes, the magic boxes were all too tempting.
One of the best moments was when I made a comment on Slashdot about AirPort packet sniffing at the very beginning of Statistics class, and by the end of class it reached the vaunted 5, joy of joys.
The older iBooks had kind of crummy CD trays, where the outer plastic shell would break off too easily, not to mention all the cracked screens. Generally students have to pay for all replacements and repairs, which are very expensive. Power cords get lost frequently, and laptops have been stolen from time to time.
We had a rather moody senior class, and it was disheartening to come into our senior lounge to see everyone silent inside the screens, oftentimes communicating by AIM across the room to make furtive conspiracies. Did we trade off natural interaction for this cold mode of operation?
Fortunately, the subsequent classes of kids adjusted to the laptops more socially, and they have not "run amok" in that sense. However, where the old geek population that was there when i was a freshman was more rebellious and linux oriented, these new geeks are very obedient, obnoxious condescending bitches, according to my younger brother and sister who are now sophomores at the school.
The whole program was driven by an urge to keep MPA at the cutting edge of innovation bla bla bla. I was really impressed by teachers who came up with innovative ideas but i really wished we didn't have to be the damn guinea pigs. I started my website in those days, and it was fun to have everyone reading it all the time, but then when i got uncontrollably angry i said hasty things and got in big trouble. Hazards of the new territory.
--hongpong.com
People like you piss me off. Macs run the core software needed in the education and office environments.
I work in a school, our Macs run almost all the same software that the PCs do, they last 40% longer 'in the field' than the PCs, and we haven't had a SINGLE virus-infected Mac since 1999. Macs run the GNU tools, which are unarguably the BEST tools for those of us who can be productive on the command line.
I do hardware repairs too, but in the last four months I've only had to do one hardware repair out of 230 Macs in operation. The PC guy is SWIMMING in broken PCs, he does three or four each day, on 600 PCs in operation.
As for skills, your Windows skills aren't going to be worth jack-shit either, Microsoft wants to totally alter the face and philosophy of computing from what we know today. Most training in the office is with custom apps and databases anyway, and no amount of time using a Windows box will help you with "Bob From Accounting's Really Cool Purchasing Database".
Computer skills are totally transferable. I watch kids everyday walk in between Windows and Mac labs, doing what they do. Maybe someone in their 30s or 40s would have trouble switching after 20 years of use, but kids these days, this upcoming generation, they can use anything with buttons.
As for Mac skills being worthless, no skill is worthless. I set up a computer for a friend last year with Linux and KDE on it, she never had a computer before, she's 25. She just got a job with Windows/Office this week and the only thing she called me about was to verify that cutting and pasting were 'different on windows'. She can lay out a table or make a chart just as easily as the next guy who's been using Office for three years.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
Do you think that the only thing that students are using their laptops for is to type up reports in Word? There is a LOT more that goes on in schools with Student Laptop Programs than just composition, though increasing writing is an important part of improving student achievement.
A number of recent studies have shown that 1:1 laptop ratios can have a very positive effect on student achievement rates (as well as increasing student engagement, reducing drop-out rates and school truancy...)
If you implement right (plan it fully, have professional development ready for teachers, fully communicate to students AND parents what appropriate use is for the machine - e.g. no games, no IM, etc. - and enforce it), laptops can positively impact schools.
Sources:
Detroit Free Press
New York Times
Montana Associated Technology Roundtables
Public Policy Institute: Laptop for Every Student?
It's funny how the article mentions Dell as the arch-nemesis of Apple in the education market, because at my district Dell took over for Apple. In my elementary days, you couldn't go around school without seeing an Apple in every classroom. But around the 5th grade, they switched to Dells. [tear]
It made sense at the time, seeing as how the Apple computers were around a decade old; archaic next to a computer with Windows 95. (GUI -- wow!) But looking at the school situation now, it's terrible. The schools have been overloaded with Dells -- there must be three thousand machines in my high school alone (a school of about 1,600 students) with several thousand more in the remainder of the district.
What's worse is that these machines are outdated for the most part. The district goes out every year and buys a new set of fifty to one hundred machines per school - the last was for a significant speed bump in the high school. Unfortunately, until this school year (my senior year) they had used Windows NT, meaning they had to go out and buy thousands of licenses for XP - a complete and utter waste of funds.
I work as an editor for the school newspaper, and it's the opinion of the editorial staff that the time to move back to Apple is now. It's been proven that the longevity of Macs outweighs any PC, and they are more reliable than a PC in terms of security. I won't even delve into the amount of time/money spent on Internet blocking, virus problems, networking issues, etc. But you know how tech people in school districts can be -- ignorant fools who don't know enough about what they're in charge of.
Personally, Adobe has completely dropped the ball with the OS X versions of their software. Photoshop and Illustrator CS are a hell of a lot snappier on our 2ghz duron under win2k than they are on our dual 2ghz G5s.
:|
I can, in fact, launch Classic and Photoshop 5.0.2 in roughly the same time it takes to launch Photoshop CS. And 5.0.2 is a hell of a lot more responsive.
I'm teaching 5th graders to make their own sites with Adobe GoLive, my 4th graders are using Photoshop, and all of the students from 3rd grade up are checking their test scores online.
See our work:
http://www.ps133q.org
But there are teachers like the one described by the previous poster. Most "computer teachers" come equipped only with an education in Education! They must learn all of their tech skills on the job. Now picture an older person with a family (not my case) thrust into that position, and you will sometimes get the situation described above.
It's partially a generational experience - the younger teachers coming in are more familiar (though not necessarily knowledgeable) with computers. Technology coursework needs to be a mandated requirement in all MS Ed programs.
Jon