Laptops for Students

[jaronbrass]

As some of you may know, I'm now working for Apple Computer as a Sr Systems Engineer attached to the Broward County Public Schools account here in Florida. Basically, the district either buys Crooked Es (Dells) or they buy Macs. The ratio is about 80% Mac to 20% Dell with around 100,000 or so installed Apple computers (ranging from laptops to desktops to servers).

The district recently approved the funding for Apple's 1 to 1 Learning Solution -- basically putting a laptop in the hands of every student at four pilot school sites... The solution is called one-to-one computing, and basically attempts to replace a textbook with a laptop computer.

The Miami Herald ran an article on this today: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/li ... 258663.htm

What is your opinion? Do you think the expense is justified to give students an individual laptop? Apple has had huge success in Henrico County (Virginia) with the same programme despite much opposition.

The programme has been proven to increase student testing scores and achievement -- but critics feel the costs can be better spent building more schools and classrooms.

Let me know what you think. I'm very interested to hear what you all have to say across the pond. Apple has never considered an international 1 to 1 pilot -- but there could always be a first...

In addition, if you want to see photos of the installation process, visit my .Mac website at http://homepage.mac.com/jlbrass

Thanks!

-Jaron

[cdd]

At my school, I bring my laptop into all my classes (and have permission to use it in all examinations). I find it helps tremendously. The teachers always give me the .doc copies of all the worksheets they hand out.

I do support this initiative - but is it financially possible? Laptops are expensive, and to fund entire schools with individual laptops would require tremendous funding - which the taxpayer pays. And school funding here in the UK is a serious problem - there are several things which have to be sorted out before a new system is introduced to replace one which - in many people's viewpoints - is working adequately.

Until schools in the UK become less of a problem, I can't see this getting support.

-Chris

[Martin]

At my school, I bring my laptop into all my classes (and have permission to use it in all examinations). I find it helps tremendously. The teachers always give me the .doc copies of all the worksheets they hand out.

Is this your own personal laptop?

I didn't know schools would be as flexible in that sort of thing, especially in exams!

[Chris]

I think it's a good idea what they're doing on the other side of the pond. When I was at school (god I feel old!) they seemed to hand out tons of worksheets and none of them were in a digital format which was a pain if you lost it or mislaid it, the latter of which happened (and still does with my college papers) you were pretty much screwed and had to ask a friend if you could copy theirs or the teacher for a new one - although they did have remote access facility which was handy so you 'synchronise' a copy of your network file storage area with home and vice versa once you finished working on it so you could have any notes you took in lessons on computer or work to finish off.

Now that I am at college they are starting to implement the facility that enables you to get digital copies of the handouts and sheets in class, which is a good thing and you can access your email from home. However, the biggest 'killer' is you can't access your network file storage area from home. It's a real pain in the backside not to have such access, especially when you have forgotten to take that important file home with you and need it but cannot get to it the next day because it's stuck on a server a few miles away.
I don't know whether UK schools would be so welcoming of having Apple come and do such a thing though, as over here a certain computer company called RM (ugh!) have a stranglehold over the computer market in many schools and universities and their machines (desktops, servers and laptops) are pretty much all Windows based.

Also the learning curve maybe a bit steep for some who are not computer literate or not familiar with them, the Mac operating system might take a bit of getting used to compared to Windows, although having said that I wouldn't mind a 'free' iBook (or indeed any laptop) to work on. It would certainly make things a lot more easier compared to what they are now - no need to lug around tons of pieces of paper and heavy books. And also I'm sure many would enjoy the freedom of working anywhere they liked during a free period (ie. outside on the field/courtyard or in the canteen), rather than being stuck in a classroom or the library in the summer with no air conditioning and a rather weedy fan blowing air about.

[cat]

Dare I perhaps venture the suggestion that Apple's motives are less to do with helping future generations learn, and more to do with ensuring they familiarise themselves with Mac products at an early age?

Surely not.

[Bail]

At my school, I bring my laptop into all my classes (and have permission to use it in all examinations). I find it helps tremendously. The teachers always give me the .doc copies of all the worksheets they hand out.

Is this your own personal laptop?

I didn't know schools would be as flexible in that sort of thing, especially in exams!

You can't, unless it has been checked with the schools exam officer and said exam board, AQA, Edexcell etc. to contain nothing that would give unfair advantage. AKA “Calculator” Spell Check, Encarta 2004 etc. Personal laptops are not permitted, ever. School owned ones are, depending on the exam and the reason for its use, disability etc.

[jaronbrass]

Dare I perhaps venture the suggestion that Apple's motives are less to do with helping future generations learn, and more to do with ensuring they familiarise themselves with Mac products at an early age?

Surely not.

C@t,

This has been a concerned raised by the anti-Mac circle a number of different times, including here in Broward. The Crooked E sales guy tends to slam Macs whenever possible, even going to the extent of lying about features saying that Macs aren't compatible, even though they truly are. Essentially, Dell wants a bigger piece of the Broward pie -- and there are areas where their systems are required, for example, the library circulation and food service systems -- both of which require Windows to run. Most high schools have an AS/400 installed running NT and a handful of other Dell-based servers running anything from NT 3.5 all the way up to Windows 2003. The Macs live well in a heterogeneous environment, yet the Dell guy still does his best to say that they don't. To quote myself, Macs play better with Windows machines than Windows plays with itself in many situations.

I wouldn't say that this is a ploy on Apple's part to familiarise students with the Mac operating system in order to boost future sales. Studies have confirmed that students learn better on a Mac for a number of different reasons, not limited to the ease of use and less complicated operating system. Moreover from that, the administration component is vastly different on the Mac landscape. There are fewer headaches and hassles, and the features Apple ships with their server and remote administration toolkits are second to none. This minimises downtime and affords the students a more productive experience.

Another key point is wireless connectivity. The four school sites are being retrofitted with wireless access points. Obviously, security is a concern and there is some sort of dual-layer security system being installed. Essentially, it will be a web-front end (similar to those T-Mobile HotSpots and other services that use your WiFi card's MAC address to grant access) on top of WEP encryption. I don't think students want to sit and enter hexadecimal WEP equivalent codes into an operating system to be able to work.

Apple has plenty of experience doing this... there are a few dozen 1 to 1 sites installed across America. With the project you get a digital curriculum consultant, who helps integrate the programme into the classroom, a project manager, so on and so forth. All the pieces are in place to ensure that the teachers and students respond positively to the programme. Dell doesn't have the capability to do this, since they don't have anything similar in their product portfolio. (Although now that the 5th largest school district in America is rolling out Apple, I'm sure Dell will fire up their photocopiers and head to work, like always).

I have yet to see the effectiveness of this programme here in Broward. But I am anticipating the results. Based on previous sites, the programme should succeed and pass the scrutiny it is receiving.

-J

[Martin]

Seeing all those ibooks stacked high is an amazing sight.

Are the students allowed to take them home? I would have thought that would encourage theft if criminals know each kid walking out of school that school has $1000 of kit in their bag?

[Gavin Scott]

I wouldn't say that this is a ploy on Apple's part to familiarise students with the Mac operating system in order to boost future sales.

Well, I assume that you feel obliged to say that because this is a new job and everything, but it would be extraordinarily naive of you not to acknowledge the potential for new customers.

I'm not going to argue about the fact that learning on a Mac is easier or more intuative, nor would I dismiss the wireless connectivity factor. But benefits to the user and a larger foothold for Mac are not mutually exclusive.

If Apple's own marketing material is to be believed, then anyone being taught on one, or "switching" to a Mac won't look back. As far as I know, only Apple make Mac computers.

Dell, on the other hand, is just another manufacturer of PCs, and wont necessarily see any brand loyalty from people who use their machines first. That may explain why he is keen to make box sales where he can now. That doesn't justify him making false claims on Mac compatability, but I have to say that your reference to "crooked E" is no better, with all that the word "crooked" implys.

In principle I support the idea of laptops for students, but the cost is an obvious concern.

Can you give us some indication of the unit price to the District for these machines, Jaron?

[jaronbrass]

Gavin,

The article in the Miami Herald has the information concerning pricing. During the negotiations I wasn't privied to that information, and I know Apple had to significant cut the price as well as extend the warranty to 5 years to make the sale.

Look in my initial post for the link to the Herald article. I can't seem to find it in my bookmarks.

-Jaron

[Gavin Scott]

At $900 each, the cost of plugging 210,000 students into the Internet would be just under $190 million. Assuming the machines lasted three years, it would cost about $63 million annually, not including maintenance and the cost of wireless Internet access.

That number -- the equivalent of building a new high school and elementary school each year -- would be offset by textbook savings and increased student performance, advocates say.

Wireless networks are currently being installed in the pilot schools, Sonty said.

Board members are not unanimous in their support.

''I think it would have made more sense to pilot this at one school, and then spend the rest of the money on additional classrooms,'' said board member Lois Wexler.

Seems like a very expensive initiative given the number of students; although $900 per machine I guess is a good price. One could make a leap of reasoning here and suggest that Apple have priced low based on what we discussed earlier.

I suppose if a bunch of Apple dealerships spring up all over Florida in the next year or so, we'll know why.