Last week I dropped by my old high school. Unlike most people, I
appear to have a certain attachment to the old place, and my former
teachers are always happy to sit down and catch up on one of their
prodigies (ahem).
In this particular instance, I went with a purpose. A high school
friend is currently teaching at the old alma mater, and she's been
having problems with the iBooks she's using in her second grade
classroom. Upon my arrival, I was absolutely appalled at the how
computers were being used.
Here's the situation: The kindergarten through grade seven classes
have access to two mobile iBook labs. These machines were purchased a
year and half ago and, I assume, included the full complement of
software (AppleWorks, Explorer, etc.). All are running OS 9. All
are on the school's Windows network.
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These machines seriously frustrate my friend. She has a passion
for teaching and prefers Macs to PCs. However, these machines had
essentially been stripped of any useful software by the IT
department. She was using AppleWorks in her grade two class for
painting, drawing, and basic word processing. It was working just
wonderfully until she came in one day to find that AppleWorks had
been deleted from every single machine. Why? The IT fellows
apparently thought that it was bogging down the network.
So now my friend is stuck with teaching Word (the only software
the IT folk will allow on the machines) to kids in grade 2. Learning
is clearly a priority here.
Because of the lack of software, my friend had designed and built
several Web quests to give the kids some computing and Internet
skills. Horror number two reared its ugly head.
The AirPort base station that they are using is a rev 1 base
station. Ten is the maximum number of users allowed on these base
stations. My friend (and likely, the IT department) was not aware of
this. This meant more frustration for her as a class of 22 tried to
pile into a single base station.
I'm not certain why the simple solution of the built in software
base station wasn't used. I suspect, however, that it's because the
IT department neither knows nor cares to know about these
features.
Normally, I have a fairly relaxed attitude about Macs and PCs. I
think people should use whatever works for them. Of course, I still
believe that Macs are inherently superior but, hey, whatever floats
your boat is fine with me.
I do, however, have a serious problem with willful ignorance and
ridiculous policies that damage the learning environment. There are
plenty of solutions available that help Macs and PCs play nicely
together. A little ingenuity and resourcefulness will overcome any
issues that crop up.
The bottom line is that computers can be used as teaching tools -
and having 70 iBooks with nothing but Word on them is a colossal
waste of money. On top of that, the kids are the ones who get the
short end of the stick, because they're stuck with less than useful
paperweights that hinder them rather than help them learn.
As for the IT folks, they seem hell bent on doing everything they
can to make sure that the Macs don't work.
I'm wondering if this is a common situation. Send me your
thoughts.
Unhappy about the way Macs are being treated in your school
system? Join the MacInSchool
email list and work with others to advocate for Macs in our
schools.
Stephen Van
Esch is the founder and president of
the
E-learning Foundry, an online training
resource for Mac users. Steve loves the Mac and is doubly bilingual,
since he's also fluent in Windows and French.
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