PCs vs Macs in 1:1 programs - Classroom 2.02024-03-28T23:06:40Zhttps://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/pcs-vs-macs-in-11-programs?commentId=649749%3AComment%3A620244&feed=yes&xn_auth=noAre the students primarily se…tag:www.classroom20.com,2011-03-31:649749:Comment:6206752011-03-31T18:27:57.528ZCat Whitehttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/CatWhite
Are the students primarily self-taught on the computers then (so far as "hot to use" goes)? Are their parents providing support (I know it's more likely the former than the latter)? What if you have a student who is, for want of a better term, clueless?
Are the students primarily self-taught on the computers then (so far as "hot to use" goes)? Are their parents providing support (I know it's more likely the former than the latter)? What if you have a student who is, for want of a better term, clueless? My apologies if I mislead, we…tag:www.classroom20.com,2011-03-31:649749:Comment:6202482011-03-31T18:03:01.354ZChristopher Casalhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MrCasal
<p>My apologies if I mislead, we are not a specific 1:1 school. We are an elementary school of 800. Every student has access to a system of some kind (mostly Mac, but a fair number of Windows systems too, all with access to a file server with individual student accounts) and work, especially in the upper grades is, in large part, done digitally.</p>
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<p>When we plan instruction we plan without platform in mind. As I mentioned Google Apps, Blogspot, and Wikispaces are the main platforms…</p>
<p>My apologies if I mislead, we are not a specific 1:1 school.
We are an elementary school of 800. Every student has access to a system of some kind (mostly Mac, but a fair number of Windows systems too, all with access to a file server with individual student accounts) and work, especially in the upper grades is, in large part, done digitally.</p>
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<p>When we plan instruction we plan without platform in mind. As I mentioned Google Apps, Blogspot, and Wikispaces are the main platforms we use to allow for access for all even if there aren't 800 systems in the building. We plan with school, home, library, etc in mind. As we scale up, as we are doing, we want to have a system in place so when we get to "1:1" it's not a big deal to make the "transition"</p>
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<p> </p> Thanks for the props! To be f…tag:www.classroom20.com,2011-03-31:649749:Comment:6202462011-03-31T17:42:35.978ZMatt Montagnehttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MattMontagne
<p>Thanks for the props! To be fully transparent, I do work at a small private school in the San Francisco Bay area and we are well resourced. However, I do believe that such a digital learning model scales to a wide range of K12 schools and districts. It's just a matter of rethinking and re-imagining our budgets, processes, and ethos.</p>
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<p>I should also say this OS/hardware/software nuetral 1-1 computing model applies to all students in grades 6-12 at our school and that we maintain…</p>
<p>Thanks for the props! To be fully transparent, I do work at a small private school in the San Francisco Bay area and we are well resourced. However, I do believe that such a digital learning model scales to a wide range of K12 schools and districts. It's just a matter of rethinking and re-imagining our budgets, processes, and ethos.</p>
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<p>I should also say this OS/hardware/software nuetral 1-1 computing model applies to all students in grades 6-12 at our school and that we maintain 2 traditional mac labs for supplemental use as well (I would presume that the mac labs will go away in 2-3 years when folks get more comfortable with this paradigm).</p> Thanks, Cat. No, we don't hav…tag:www.classroom20.com,2011-03-31:649749:Comment:6202442011-03-31T17:39:44.379ZMatt Montagnehttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MattMontagne
<p>Thanks, Cat. No, we don't have any such required curriculum. As a matter of fact, we don't even mandate that teachers use the laptops. If teachers don't want to use them, they don't have to. This has 'lowered the temperature' in our community and has resulted in fewer forced, inauthentic uses of digital technology. It hasn't come without costs, however. Some kids grumble that they rarely use their computers...but even these kids appreciate having easy access to a computer during…</p>
<p>Thanks, Cat. No, we don't have any such required curriculum. As a matter of fact, we don't even mandate that teachers use the laptops. If teachers don't want to use them, they don't have to. This has 'lowered the temperature' in our community and has resulted in fewer forced, inauthentic uses of digital technology. It hasn't come without costs, however. Some kids grumble that they rarely use their computers...but even these kids appreciate having easy access to a computer during discretionary time periods like study halls, lunch, etc. My sense is that more and more teachers will continue to see student laptops as serious tools for engaging in serious scholarly work. Over time I expect that we will not only see more frequent classroom use, but more meaningful and powerful use as well.</p>
<p> </p> I share your concern about da…tag:www.classroom20.com,2011-03-31:649749:Comment:6203942011-03-31T17:34:38.107ZCat Whitehttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/CatWhite
I share your concern about data plans and access. So are you using MS Office or something else (not clear from your post). Having some familiarity with it in the US is still a good idea, I think.
I share your concern about data plans and access. So are you using MS Office or something else (not clear from your post). Having some familiarity with it in the US is still a good idea, I think. The general population is not…tag:www.classroom20.com,2011-03-31:649749:Comment:6205862011-03-31T17:33:32.282ZChristopher Casalhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MrCasal
<p>The general population is not familiar with MacWrite and when comparing an application to someone unfamilair with it, in my experience, it is most easy to compare to Microsoft products (just because I have a copy of the original Progressive Networks encoder doesn't mean I wont use YouTube as a base of comparison for streaming media).</p>
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<p>I'm not a Microsoft fan, and I hate what they have done to the lastest Office suite (at least on the Mac side the legacy menus are available)…</p>
<p>The general population is not familiar with MacWrite and when comparing an application to someone unfamilair with it, in my experience, it is most easy to compare to Microsoft products (just because I have a copy of the original Progressive Networks encoder doesn't mean I wont use YouTube as a base of comparison for streaming media).</p>
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<p>I'm not a Microsoft fan, and I hate what they have done to the lastest Office suite (at least on the Mac side the legacy menus are available) but in my experience most users are familiar with Office and how it's laid out and when teaching a new package it is most common for folks to relate it to how they function in that environment.</p> Super docs--thanks for sharin…tag:www.classroom20.com,2011-03-31:649749:Comment:6203932011-03-31T17:32:06.485ZCat Whitehttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/CatWhite
<p>Super docs--thanks for sharing.</p>
<p>Do you have any required tech-related courses or a curriculum component that teachers have to implement?</p>
<p>Super docs--thanks for sharing.</p>
<p>Do you have any required tech-related courses or a curriculum component that teachers have to implement?</p> Christopher suggested "device…tag:www.classroom20.com,2011-03-31:649749:Comment:6205842011-03-31T17:20:30.345ZCat Whitehttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/CatWhite
<p>Christopher suggested "device agnostic" but is in a Mac 1:1 environment.</p>
<p><strong>How about the rest of you? PC? Mac? BYOT (Bring Your Own Tech)?</strong></p>
Are you one platform or open to all devices? How is that working?
<p>Christopher suggested "device agnostic" but is in a Mac 1:1 environment.</p>
<p><strong>How about the rest of you? PC? Mac? BYOT (Bring Your Own Tech)?</strong></p>
Are you one platform or open to all devices? How is that working? Not a good assumption at our…tag:www.classroom20.com,2011-03-31:649749:Comment:6205832011-03-31T17:06:33.964ZCat Whitehttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/CatWhite
<p>Not a good assumption at our school. We did a video project in English 11 (we have Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and I provide the orientation trainings). Students were expected to work in labs on school computers so we could provide support, but some did the real project on their Macs and then came to me when they could not get the project off their machine as a video or DVD. Turns out they did not have (or did not know how to use) their DVD burners. One did all of his audio in Garage Band and…</p>
<p>Not a good assumption at our school. We did a video project in English 11 (we have Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and I provide the orientation trainings). Students were expected to work in labs on school computers so we could provide support, but some did the real project on their Macs and then came to me when they could not get the project off their machine as a video or DVD. Turns out they did not have (or did not know how to use) their DVD burners. One did all of his audio in Garage Band and then could not export (came to me for help on the due date for the project and he had nothing done besides his attempt at audio).</p>
<p>Do I spend my time supporting the students who are meeting expectations and working independently and have occasional issues or closet myself with a couple of individuals who did something different?</p>
<p>If I had a Mac, I'd be better able to do both, but I don't. I realize this is a different issue than where I started the discussion.</p> we launched a 1-1 laptop lear…tag:www.classroom20.com,2011-03-31:649749:Comment:6202422011-03-31T16:59:50.114ZMatt Montagnehttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MattMontagne
<p>we launched a 1-1 laptop learning model last fall and allow our families and students to choose their own computer as long as it meets minimal specifications (<a href="https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AYwa3i7setUiZGdrbWI4NzZfMjE1c3F3dzM3aGg&hl=en&authkey=CJHqhdYN" target="_blank">click here</a> to see our laptop learning comprehensive FAQ doc).</p>
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<p>In addition to being OS and hardware agnostic, we are also software nuetral. That is, instead of requiring specific…</p>
<p>we launched a 1-1 laptop learning model last fall and allow our families and students to choose their own computer as long as it meets minimal specifications (<a target="_blank" href="https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AYwa3i7setUiZGdrbWI4NzZfMjE1c3F3dzM3aGg&hl=en&authkey=CJHqhdYN">click here</a> to see our laptop learning comprehensive FAQ doc).</p>
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<p>In addition to being OS and hardware agnostic, we are also software nuetral. That is, instead of requiring specific applications, we require 'genres' of applications. We require each student to have an office suite, a movie editor, an audio editor, an image editor, etc. We created a <a target="_blank" href="http://castillejatech.wikispaces.com/Casti+FOSS+Disc">website resource</a> for free and open source software applications and we have a disc with these titles for students to use for software installation. We wanted to build a model that allowed students and families the choice to never spend money on software if they didn't want to. </p>
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<p>Most of our students do have macs, but we also have quite a few netbooks and even one student who uses Fedora. </p>
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<p>As part of semi-strategic planning for our laptop learning model, two years ago we deployed a moodle network and we also transitioned from FirstClass to Google Apps for education. As you know, Google Apps and Moodle are fully accessible via a web browser and render the desktop OS less important for our users. Supplying these web based digital learning platforms has been very helpful in our move to such a learning model. </p>
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<p>As technologies come closer to commoditization, it becomes imperative that school IT departments build systems and networks that support all forms of IP communicating mobile learning tools. If we don't, then we lose the opportunity to leverage the computing power that already sits in the hands,
backpacks, and pockets of our kids. </p>
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<p>Matt Montagne</p>