“About 2,000 new computers will go to Boulder Valley middle and high school classrooms this year to replace outdated ones, moving the district from mostly Macintosh models to mostly Windows PCs,” Amy Bounds reports for The Daily Camera (Boulder, Colorado). “The money will come from the transportation tax increase narrowly approved by voters in November. The increase, about $4.5 million this year, will cover district transportation costs not reimbursed by the state, freeing money to buy computers. The Boulder Valley school board got an update on the computer plan Tuesday, as well as hearing from some parents and community members upset about the switch to PCs. The district’s goal is to replace all of its computers in four years.”
“Those who spoke at the board meeting against switching to PCs said teachers will lose software and data and cautioned that PCs are more susceptible to viruses and so more costly to maintain,” Bounds reports. “Fred Gluck, a school volunteer and parent, said it will take more training than the district anticipates for teachers to know the system well enough to teach it to students. He also said schools have more Mac-based software than the district realizes… School board members said the PC platform should free up time for technical support staff, allowing them to address computer problems faster. They also said it’s important for students without computers at home to learn how to use PCs. ‘The right decision has been made,’ said school board member Teresa Steele.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Windows should free up time for technical support staff? What are they smoking in Boulder? Windows PCs are more susceptible to viruses? Yeah, we guess you could say that, but it would be much more accurate to say “Windows PCS are susceptible to viruses, Macs are not.” These people are making quite a large mistake and it’s too bad the students will have to suffer. The right decision has been made? Misguided school board member Teresa Steele is an idiot. So are the other board members who voted to approve this stupid move.
To think that these students and teachers could easily have new Macs with Mac OS X Tiger, iLife, and all of the Mac’s other benefits, coupled with Apple’s PowerSchool, but instead will be stuck with Windows boxes is nothing short of sickening.
For more information about Macs vs. Windows PCs in schools (and elsewhere), please visit: http://macvspc.info/
Level-headed, substantive emails (please represent the Mac community well) can be directed to and Dr. George García, Boulder Valley School District Superintendent, .
Advertisements:
• MacBook Pro. The first Mac notebook built upon Intel Core Duo with iLife ’06, Front Row and built-in iSight. Starting at $1999. Free shipping.
• iMac. Twice as amazing — Intel Core Duo, iLife ’06, Front Row media experience, Apple Remote, built-in iSight. Starting at $1299. Free shipping.
• iMac and MacBook Pro owners: Apple USB Modem. Easily connect to the Internet using dial-up service. $49.00.
• iPod Radio Remote. Listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. Just $49.
• iPod. 15,000 songs. 25,000 photos. 150 hours of video. The new iPod. 30GB and 60GB models start at just $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Keep or dump Apple iBooks? Henrico restarts laptop bidding on middle school computer contract – October 28, 2005
Henrico to decide whether to ditch Apple iBooks for Dell laptops in middle schools – October 10, 2005
Henrico students ‘excited’ to have Dells after four years with ‘hated’ Apple iBooks – September 24, 2005
Dell VP on Henrico’s switch from Mac OS X iBooks with to Windows XP Dells: ‘a computer’s a computer’ – September 22, 2005
After dropping Macs, Henrico officials work to protect students’ new Dells from viruses – August 30, 2005
Woman wets herself to keep place in line for $50 Apple iBooks – August 16, 2005
Apple continues to lead in customer satisfaction, Dell loses more ground – August 16, 2005
Henrico citizens stampede for $50 Apple iBooks – August 16, 2005
Henrico closes $50 Apple iBook sale to general public; only Henrico residents can buy – August 03, 2005
Henrico moves $50 Apple iBook sale to Richmond International Raceway due overwhelming demand – July 28, 2005
Apple announces 30,000 iBooks deal with Florida’s Broward County Public Schools – July 27, 2005
Henrico residents object to public sale of Apple iBooks – July 26, 2005
Henrico County Public Schools to sell Apple 12-inch iBooks for $50 each on August 9th – July 25, 2005
Henrico blasted for choosing Dell laptops with Windows XP over Apple iBooks with Mac OS X Tiger – May 09, 2005
Henrico school officials on Apple to Dell switch: The logo will change, but the tool is the same – April 30, 2005
Henrico school board dumps Apple Macs, picks Dells with Windows – April 29, 2005
Henrico County Apple iBook plan in jeopardy? – April 02, 2005
Survey shows support for Henrico iBook program with ‘lukewarm support’ for Apple’s Mac OS X – March 07, 2005
Henrico poll finds students are using iBooks successfully – February 11, 2005
Henrico iBooks raise concerns among some parents – May 28, 2004
Henrico high school laptop program to continue, but will it still feature Apple Macs? – February 24, 2005
More schools experience Windows virus, worm problems while Macs just keep working – August 22, 2003
A tale of two school systems: Windows schools crippled while Mac schools unaffected – August 21, 2003
People aren’t stupid, they are just ignorant.
Hell. is the mw. I thik it should have been saved for these poor students. Sorry dudes, you got a dull.
“School board members said the PC platform should free up time for technical support staff, allowing them to address computer problems faster”
isn’t that a contradiction in terms?
Don’t shake your head when the patch doesn’t patch what was supposed to have been patched in the first place.
I bet these fools buy Dells because they are dirt cheap.
Unfortunately, you imagine a ripple effect where parents think they should also go the windows route because the school district “must be right.”
…and these people are responsible for the education of your child?
And she urged a “no” vote on English language education.
What a f-ckin putz.
if you guys decide to flood her inbox, do the children of that district a favor and fight for THEM, not your platform of choice. give statistics, such as the average number of man-hours needed to maintain macs as opposed to windows machines, quote the virus count on macs (zero for os x) and windows (over 10,000 is it??) and how the TCO will eventually make the windows machines MORE expensive than the macs. it sounds like some people on the board knew exactly what they were talking about, but they got ignored. why?
MW: plane. hm. got nothing for that one.
Dear Drone, I mean Teresa,
Your check is in the mail. Mwaaahhahahahahah!!
Reality will hit them hard when they have to hire MORE support staff to try and keep pace with the maintenance required to keep a Windows PC and related networks functional.
This has to be a boon for Microsoft Certified IT people everywhere. How do they get people to think Windows is less time consuming maintain and easir to administer than a Mac? Smoke and mirrors I guess. I guess MS Cert IT peoples’ BS propaganda must be so loud it drowns out the truth.
Sad it has to be the kids who suffer under the oppression of idiots
oh, i almost forgot – even though she IS an idiot, don’t say that or anything similar in the emails because that’s a good way to get someone to ignore you immediately.
mw is now forward: as in, hopefully someone will step forward and clean this mess up?
Well, you can look at it like this: Switching to the Pee-See platform better free up more time for the technical staff casuse there gonna need alot more time to handle a school full of Pee-Sees. (Sort of a chicken and egg thing… sort of.)
I’ll tell that school district what they should definitely do is, for one year keep careful track of how much more time the “technical staff” is spending keeping their Pee-Sees just basically up and running. I’ve done this type of study for a couple of companies I’ve worked for and I can tell you objectively that, in the first six months, any company buying new Pee-Sees will spend more person hours, (read that as dollars and cents for the company), for each new computer installed, than they will spend on the same number of new Macs in the first year and a half.
You can go to the bank on that.
I LIVE in Colorado and have for 41 years. The “People’s Republic of Boulder” has NEVER been known for practical intelligence . . . only bleeding-heart, knee-jerk, utopian emotionalism. (Remember, Professor/Native American (!?) Ward Churchill is their erstwhile spokesperson and icon.)
That said, this is proof positive that the new Intel-based Macs MUST be able to run Windows! Macs will NEVER be cheaper than Dells. Never. But if the BVSD school board can say that even though new Macs are a little more expensive, THEY DO TWICE AS MUCH! They can boot into OS X AND VISTA!
Top that! Two for the price of one and a half!
It MUST come to pass.
Who do i write to to complain?
Computers in education should help facilitate learning, be incorporated into the teaching plans and not be a hinderance to learning.
It’s not important for students to learn Windows because technology changes. Students can be using an abacus in math class as long as they’re learning effectively.
Just because Windows is used by the majority of the world, it doesn’t make it the best tool for future learning. Should they learn QuarkXpress or InDesign? I doesn’t matter as long as they’re learning page layout fundamentals and you can even do that with cut and paste.
Good point, Matt, but it’s a distinct possibility that relatives/friends of the board memebers are employed within the support structure. They may very well be PC hacks with no desire to learn the MacOS. This transition will firmly cement their job security for at least the next four years. Any public outcry is irrelevant. It would be interesting to followup on the “progress” of these doomed experiments in, say, two years. What will be the failure rates on the hardware? What are the time spent by IT to support the users. How much are they actually saving?
MW: bring. Boulder, Colorado, bring it!
I wish that the parents would demand a study comparing total cost of ownership between both machines. Sadly if you don’t live in that district any emails/comments that are received will be ignored.
Eh, Windows PCs are better for the students to play games on anyways.
Lesson for students: Day 1.
Bureaucracy 101.
It’s better that you suffer a poor computer and dull tools because of short-sighted financial concerns rather than get a good quality education and learn the benefit of making the right decision – the first time.
MW: TAX
what will it take for school districts, businesses, the world to realize that Windows is not computing and there’s a fantastic alternative called the Mac that does pretty much everything Windows does but pleasantly better, faster, cheaper, more securely? What? WHAT?!?
School board members said the PC platform should free up time for technical support staff, allowing them to address computer problems faster. They also said it’s important for students without computers at home to learn how to use PCs. ‘The right decision has been made,’ said school board member Teresa Steele.”
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”LOL” style=”border:0;” /> 
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”LOL” style=”border:0;” />
What a joke! It is to laugh! PC’s will free up more time for the technical support staff?
I’m glad the parents and teachers spoke up but it’s to bad that the pig headed board which has no techical knowledge what’s so ever refuses to listen to reason.
They’ll pay big time for this mistake when there support staff will have to be tripled to keep up with all of the security issues,viruses,trojans, and spyware. Not to mention replacing all the software.
Check out http://www.bvsd.org with netcraft. They’re running windows server 2003. Ergo IT staff is likely deep in bed with MS.
Hope they the shame one day to admit their own self interest in the matter. . .
Very important advice!
If you don’t understand the word “substantive” but you do enjoy the word “sux” then you should probably not be representing the Mac community at all.
Bunk. Im sick of hearing this crap about kids have to use PC’s in order to compete in the future. It’s a stupid argument if you think about it, which they don’t.
1. Not all professions use Windows based PC’s
2. Even if they did, by the time kids get into the workforce, things will be drastically different anyway.
3. People need to learn to use applications, not an OS
4. We shouldnt be training a workforce whose primary daily task is administering to Windows issues.
5. How about teaching kids math, science, language, and history first, and make sure they get that right. Macs are the best teaching tools for the job.
Windows just gets in teh way of that task.
I’d also like to know what Macs they are replacing. My guess is that the systems are at least 8 years old, using OS9, and the age of the machines made the Mac platform appear to be underpowered and difficult to administer to.
MW lower, as in expectations.
“People aren’t stupid, they are just ignorant.” – HuskerMac.
Dumb (ignorant) is when people don’t know any better. Stupid is when they do know better.