About six weeks ago I wrote about my visit to the CAST Summer Institute in July as part of
my preparations for my new job as Technology Coordinator at the Amber Charter School in New
York City. The school, I knew, had very little money, a donated mobile
lab of PC laptops, and a lot of hardworking, amibitious people who were
excited to be bringing a full-time technology person aboard to develop a
program for the school. Without any money to fund my decision, I
posited a hypothetical question to myself nonetheless: If I had the
means to do so, would I bring a fleet of Macs or PCs into my school, and
why? Which would be better for the students to learn on? What about the
teachers and administrators? Which would be easier for me to maintain,
and more flexible in terms of upgrading and anticipating future needs?
What if I was given a lump sum cash grant to do my purchasing with, what
then? Would Macs or PCs give my school more bang for the buck?
At the time, I didn't really have a good answer. I've always been a
Mac guy and hope I always will be. But I had to send my $2,000
PowerBook in for a new motherboard and hard drive just a year after I
bought it, so whenever I see an ad for those $699 Dell laptops, I can't
help but wonder: Are Macs really worth the money when cool is taken out
of the equation and giving kids the chance to learn is brought to the
fore?
Two weeks of training and setup and a week of classes later, I have
some new perspectives on the issue. Many of you wrote to persuade,
bash, or commend me in the wake of that article. I thank you for readng
and writing to me, and thank those of you who said it was okay to share
your thoughts on the matter in these pages. Long story short, Win XP is
nice but I'm still not sure how it compares (objectively) to OS X; the
school received another donation of 30 PC laptops which will be coming
in a few months, and; I spoke to an Apple Education sales rep who passed
me along to their "Grant Specialist," who's going to try to find us some
funding to bring some Macs to the school. I'll keep you updated.
And, oh yeah, I picked up a perfectly functional Epson Stylus 900
printer for five bucks at a tag sale. As of Friday, it was happily
installed in Miss Laurie's fourth grade classroom.
But enough out of me. Here's what you had to say about Macs in the
classroom:
Need Assistive Technology? Don't Upgrade!
Eric K. wrote in with this interesting commentary on the state of
assistive technology for OS X:
I just finished reading your article on Macs in the classroom,
and, while I'm a diehard Mac fan, I must admit that you made many good,
thoughtful points. I have a friend who works with assistive computing
technology for special needs students, and he, too has discovered that
there is a dearth of assistive technology available for OS X. The irony,
according to him, is that OS 9 had more solutions available than OS X.
Hopefully Apple will be working on these issues for the near
future.
Text-to-Speech
Several of you wrote to tell me that
Text-to-Speech is available for the Mac, and built into core
system-level services in OS X. You're right, but this isn't the issue
for me. There are several advanced, education-specific text-to-speech
programs that were demonstrated at CAST and are not available for the
Mac. My favorite that I've seen so far is the ---- Reading Bar, a
Windows-only IE plug-in that reads HTML text at varying speeds and with
user-controllable highlighting. Reading Bar also accepts AT&T's
high-quality Digital Voices, which are available in multi-lingual
accents. Reading Bar also features one-click text-to-mp3 conversion,
which is a great feature for converting Web sites to audio files
suitable for burning to CD (to send home with students for read-alongs).
Yes, Safari has built-in HTML text-to-speech capabilities, but no it
can't do all of these other things. The folks at CAST couldn't point me
to a Mac-compatible alternative, but a reader named Todd R. did:
Good article about the school dilemma. There is an alternative
for Macs, though. Granted, it's not a browser plug-in, but it can do
the same thing you're talking about with only a couple of extra steps.
Plus, it can be used with any selectable text, not just that in a web
page. I'm referring to Spoken Text
App. You could copy any text, paste it in, and create an audio file
for listening or burning. The only catch is that it uses the system
voice, so some work might need to go into making an even better system
voice. Anyway, I've used it for a couple different things. Kind of
fun! :)
A software engineer in Ohio wrote to tell me about a shareware app
called Audio
Hijack that can record any system sounds to an audio file. This
reader suggested that an AppleScript could be written to tell Safari (or
any other app) to select all text and then launch Audio Hijack and
command it to convert the selected text to a file. He went so far as to
suggest he might try writing the script himself (Are you still out
there? Let's see it!). The beauty of the Mac for him lies in this
ability to solve problems oneself:
Sometimes the lack of simple tools like the one above is easily
solved if companies or individual programmers know about the need. OS X
provides the building blocks to solve many problems quickly and easily,
but if articles like yours don't reach the people who recognize how easy
it would be, it will never get done.
Well, since I have the platform, I must pass along Michael C's tip
about some AppleScripts that have already been written to do the
job:
Try looking here: Text to
Speech Sound File Makers - Set of 4 AppleScripts. These are pre-made
AppleScripts that let you drag and drop text files to convert them to
spoken audio. Any text that you can copy and paste into a TextEdit file
should work with them.
Windows on a Mac? Sure! But Don't Try it the Other Way
An anonymous reader wrote in with some thoughts on the Mac's ability to
emulate Windows and the "myth" that there's more software out there for
PCs than Macs. Though I believe his points about Mac security are
starting to change with the advent of UNIX worms that can attack OS X,
it is still a point well taken:
Dear Sir, "Too much out there only for Windows?" Ah, but that's a
big mistake. You can run all Windows programs on a Mac thanks to
Connectix/Microsoft VirtualPC making everything from DOS to Windows XP
Macintosh compatible. What's more you can only emulate up to Mac OS 8.1
on a Windows machine.
Macintosh software? Look no further than here
Macintosh support groups and developers? Look no further than here
People who claim there isn't enough out there for the Mac are hiding
behind the iron curtain. What's more, is your data valuable to you?
Don't try to let your computer on the net if you are running Windows.
Look at reports like this. When was the
last time Macs were attacked? The security of Microsoft's software is
so bad it makes Windows users look at us Mac users in envy.
Platform Wars in the Schools?
I was very pleased to hear from so many fellow educators. One reader
who works in a state-level Department of Education went into a little
more depth on the platform wars issue:
I work in Instructional Technology at the [State name withheld
by request] Dept. of Education. For the most part, it does seem that
districts have gone the Windows route. As a matter of fact, our office
switched to PC's last year.
It is difficult for me to separate my emotions for Apple vs.
practicality. In my position here at the DOE I have to be impartial with
regard to platform. But in my personal experience, I still find PC's
incredibly difficult to learn to use and troubleshoot. Yes, XP and OS X
are somewhat similar in appearance, but learning how to manipulate
photos and video is still so much easier and elegant on a Mac than a PC.
If I were running a district technology program, I would still insist on
a mix of platforms depending on what I want the students to learn. If
there was a strong audio or video part to what they are learning, I
would budget for Macs. I think the key is really what technology can
best get the content across to the students. In some cases it may be
PC's, and others it may be Macs.
There are so many technical and security issues with PC's that you do
not have with Macs. I am rarely able to figure out why my work PC is
having glitches, and this is not due to inexperience with PC's. I've had
a lot of experience with both platforms, and I generally am able to
figure out most Mac problems on my own, whereas there are many PC issues
I can't figure out even with a book. Time is money too, and that's
another factor which I'm sure many other Mac users will attest to. Macs
are by no means perfect, but I still think they are a far cry better in
terms of ease of use.
Another reader who wished to remain anonymous shared this story from
the trenches:
I work for IBM. I have been programming Macs since 1984. Also in
that time I have worked on and programmed almost every os/hardware
platform out there (not just Windows and Mac, many version of
Unix/Motif, Linux/all sorts of window systems, etc). I have used Windows
as my desktop for many years while having Macs at home. I get to listen
to all the conversations people at work have with the problems with
their computers.... and these are technical people. Frankly, I use my
Mac's because they work. I have never had the problems with System x or
OS X on my macs that I have on my boxes at work. I have also had some
very nice hardware at work, IBM Thinkpads, high end PC's, etc. Again, my
experience with those is not as good as with the Macs I have at home.
I know all the stories of lot's of software. Yes, some of it is good,
but most of it is crap. There is nothing I can't do on my Mac that I can
do on a Windows box. The other interesting thing for the education
environment is that since the Mac is now on a Unix base, it really is a
much more open system for learning on.
Yes, you have been brainwashed! There are some cool games on Windows
that you can't get on the Mac, but I don't suppose that is what you want
to be doing at school anyway! As for the excuse of 'extra' cost, I am
not sure that you can really afford to go any other way. As with any
purchase, it is not just the initial price, but the total cost of
ownership. Your iBook will last you longer than any other Windows based
machine you get. Make sure you factor that into your costs.
Anyway, I pretty much have always tried to stay out of the platform
wars! I continue to use Macs because they work, and over time they are
more affordable.
Short Term vs. Long Term costs
This reader was one of
several educators who wrote in about their long term satisfaction with
Macs:
As a higher education professional, I have had the
opportunity to work with both platforms in lab situations. There is no
doubt that Windows boxes can do the same thing as Mac boxes
cheaper...INITIALLY. However, when it comes to the extensive problems
that often plague windows machines, particularly in a networked
environment, then the cost over the LONG TERM is not different at all.
Another reader is placing his bets on Apple's move to UNIX, a
platform backed by a strong open-source community:
I read your
column on PowerBookCentral with interest. I can appreciate you went into
it open-minded. But I think you came out of it sold on the software and
not the platform. You need to consider the platform for the long
haul.
And that brings up a more relevant point. Apple's shares their OS
source code, encouraging developers to improve upon it. That makes it
easy for new and improved features to be invented. Compare this to the
vendor you are looking at, who have so much invested in a plug-in
[Reading Bar] that only works with IE on a PC. They've bet their
company on that...and have access to say 95% of the people out there.
That's how Microsoft is going to continue to "win", but that doesn't
mean it's the best solution. You are smart enough to at least know
better.
For instance, your generalizations are questionable. Windows
machines are more widespread, thus a bigger market. But it's not only
competition that drives innovation; a good environment also fosters
innovation. That's why OS X is succeeding for Apple. There are more
Windows applications, but you can't be sure about the "for less money";
there are plenty of shareware developers for Mac OS X that are building
some extrordinarily useful small applications...
...All I'm saying is you have choices with the Mac, and I believe you
can find the software you need to teach effectively. Personally, I
think the Mac operating system is better for the long run. Numerous
times a day I am approached to help solve Windows problems, and helpdesk
is not my job. I can usually explain why it's misbehaving, and it's a
design flaw of Windows. Furthermore it's something the typical computer
user can't comprehend or fix themselves. XP is nice, but the underlying
operating system has gotten out of control for the ordinary computer
user to keep in check.
Continue on to page two.
