Dateline: 03/26/97 - by Walter H. Horowitz, Vice President, NoteSys, Inc.
In one of the Internet mailing lists I follow, EDTECH, there has been a recent flurry of Macintosh vs. IBM PC compatible (a.k.a. Wintel for Windows/Intel) discussion. While in most markets, use of Wintel format computer far exceeds the use of Macintosh computers, education has not been one of them. I don't remember the original question, someone was asking about switching sides and it created a long running argument as to the future of Macintosh computers.
This column is and always has been about using computers a new way in schools. We need to move from having computers as something you learn about in a lab or have on the side of the room to having them integrated fully as tools in the classroom. I am sure that this is appropriate in middle and secondary schools. I have met educators who want to bring this concept all the way down to kindergarten, but I am sure that children are ready for their own machine by the time they are in fourth grade. There is no room on every desk for a desktop computer, so the only way we can have all of these computers in school is to use laptop computers.
Laptop schools, or schools that have established programs where every student has a laptop computer, exist using both Macintosh and Wintel computers. The Suffield Academy is an example of a school that uses Macintosh laptop computers, but they are in the minority. In most cases, the laptop computer that is bought for school will have to take the place of the desktop computer that many families would buy at home. Most schools cannot afford to buy a computer for everyone. In many communities, a majority of students have computers at home for their use by the time they graduate high school. In order to afford to create laptop schools, we need the support of the families who will be buying computers for their children and get them to purchase an appropriate machine for use in school. We will not get this support if this computer won't do the other things they want, including playing games and connecting to the Internet.
This brings me back to my original point. We can't have educators fighting over which is the better platform. Computers aren't going to become cheap enough for us to ask for one to be bought just for school. We will need to put our arguments as to which is better aside and accept that the computer that people want at home is the computer we will ask them to bring to school. Today, this means a Wintel computer. If you are a teacher used to using a Mac, it is time to learn the new tool, even if your Mac is better.
If you are interested in joining the EDTECH mailing list, send a email message to LISTSERV@MSU.EDU. The body of your message should be "SUBSCRIBE EDTECH your name". Of course you don't include the quotes and change the name unless your name really is your name. Be prepared, you may get as many as 30 messages a day from this list.
You can visit the EDTECH WWW Archive site and search through the messages there.