- 2004.12.17
Dear Dr. Kleinlein and members of the Sarasota school board,
Don't you and the rest of the board wish this whole Mac vs. PC thing
would just go away so you could get on with the real business of
the school board? What a waste of time!
I have only one simple, nonpartisan question you can ask to settle
this thing once and for all. Please direct your IT staff to prepare a
specific report predicting how much money will be saved and how many
positions will be eliminated by switching to a single platform. A
simple question; it is the entire basis for this silly argument which
causes you to find your district featured in the newspapers and on
dozens (yes dozens) of web sites discussing the issue.
Make sure you have some folks, like Doug
Gilliliand, look over this report to make sure its assumptions
are reasonable. Perhaps Mr. Brooks at
the local paper could take a look as well. As a reporter I am sure he
would be interested in any public documents you have regarding this
matter. I would like to have a copy myself, as far as that goes,
because in all of my research on matters like these I have yet to see a
copy of any firm prediction from anyone, anywhere, that actually
details the savings such a single platform switch actually
engenders.
I have students working on many exciting science projects, such as
using giant telescopes in Arizona, taking pictures with a space
telescope, and doing original research on pictures taken of Mars by
space probes. I use Macs in my classroom, and, like your district, our
district has decided to stop purchasing Macs in order to make IT costs
go down and make it easier to manage the district's computers.
Currently our entire IT staff is working to reformat every PC on campus
due to a worm introduced to the network by a student. This work will
take several months. It will likely require overtime and possibly
additional staffing or work orders will begin to pile up and not be
fulfilled.
If your district is like mine, you will be surprised to find that no
such estimate actually exists prior to your asking for it; it will be
forthcoming when you ask (if you're lucky), but it will not include
staff reductions in the immediate future, which of course is the only
way to bring real savings to the district. You know and I know that 90%
of any district's budget is personnel. This isn't about market share,
as Mr. Brooks thinks; it's about money, isn't it? What's the bottom
line here?
A lack of any such report containing documented savings can only
lead you to the inevitable conclusion that it is somehow the
superintendent who is having an unreasonable preference for a platform,
whereas Mr. Gilliliand publicly supports having a multiplatform
environment and has nothing against Windows machines per se. It's
possible I'm wrong about this, but I don't think it is likely.
Until you have this information, you cannot reasonably be expected
to balance the cost savings vs. the educational price you will pay by
alienating and demoralizing your most expert teachers.
Isn't it the function of school leadership to enable teachers and
students to achieve greatness and then remove obstacles to this
success? Forcing your expert teachers to waste time on this issue takes
away from your students. Help them by resolving this once and for
all.
I am not writing at the request of Mr. Gilliliand; I've yet to
correspond with him directly. I'm simply trying to help you make this
all go away. It will, I think, if you follow my advice. Think of the
positive press you will gain by making your solution a model for other
districts around the country to follow. You're not the only district to
face this annoying problem. Believe me, I know.
Sincerely,
Jeff Adkins
Antioch Unified School District Teacher of the Year
Antioch, California
http://www.lowendmac.com/lab/
is a longtime Mac user. He was using digital sensors on Apple II computers in the 1980's and has networked computers in his classroom since before the internet existed. In 2006 he was selected at the California Computer Using Educator's teacher of the year. His students have used NASA space probes and regularly participate in piloting new materials for NASA. He is the author of two books and numerous articles and scientific papers. He currently teaches astronomy and physics in California, where he lives with his twin sons, Jony and Ben.< And there's still a Mac G3 in his classroom which finds occasional use.
