Mike Wendland reports
in today's Detroit Free Press, "Michigan's grand vision of equipping
every sixth-grade student in the state with a laptop computer may be no
more."
Once the nation's most ambitious program for putting laptops in the
hands of students, the Freedom to Learn program has been a great
success, according to teachers in schools where it has been
implemented.
Jim Bembenek of the Berrien County Intermediate School District in
southwest Michigan states, "I've been an educator for 39 years. I have
seen nothing like this technology to improve grades and improve
motivation and improve discipline in the classroom."
Although intended to benefit 130,000 sixth-grade students, at
present only 20,357 students an enrolled in the program, along with
1,200 teachers. It works, but it hasn't spread far enough - nor is it
likely to.
Unfortunately, national and state economies are in a shambles. The
budget for the $21 million program was to be covered by $3.7 million
from the state and $17.3 million from federal coffers. The feds cut
their contribution "by almost $13 million" - and there's no way for the
state to make up the difference.
Michigan has fallen on hard times. Once dominated by auto
manufacturing, with a strong furniture industry (Steelcase, Haworth,
Herman Miller) on the west side of the state and great tourism during
summer months, Michigan now has the highest unemployment rate in the
nation.
The state budget is a disaster. Cuts have been made all over the
place, and hopes for a gasoline tax break haven't materialized. Here in
Grand Rapids, the city has closed city parks; there's no money to
maintain or supervise them.
What Can Apple Do?
Students who receive laptops are more motivated - motivated to learn
the technology and use it to do research and write papers. Teachers are
thrilled with the results, but this successful program may fail due to
a lack of funds.
The program currently uses an HP laptop with wireless, and there are
no other details about it in Wendland's Free Press article.
HP's cheapest laptop is the ze200. By using a slower CPU (1.3 GHz
vs. 1.5 GHz) and dropping to a paltry 256 MB of RAM (which most users
consider hopelessly inadequate with Windows XP), we can get the price
down to US$649 after rebate.
Figure a 20% or greater education discount, and we're looking at
about US$500.
You've got to wonder if Apple could go after this market.
You'd want to leverage this from an existing design, such as the
12" iBook G4, which
retails for US$999 with 256 MB of RAM, a 40 GB hard drive, internal
AirPort Extreme, and a Combo drive. Or $949 for educators.
Or $899 with a CD-ROM drive and no AirPort Extreme card - isn't that
a horrible deal? The AirPort Extreme card sells for $71 to educators,
but by giving up wireless networking, the ability to burn CDs, and the
ability to watch DVDs, Apple only provides a $50 break.
But what if Apple got really creative and configured a very
affordable iBook just for large education buyers? Instead of 1.2 GHz,
drop in a slower CPU. Skip the CD-ROM or Combo drive completely and
offer a free external Combo drive with every 10 iBooks purchased.
Think different. Leave out the modem - or at least allow schools to
say no to it. Use a lower-capacity battery even if it means the kids
have to charge their iBooks during their lunch breaks to make it to the
end of the day. Offer a version without AirPort Extreme for schools
that are wired.
If it can save a bit more money, use 16 MB of memory with the
graphics system. Maybe even leave out the AC adapter/charger, providing
the school with a power source that can charge four iBooks at once or a
dock that can hold eight iBooks for charging at once.
Basically, if it isn't integrated into the logic board, make it
optional. Give each school the opportunity to customize the iBook for
their own needs - and their own budget.
Could Apple sell a stripped 12" iBook G4/933 in the US$500 range
(assuming quantity purchases)? Or should Apple do something
different?
Sell the Mac
Apple can probably come within striking distance on price, but
that's not going to give Apple an advantage. Apple needs to find a deal
maker - and here it is: the school's IT budget.
Apple should send some analysts into the field to research just how
many IT professionals a school needs to support 200 Windows computers
vs. 200 Macs vs. 100 of each. If a school can trim $30,000 a year from
their IT budget, they've just covered the cost of 50 $600 laptop
computers.
Stress the point that you can't save on IT overhead by sticking with
Windows, while eliminating one IT salary (or perhaps sharing a smaller
IT staff among more schools) could equip a classroom or two every
year.
Best of all, Apple appears to be the only vendor with a portable
designed for the education market rather than repurposing a home or
business laptop. The iBook is designed to weather a little abuse.
Add to all of that the fact that Macs don't currently get viruses,
and you have a dream computer for education.
With a program like that, perhaps Michigan's sixth graders will be
able to keep their laptops (the original goal of the program) without
depriving next years sixth graders of portable computers.
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