In education, it seems that there has to be an official
statement of computer use, whether the school wants to use Macs,
PCs, or both - but officially stating that they use Macs and
actually keeping the Macs maintained are two different things.
Obviously, the computers should be upgraded as needed with current
software installed.
It seems as if hardware and software purchases have been
combined in some schools, where upgrading software seems to require
the purchase of new hardware to go with it. Sounds good, right?
When the next version of a software application comes out, you'd
presumably get the latest hardware to run it. Right? Nope. To save
money, it seems that they just take a couple years longer to
purchase the new hardware.
Now that doesn't sound too bad, right? Well, to save a little
more money, they decide not to upgrade some of their software and
just use the old versions on newer machines. This wouldn't be bad
either, except you have to remember that they haven't touched their
previous computers or software for five or six years - then expect
all that software that worked on System 7.1 and 7.5 to work
perfectly on OS 8.6 and 9.x.
Some software will, but it seems that too many educational
programs and games don't like to function in newer operating
environments than they were designed for. Some titles that come to
mind are the Carmen Sandiego series and older versions of the Sim
series. These aren't bad games, but there are newer versions
available for use on newer computers.
However, what seemed to happen a couple years back in the middle
school here in town was that all software titles that were
installed on the old machines were installed on the new ones. Of
course, none of them were actually tested to make sure they worked.
When 5th grade students clicked on one, they would promptly get a
bomb on the screen instructing them to restart the computer. For a
5th grader (or anyone, actually), it's frustrating to go through
five or six applications and have to restart after opening each one
because they aren't compatible with the newer OS.
Word eventually gets out that 90% of the applications installed
on the computers don't work, leaving you with the choice of
ClarisWorks 4.0 (still compatible with OS 9, although it seems
surprising that version 4.0 would be chosen over the 5.0 that came
with the computers), SimCity 2000, or some type of Number Munchers
that works only if you don't click in some obscure little box
somewhere on the screen that you aren't likely to click on when you
aren't paying attention.
Please, this is not how school computing should be, especially
not for 5th graders. Software should be kept up to date and should
be identical on all machines. Having one machine running Mac OS
8.5, another running 8.5.1, another running 8.6, and yet another
running 8.1 helps no one, especially when trying to determine what
applications work on what computers. Applications should be tested
on the computers to verify their compatibility before they are
actually put out for student use.
I was in 8th grade when I had to suffer through this, and while
it really bothered me, at least I understood why these applications
wouldn't run. Most other students assumed that it must have
something to do with the computers being different colors
(tangerine, strawberry, lime, blueberry, and Bondi blue) or because
the computers have that little Apple logo on them. It's amazing
what some 8th graders think cause computer problems.
And it's not just the students. I used to hear many teachers
talk about how crash-happy these Macs were, and how if the school
bought such and such type of PC, they wouldn't have a problem. Of
course that is untrue. As long as they use outdated applications on
a modern OS, they will have problems - no matter the platform.
Keeping computers in a school working well is necessary, but
keeping up with the times is also important. There's no excuse to
be running an iMac with 32 MB of RAM and OS 8.5. With RAM so cheap
these days, there is no excuse not to buy some, and OS 8.5 can be
freely updated to 8.6 via Apple's website. It can updated to OS 9.1
or 9.2 relatively inexpensively.
I understand that this costs time, but what's more important, a
few hours doing a network install of OS 9 and snapping in
another 128 MB of RAM so that the students will have a better
computing experience or wandering around the school finding some
teachers to help with printer problems? (It seems teachers always
have printer problems. If there is a teacher around, there is a
printer problem to be fixed.)
After all, what are the computers in a school computer lab for?
Learning. Who does the learning? The students. Keeping the
computers working well and fully updated will greatly contribute to
the major focus of helping the student to learn efficiently and
effectively.
