News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
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Imagine you're a principal in our deep northern state, concerned to get the best for your staff. You note that the Queensland state government has introduced a "Computers for Teachers" program. Bravo. Good to see that this teaching and learning tool is being recognised as essential.
The program gives an option for a Windows or a Mac laptop in a seemingly ecumenical way. I write “seemingly” because there are traps: traps that make it difficult — some would say impossible — to get a Mac for members of your staff.
As principal, the first thing you have to do is to mount a "business case" for the provision of said laptop. First, your pesky, Mac-using teachers need to satisfy the eligibility requirements for the Computers for Teachers Initiative. That's a fair request, and one that would appear to be self evident. Perhaps this is simply an product of the bureaucracy, but read further.
You can't allocate a Mac to a teacher because of his or her individual preference, but only on a needs basis according to the nature of their teaching duties. Apparently there are some subjects that are more acceptable than others. Education Queensland makes the suggestion that the Mac-requiring teacher is probably teaching music or perhaps an Asian Language. It does add the catchall of "etc" for other subjects, but it's unclear (as “etc” always is) as to what may qualify here. Perhaps Art, or FTV, etc.
Second: "It is expected that teachers in these roles would already be using an Apple computer in the performance of their teaching duties" No switchers here.
Third, your school quota of computers must already consist of at least 10 percent Apple computers before consideration can be made for a Mac, so no change to the monoculture is allowed — if you don't already have them you can't get one. Sound like marginalisation? Or just silliness?
OK, you could raise an argument that a mixture of Macs and PCs is more difficult to manage and maintain than a single platform (I don't believe it is) but, even if this were the case, getting above the 10 percent threshold would help, not hinder. Your technical support would be less inclined to view the different machines as marginal, different and hence difficult. They become part of the landscape.
But the best example of bureaucracy gone crazy, the absolute best, is the fourth requirement: "The Principal should be satisfied that a replacement teacher will also require an Apple MacBook when taking over the particular teaching role" (my italics).
I'd suggest they need a fifth requirement to help satisfy the fourth: "Only prescient Principals should apply".
How else could anyone state that, should his or her renegade Asian language teacher who wants a Mac suddenly resign, their replacement will have a similar bent in their computing platform of choice?
Allowing this sort of nonsense to persist is crazy. Does Queensland expect its principals to have crystal balls? Or perhaps we could leave out the crystal part. Principals of Queensland: you need to do something about this.
Or is there a lack of principals in Queensland?
wrote on May 7, 2008 8:17 PM
You are spot on, Martin. I satisfy 3 of the 4 criteria but still cannot lay claim to a Macbook. The department in which I operate is exclusively Mac (Film and Television) but we only run 10 eMacs; far from the required 10% of total school computers. My Principal would be fine with our department's 3 teachers having Macbooks but cannot justify it under condition 3. Sheer lunacy!
wrote on May 7, 2008 10:27 PM
I'd say "you must be kidding". However I live in this part of the world and I know your not. Sadly the powers that be just don't get education or how it could be run creatively and effectively without threatening the rotation of the earth!
wrote on May 8, 2008 1:11 AM
wrote on May 8, 2008 7:37 AM
"Qld - The Smart State" in action again! The fact that this kind of thinking s so prevalent throughout Qld Government (and the fact that they have to remind us so often that we are the smart state) just goes to show that they aren't!
wrote on May 8, 2008 8:53 AM
OK. 'Smart State' concept needs to be understood at bureaucratic (Departmental) level. Campaign Minister and local MPs; check state government priorities in terms of education and make a strong case. Rage against this mindlessness.
wrote on May 8, 2008 9:24 PM
Don't let DET NSW read this they have enough dimwit ideas of their own. Their preferred option IWB doesn't even come with mac software. However they have allowed a Mac evangelist to roam the traps doing a blast of a Garage BAnd presentation. SHould have seen the PC guys drool.
wrote on May 10, 2008 1:11 AM
All your points are valid on how silly this is but I want to go up one level in the thinking here. While I absolutely support the position that teachers are underpaid I fail to believe that it is unreasonable to expect a teacher to invest $2,000 (pre-tax) in their own laptop (remember it is both a salary sacrifice item and a tax deduction as a work expense) even given their low wages. How exactly someone who claims to be training the future citizens can have got to 2008 without deciding they need to invest in a computer to aid in this is beyond me. What is the state of things in Qld Education where a "Computers for Teachers" program is still required to equip teachers with a basic tool of their jobs. I get paid less than a fully qualified teacher and have to supply my own laptop. I don't object to that and neither do the vast majority of teachers I have met who long ago equipped themselves with their laptop of choice. It's a tough world and we do have to invest in ourselves and our own work tools and the minority of teachers who haven't already realised this need a wake-up call to the facts of modern life and not wait for the idiots who create policies like the one rightly criticised here to gift them what they should have got for themselves. It's pretty much expected that uni students will have a lappy nowadays and if they can be expected to make that investment that then a employed teacher does need to consider how they justify not having invested in their professional toolkit already.
wrote on May 11, 2008 11:21 AM
wrote on May 11, 2008 12:00 PM
I agree with Duncan. Why is a computer (especially a laptop) any different from the car that gets the teachers to work? Or the clothes they wear? Or the fact they are expected to pay for the qualifications which gets them their job in the first place. The quantum of pay is a separate issue.
wrote on May 11, 2008 10:40 PM
It's actually worse than this. My 6 yo son goes to a QLD school, and presently there are 7 macs in his classroom, 2 old powerbooks, 3 x G3 iMacs, an eMac, and the teacher has a powerbook. The teacher uses the Macs quite a lot, and they are quite reliable. Recently, however, the interim principal has decided to accept a deal through the department to "upgrade" the school to PCs "because Apple wouldn't come to the party on price". I found out the PCs are Dell Celerons, and of course there is no software with them which is why they are cheap, so now the P&C has to raise money for software. I've made the principal aware that I think she's made an error, the teacher's not happy (to say the least), but the real clanger, is that the dept will not provide IT support for the Macs but will for the PCs. I also heard the comment that Dell and Microsoft do put on lovely lunches with their roadshows as well. Come on Apple shout some teachers lunch while explaining why Macs are more cost effective, and get into IT training in TAFE's so more IT techs know about Macs.
wrote on May 13, 2008 11:41 AM
Blame Apple's greed. Apple dropped the education marked years ago. There was a network of resellers who built strong relationships with schools and Apple cut them off. If it can't do the deal at the corporate level, it can't be bothered. Those resellers provided support and many other 'intangibles' which don't appear on a spreadsheet. Apple's current parlous presence in what was once it's strongest market segment is entirely of their own making. Maybe the young, deprived of a Mac at an early age, will grow up strong and successful and buy truckloads of MacBook Airs in gratitude.
wrote on May 15, 2008 9:04 PM
There are only 6800 macs in Qld state schools now, six years ago there were over 15000. Yes, Apple dropped its Education bundle at a time when funding for schools became available to enable a computer/student ratio of 1:7.5. We cabled our classrooms with 4 data points (4 X 7.5 = 28 - the official class size). Within two years this ratio was raised to 1:5. The "boxes for the bucks" dominated and still dominates thinking in primary schools. No account is taken of the differing demands on a computers across the year levels. Do our Prep classes need the identically configured computers as our year 7s? This common denominator has created a settlement on mediocrity as the standard in my school. At the time of this expansion principals in larger schools have chosen the Teacher/Librarian as the ICT coordinator in their schools. In mine the T/L has three DAYS non-contact time a week. No qualification is required to occupy this position and unfortunately it can be taken up by refugees from the classroom who have little idea of good teaching practice and the ICT underpinnings this requires. This leaves little room for factual evaluation of school needs and direction. Little consideration is given to economic sustainability issues - Return on Investment and Total Cost of Ownership. I'm convinced a Mac straight out of the box is the best educational tool I can use to engage my students in meaningful curriculum activities (I learn as much from them as they do from me). Without this meaningful engagement I will become irrelevant in their real learning experiences - I don't like that idea - it's not why I became a teacher. Am I being unprofessional by saying this ? I no longer care. In a "difficult" school as anywhere it is "easier to catch flies with honey than vinegar". I'll engage students any way I can. I won't do it on a $500 box and solitaire as the only lure. Enterprise Platform is the EdQld and Microsoft terminology used on the EQ website. While many pages state the equal acceptance of mac and win computers in Qld schools - the fineprint as Martin has exposed reveals otherwise - a long and determined program to remove macs from our schools - and more specifically, mine. How do you think we Mac-using educators in Qld feel?
wrote on August 27, 2008 8:23 AM
I think you will find that, in reality, it is no where near this hard to get a Mac on C4T. The rules that are in place are really a means of getting schools to think "is this needed for building education in our school or is it just personal choice?" To be honest, if you have very few Macs, you can still apply and I've seen people get it, you just have to have an honest need for it. It is important to keep two things in mind: 1) the Mac option costs the Queensland Government more than the Windows PC solution; and 2) the computer is attached to the position and not the person so, if the teacher who wanted the Mac leaves, it gets given to the next teacher who comes along whether they know mac or not. And you can't put the MOE on these computers either; at time of writing there is no Windows solution for Mac that works on the EQ MOE. Do I think that every teacher should have a Mac? Well sure, I wouldn't be reading MacWorld if I didn't love the product but I think we all have to try to understand the issues on the other side of the fence. There are plenty of examples where EQ have shown themselves to be reasonable on this issue, lets all do the same.
I have three cats, and one MacBook. You’d think that pure numerical superiority would be enough for the cats to feel confident in their lot — but that’s not entirely the case. Even the fact that the MacBook is only portable where the felines are fully mobile isn’t enough for them. You see, I’ve come to the conclusion that at least one of my cats is — there is no better word — envious of my MacBook.
Alex Kidman | Dec 10, 2007
The International Society for Technology in Education aims for students investigating coherences by themselves - learning by doing leads to real understanding.
Martin Levins | Dec 10, 2007
Many decades ago, there was a linoleum layer’s apprentice. For the sake of personality, let’s call him Alf. Like most apprentices, Alf was given all the tedious, noisy, potentially painful jobs that nobody else wanted to do. On one particular day in 1962, Alf was given the job of nailing down a large Masonite board to some timber, in preparation for some truly hideous lino to be set down. Alf was bored, Alf was feeling rebellious, and Alf knew it would be a long time before anyone spotted what he was up to — so he went nuts. Spiral patterns of staples, double, triple and quadruple staples — this board wasn’t going to come up without a fight.
Alex Kidman | Dec 10, 2007
The MacBook range is second-rate for internet access, and it’s high time Apple did something about it. OK, perhaps that’s a bit unfair. On WiFi or Ethernet, the MacBook is a fine internet access device -- Draft 802.11n and all that -- but what if you’re out on the road? In an era when just about every notebook manufacturer offers several models with inbuilt mobile broadband capabilities, Apple’s notebooks are notably devoid of this handy option.
Dan Warne | Jan 7, 2008
As I type these words, I am waiting for Apple's Developer Connection web site to ease up sufficiently for me to download the long-awaited Software Developer Kit for the iPhone (and iPod touch, just by the by). In a way, I hate developer-oriented announcements — "here's a really cool thing we're working on, and it's available now, and hoi polloi can have it in about six months". Actually, it's the six months I hate.
