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Teachers and mac book pro
- Thread starter toblerboy
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MacBooks have been discontinued. MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs are the only Mac notebooks being sold now.
Get them the cheapest macbooks you can find. Apple rep will give you significant discount that'll make it easier to deal with.
Don't bother with macbook pros. Before long you'll get teachers demanding 27" thunderbolt displays and disks for "learning purposes".
Nah, you can still get them from @pple if you're EDU.
http://store.apple.com/1-800-800-AP...ily/macbook&wosid=smGJ5icS86Z92hrgb9R1DSAjrsj
Don't bother with macbook pros. Before long you'll get teachers demanding 27" thunderbolt displays and disks for "learning purposes".
Nah, you can still get them from @pple if you're EDU.
http://store.apple.com/1-800-800-AP...ily/macbook&wosid=smGJ5icS86Z92hrgb9R1DSAjrsj
Thanks - so Macbook Air will be the cheapest then I presume?
I have been given the task to investigate just because I have a 2007 old macbook - they think I am mega tech! It is hardly the case!!
We will be ready to install whole-school ready for sept 2012 but I am getting slightly confused as to what functions exactly match our demands.
I think the advice of 'go for the cheapest possible' might be the best way forward!
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oops - thanks eddieisgreat - just saw your section that said you can still get macbooks for edu....
Sounds the best option.
I have been given the task to investigate just because I have a 2007 old macbook - they think I am mega tech! It is hardly the case!!
We will be ready to install whole-school ready for sept 2012 but I am getting slightly confused as to what functions exactly match our demands.
I think the advice of 'go for the cheapest possible' might be the best way forward!
----------
oops - thanks eddieisgreat - just saw your section that said you can still get macbooks for edu....
Sounds the best option.
About 3 years ago my school (in the UK) introduced iMacs, replacing our 200 strong army of Dell PCs.
I don't know why they introduced iMacs as there wasn't any software for the Mac that we started to use in our learning, apart from the Music dept. that used Garage band.
Shouldn't your IT dept. or Tech support have better knowledge on the subject as well.
If you are specifically looking for notebooks then I would go with the Mac Book. The performance will easily meet student's needs and the design is more robust than that of the Mac Book Pro.
I would also recommend looking at what software your school uses. Server hardware, learning software etc and if this is compatible with Mac.
I know my school uses an Edexcel 360 science learning disk which is the disk version of the GCSE science textbook and this isn't compatible with Mac.
I don't know why they introduced iMacs as there wasn't any software for the Mac that we started to use in our learning, apart from the Music dept. that used Garage band.
Shouldn't your IT dept. or Tech support have better knowledge on the subject as well.
If you are specifically looking for notebooks then I would go with the Mac Book. The performance will easily meet student's needs and the design is more robust than that of the Mac Book Pro.
I would also recommend looking at what software your school uses. Server hardware, learning software etc and if this is compatible with Mac.
I know my school uses an Edexcel 360 science learning disk which is the disk version of the GCSE science textbook and this isn't compatible with Mac.
Hi Mr Bullett
Yes, our ICT dept are highly involved in this, but I am the SMT member in charge of this.
We have a new head of ICT who swears by Mac and this is why we are looking into it. However, he is extolling the virtues of macbook pros as opposed to macbooks, and whilst our budget at this time is not overly tight (for several fortunate reasons), macbook pros would be a much more pricey venture so I wanted to get other people's opinions on this.
It is interesting to note that most people vote for the macbook - this is not about money per se, it is more about value for money. At the moment, there does not seem to be a massive selling point for the macbook pros- they dont seem to be revolutionary different to the macbooks.
Yes, our ICT dept are highly involved in this, but I am the SMT member in charge of this.
We have a new head of ICT who swears by Mac and this is why we are looking into it. However, he is extolling the virtues of macbook pros as opposed to macbooks, and whilst our budget at this time is not overly tight (for several fortunate reasons), macbook pros would be a much more pricey venture so I wanted to get other people's opinions on this.
It is interesting to note that most people vote for the macbook - this is not about money per se, it is more about value for money. At the moment, there does not seem to be a massive selling point for the macbook pros- they dont seem to be revolutionary different to the macbooks.
Our school is looking at getting Macbook Airs (11 inch) 64gb or 128gb i'm not quite sure, but I think 128gb would be a much better option. They used to get MacBooks, which were fine. Media teachers had to have Macbook Pros to support the heavier work load though.
Depending on how big your school is you will want to make sure that you have the right wireless infrastructure to support the MacBooks as I assume they will be used heavily for internet. When we first got ours the Wifi network could only handle something like 30 per access point and with 1200 students and like 20 access points not all students are able to use the Wifi network at once. Which is a big problem if you have blocks of class rooms where there may be 100 kids and one router. Something to think about. (maybe)
Depending on how big your school is you will want to make sure that you have the right wireless infrastructure to support the MacBooks as I assume they will be used heavily for internet. When we first got ours the Wifi network could only handle something like 30 per access point and with 1200 students and like 20 access points not all students are able to use the Wifi network at once. Which is a big problem if you have blocks of class rooms where there may be 100 kids and one router. Something to think about. (maybe)
He is certainly right to swear by Macs!
I think Mac Books are certainly better value of money, especially now they have been discontinued + you'll receive educational discount I would imagine. In terms of spec, yes the Mac Book Pro is more powerful, but for you needs it would be a pointless to spend the extra money.
On the other hand, maybe the Mac Book Pro will last longer as it is newer and more powerful.
Decisions, decisions, decisions!
Slightly jealous of your situation. For laptops our school resorted to using Dell Netbooks with 1GB of RAM and a poxy Intel Atom processor! Not great!
Mr Bullett
I am no computer whizz (as you can probably tell) but I don't envy your position with Dells! My partner had one once.....she didnt have it for very long!!!
The debate raged on at school - looks like we are back on for macbook pros!
I am no computer whizz (as you can probably tell) but I don't envy your position with Dells! My partner had one once.....she didnt have it for very long!!!
The debate raged on at school - looks like we are back on for macbook pros!
For me it would depend on needs and budget. Who will be using the computers and what are their expected computing needs? What is the price/computer budget?
For general computing uses, any of them will be fine. I do find the Macbook Airs to be quite impressive. They are fast, light, sturdy and a pleasure to use. They do, however cost more than the macbooks. If I was getting Airs, my inclination would be to go for the 13" 128GB base model. However, you can get 3 white MBs for the price of 2 Airs.
I don't see a need for Macbook Pros unless the user is involved in audio/video production.
For general computing uses, any of them will be fine. I do find the Macbook Airs to be quite impressive. They are fast, light, sturdy and a pleasure to use. They do, however cost more than the macbooks. If I was getting Airs, my inclination would be to go for the 13" 128GB base model. However, you can get 3 white MBs for the price of 2 Airs.
I don't see a need for Macbook Pros unless the user is involved in audio/video production.
Hi wrinkster
The more I look into this; the more I personally believe that macbooks are the way forward; but the ICT dept really want macbook pros - the problem is i am not au fait with some of the terminology they use - but they assure me macbook pros are better; im not convinced.
The more I look into this; the more I personally believe that macbooks are the way forward; but the ICT dept really want macbook pros - the problem is i am not au fait with some of the terminology they use - but they assure me macbook pros are better; im not convinced.
Times have changed...
I'm in my 15th year as an educator and I remember a time when Apple had a firm hold of the education market. The only time there is an Apple computer on our campus is when staff brings one with them.
On the other hand, I have an iPad and a iPhone 4 both issued by the district. Interesting....
I'm in my 15th year as an educator and I remember a time when Apple had a firm hold of the education market. The only time there is an Apple computer on our campus is when staff brings one with them.
On the other hand, I have an iPad and a iPhone 4 both issued by the district. Interesting....
My only issue when I rolled out mac into the school I used to run in the ICT department was getting the students and teachers to use them, our mistakes where going down the server route and this was a massive mistake, don't bother with Mac serve honestly in a school even a secondary school it was just a waist of money not to mention all of the issues we had with connecting it to the domain to get the user logins to work.
The problem with apples as they where then was they where not as automatic as I would have liked and lots of configuring had to be done locally as apposed to being instant.
Roll out of software was another issue backups are double the size on the SAN due to the Mac's hdd's being bigger than citrix terminals.
Citrix virtual station fails to work correctly on Mac until you reinstall it so you essentially have double the work load by going mac.
Your best bet and the best advice I can give you is, buy some iMacs and Mac compatible NAS backup device, reserve IP's for them on your domain controller, but don't bother adding them to the domain with a network installation as no one will use it anyway and your students will moan about them as well as some misinformed teachers, don't worry about software license as you will get site licences anyway and you will have to install the software locally anyway even if there on the network. Just open an iMac suite and don't bother network building the macs but back them up to a NAS solution.
If you would like to hear our issues PM me.
The problem with apples as they where then was they where not as automatic as I would have liked and lots of configuring had to be done locally as apposed to being instant.
Roll out of software was another issue backups are double the size on the SAN due to the Mac's hdd's being bigger than citrix terminals.
Citrix virtual station fails to work correctly on Mac until you reinstall it so you essentially have double the work load by going mac.
Your best bet and the best advice I can give you is, buy some iMacs and Mac compatible NAS backup device, reserve IP's for them on your domain controller, but don't bother adding them to the domain with a network installation as no one will use it anyway and your students will moan about them as well as some misinformed teachers, don't worry about software license as you will get site licences anyway and you will have to install the software locally anyway even if there on the network. Just open an iMac suite and don't bother network building the macs but back them up to a NAS solution.
If you would like to hear our issues PM me.
I abandoned OS X serve and switched to the centrify suite for domain auth and group policy to mac. I couldn't have machines just hanging out like that. How do you guys handle AAA ? I'm sure there is some security/compliance issue with such a setup.
Anything on there domain was handled by smart cache this causes keychain issues when going on safari this was my major gripe with there setup, eventually there OS X serve done nothing anyway as they where build onto the windows domain network thus making apple serve sit and do nothing, the only problem being is that when you first switch the Mac's on they took way to long to register that they where on the domain.
This is a problem when it comes to students as they are not patient at all, to me it hardly seemed worth the pain considering they where only going to be using garageband and iMovie act, my solution in a primary school I set up was to create one admin user and one restricted user this user was only able to start up selected software, this was for the students, any work they done was under controlled essays anyway so no work would need to be saved directly to the mac's, instead I setup a network drive that the students would save there work to under there name, this was backed up just in case someone deleted or played with another students work.
It sounds like a pain but they are using this just fine and touch wood nobody has lost any work yet.
Of course the needs of many have to be met first. I don't know if the Macbook can be outfitted for your needs. I would assume yes since it's just classroom use. But kids are very abusive! They don't have respect for other people's things. That would be my stand on NOT getting the Pro. Aren't Macbooks more hardy then the Pro? I would go with whichever is tougher and can handle abuse better as long as it has what you need.
Arr right, sounds cool!
Surely the plastic on the macbook is more fragile than the aluminium on the pro?!
I was referring more to how nice and thin the Pro is. I never saw a regular Macbook up close, but they look thicker which makes it seem more sturdy.