Iowa High School Delivers 1,425 MacBook Airs to Students

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
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Haters gonna’ hate, but there will probably be no complaints from the 1400 students that were just presented with a free MacBook Air to use for the entire school term. Class was excused early for tree hugging exercises. :D

Among other stipulations, each student must agree to use the device for educational purposes only, recharge it every night and never install any programs unless approved by an administrator.
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Wow, who is going to be held financially responsible when they break them, not if? :eek: Nice, I would be happy to get one too for free but, I can just imagine how beat up some of these are going to look after just the first year, let alone the first month.
 
ManofGod said:
Wow, who is going to be held financially responsible when they break them, not if? :eek: Nice, I would be happy to get one too for free but, I can just imagine how beat up some of these are going to look after just the first year, let alone the first month.
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Dude, these are Apple. That is high quality stuff, basically indestructible....:p

I can't even troll with a straight face :D
 
IOWAWM

Idiots Out Wandering Around With Macbooks

:D

No offense intended to anyone. I used to live there, I should know. :p
 
As a parent, I would not want to be on the hook for up to ~$1000 MBA in the case of wear/tear/usage. There are far more cost-effective ways to make computers available to students that won't result in potentially expensive liability costs for the users.

I'm interested to know what sort of augmented learning that these laptops will serve, or if it's just to make a computer available to a student (for the purpose of writing reports, etc.).
 
I would be pissed if I were a teacher working there and making under 80k a year. Even as a tax payer I would be pissed. Crazy the district has that kind of spare money.

And any I saw running Win7 on their MacBook would get an automatic A for the year. Or at least a high five. :D
 
lol programs needed to be approved by an administrator, well I hate to be that administrator, Macs are a pain on the enterprise side..
 
Lol... I'll also be curious what these laptops will look like after just one year...

Bet those students will be much smarter using these...

I... just don't get it I guess. Expensive as hell though.
 
I read it a couple times and I could swear it sounds like they gave all of those kids admin access to those computers. Otherwise why would they have to get approval before installing something if they didn't have that ability? I really hope I am missing something lol
 
In other news, muggings/theft of underage students rise 600x in September compared to 2012.
 
MrValentine said:
I would be pissed if I were a teacher working there and making under 80k a year. Even as a tax payer I would be pissed. Crazy the district has that kind of spare money.

And any I saw running Win7 on their MacBook would get an automatic A for the year. Or at least a high five. :D
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80k a year? Most high school teachers don't make much more than 50k...

But yeah, dumb move... Give the kids overpriced fashion devices instead of computers that can actually, you know, do things and are more like the ones they'll be using in the real world as adults.

Apple has some really fucking good salespeople that talk these school districts into buying their shit so they can hook the kiddies into their eco-system.
 
Mother inlaw's middle school is giving Ipads to all the students and her new computer is a Mac. Crazy.
 
"Before being given their own notebook, each student must agree to a list of terms."

And what happens to a student who does not wish to agree to those terms? The school system still has a legal requirement provide education to those students. So the notebooks can't be "required" for the classes.....
 
RGMBill said:
"Before being given their own notebook, each student must agree to a list of terms."

And what happens to a student who does not wish to agree to those terms? The school system still has a legal requirement provide education to those students. So the notebooks can't be "required" for the classes.....
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And if the kid breaks or loses the laptop, they can't force the parent to pay for it, as this is a public school.

The Macbook Air's are fragle laptops, and the screens are easily broken. I'm sure at least 30% will end up broken or lost by the end of the year.
 
They possible financial burden placed on families aside, I'd be more worried about the school system tracking my child's online activities & where-a-bouts with these things. If it's required then fine. It gets signed out & signed in everyday for each class. I wouldn't make my child responsible for the schools equipment in the hallways or cafeteria of a busy school.
 
nutzo said:
And if the kid breaks or loses the laptop, they can't force the parent to pay for it, as this is a public school.

The Macbook Air's are fragle laptops, and the screens are easily broken. I'm sure at least 30% will end up broken or lost by the end of the year.
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Schools buy insurance policies on the laptops. I think it's like ~$50 and any damage is covered for a year. I mean anything. I helped a catholic high-school deploy a fleet of iPads, I was shocked at how much their insurance covered.

This really isn't that bad of an investment when you also consider the failure rate. I work at a company with $1k laptops, we have 1/4th the amount of trouble we had when we used $450 cheapies 2 years ago. Apple makes some great hardware, right up there with top tier HP/Dell/etc workstation laptops.

Ask any top administrator what they would rather support, a fleet of MBA/MBPs, or lowest bidder Wintels... They're gonna go with the MBA/MBPs. ...And managing OS X isn't particularly hard, it's just different. It's like dealing with a Linux desktop environment - completely doable.
 
Brak710 said:
Schools buy insurance policies on the laptops. I think it's like ~$50 and any damage is covered for a year. I mean anything. I helped a catholic high-school deploy a fleet of iPads, I was shocked at how much their insurance covered.

This really isn't that bad of an investment when you also consider the failure rate. I work at a company with $1k laptops, we have 1/4th the amount of trouble we had when we used $450 cheapies 2 years ago. Apple makes some great hardware, right up there with top tier HP/Dell/etc workstation laptops.

Ask any top administrator what they would rather support, a fleet of MBA/MBPs, or lowest bidder Wintels... They're gonna go with the MBA/MBPs. ...And managing OS X isn't particularly hard, it's just different. It's like dealing with a Linux desktop environment - completely doable.
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true... schools dont buy laptops from best buy.. they have to get business laptops. Which are similar in price to the MacBooks. So people saying why not just buy a cheap $400 laptop, that never happens anyways.
 
Their Drivers Ed program will also be taking delivery of a dozen Model S sedans.
 
MrValentine said:
I would be pissed if I were a teacher working there and making under 80k a year. Even as a tax payer I would be pissed. Crazy the district has that kind of spare money.
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Yeah no kidding. All I hear from my local school district on the news is that they're bracing themselves for budget cuts... And then they admit to having a bunch of fucking iPads on order for the high-schoolers. SERIOUSLY? When I went to school (graduated in 2006) I didn't need an iPad, let alone a fucking computer. Writing papers was more than easy enough to do on the library computers. Simply bring in a floppy (lol), write the paper little-by-little and BAM - you're done. Wanna do math? Pencil, paper, and maybe (if you convinced your parents to get you one) a TI-89. I want to meet the person who sold the idea to schools that they HAVE to give students the latest in tech, or else they won't be "competitive" in the real world... I'll bet their bank accounts are loaded from the bullshit they've been feeding everyone.
 
jbltecnicspro said:
Yeah no kidding. All I hear from my local school district on the news is that they're bracing themselves for budget cuts... And then they admit to having a bunch of fucking iPads on order for the high-schoolers. SERIOUSLY? When I went to school (graduated in 2006) I didn't need an iPad, let alone a fucking computer. Writing papers was more than easy enough to do on the library computers. Simply bring in a floppy (lol), write the paper little-by-little and BAM - you're done. Wanna do math? Pencil, paper, and maybe (if you convinced your parents to get you one) a TI-89. I want to meet the person who sold the idea to schools that they HAVE to give students the latest in tech, or else they won't be "competitive" in the real world... I'll bet their bank accounts are loaded from the bullshit they've been feeding everyone.
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I've wondered where that belief has come from myself...since when does an ipad make learning a sure thing? if you want to make an argument for modernizing education or eliminating paper books, thats cool but you dont need to spend tax payer money on $500 devices to do that, imo. especially when you have to buy enough to cover the entire school of children.

at least these kids are getting fully functional devices and not just a tablet though.
 
Wrecked Em said:
Their Drivers Ed program will also be taking delivery of a dozen Model S sedans.
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hmm no gas
they dont driven more then a hand full of miles a day
best crash ratings EVER

might not be that bad of an idea really lol
 
Well, at least they didn't go cheap and buy ipads for the students...I mean this is just as useless, but it actually has a keyboard.
 
When a business buys laptops, they get the business line laptops. The business lines from Dell, HP, etc., costs about the same as Apple laptops do. There are many reasons for buying these, more expensive, laptops than with the cheap consumer/personal laptops.

They also generally get discounts and other incentives. For instance, the warranty programs on these are usually phenomenal.

Apple has always had a strong school presence. I do not know how Apple does things now, but in the past Apple used to give really good deals to schools. The basic business model is to give the computers to the schools for cheap, so the students get used to using them, then hopefully down the road that student will buy an Apple product. (this is an extremely common business model. This is why you see student software licenses for cheap or even free, but the business license to use that software is hundreds of dollars). Because of this, it would not surprise me if the school got a pretty good deal on these laptops along with a really good warranty program.

In other words, this is probably a much better deal than you may realize. Also, teachers teach with the expectation that a student has access to computers now days. Not all families have enough money to provide one to their kids. Sure, libraries and such have computers available for students to use, but the reality is, in practice they are not going to go there to use them. I know I would not have when I was in high school. It would not surprise me to see this happening in other areas. A computer is pretty much required for learning now days. IMO it is more important than text books.
 
And here I thought it was cool when my high school let us play with eMates (we never got to take them home though)


220px-Applenewton_emate300.jpg
 
Goride said:
When a business buys laptops, they get the business line laptops. The business lines from Dell, HP, etc., costs about the same as Apple laptops do. There are many reasons for buying these, more expensive, laptops than with the cheap consumer/personal laptops.

They also generally get discounts and other incentives. For instance, the warranty programs on these are usually phenomenal.

Apple has always had a strong school presence. I do not know how Apple does things now, but in the past Apple used to give really good deals to schools. The basic business model is to give the computers to the schools for cheap, so the students get used to using them, then hopefully down the road that student will buy an Apple product. (this is an extremely common business model. This is why you see student software licenses for cheap or even free, but the business license to use that software is hundreds of dollars). Because of this, it would not surprise me if the school got a pretty good deal on these laptops along with a really good warranty program.

In other words, this is probably a much better deal than you may realize. Also, teachers teach with the expectation that a student has access to computers now days. Not all families have enough money to provide one to their kids. Sure, libraries and such have computers available for students to use, but the reality is, in practice they are not going to go there to use them. I know I would not have when I was in high school. It would not surprise me to see this happening in other areas. A computer is pretty much required for learning now days. IMO it is more important than text books.
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Apple has a strong school presence because administrators are suckers.
 
mjz_5 said:
true... schools dont buy laptops from best buy.. they have to get business laptops. Which are similar in price to the MacBooks. So people saying why not just buy a cheap $400 laptop, that never happens anyways.
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Not universally true. Regardless, though I don't know the expressed purpose of the MBAs in this case, if all you cared about was students having personal access to a computer to write reports and do online research, a Chromebook program would have been a much more cost-effective solution.
 
I remember when Apple would donate computers to schools. Now they sell them with a 30% markup.
 
So are all the students of that school impoverished in some way? If not, why the fuck are they getting anything for free?
 
Megalith said:
So are all the students of that school impoverished in some way? If not, why the fuck are they getting anything for free?
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No, in fact it was rated one of the best high schools in the country. Im just SMH at this nonsense, so much damn money that could have gone to so many different things.
 
Ames IA is great place. Very educated workforce. High average incomes, very low unemployment. The school district likely had few issues passing the bond referendum that paid for it. Its likely they don't have the money flow issues faced by many other districts and decided this was the way they wanted to go because the could.
 
They do know that laptops require electricity right? :confused: Why is Iowa buying when they're only going to get a few hours before the computers stop working and need to be plugged into an outlet?
 
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