It's time to upgrade... Desktop or Laptop, PC or Apple?

Written by Matthew. Posted in Podcast

Today we're talking about upgrading and whether one should consider desktops or laptops. Right now we have super powerful and super cheap access to desktop machines. A nice HP desktop can be purchased for a mere $650 (minus monitor). This is pretty inexpensive for the power you're getting for that cost.

Then there is the laptop...we're dealing right now with MacBook Pros in some of our districts. It basically comes down to portability vs stationery and expensive vs inexpensive.

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Then there is the laptop...we're dealing right now with MacBook Pros in some of our districts. It basically comes down to portability vs stationery and expensive vs inexpensive. Dean has some passionate, "soapbox style" opinions. He's adamant that for administrators and staff the only logical choice is to go with a laptop. The reason is the flexibility. In today's world everyone is busy and for districts to require employees to sit in their rooms at their desk to do their jobs is just crazy in today's world. We need to free them up from the desk and their cables so they can be mobile in the classroom and or on site around the building on demand.

Matt plays the devil's advocate: Why not just use the iPad? The iPad is great for quick notes. However, there is no mouse and no keyboard. The iPad is simplified and has a limited user interface. It's a great tool; but it's not the only tool. For educators, the standard joke is...Teachers never work off contract hours. The reality is that teachers, work off contract on their own time ALL THE TIME. The teacher is basically giving their time to the taxpayers...if you give the teacher a desktop, the only place the work can be done is in their classroom. With a laptop they can sit on their couch at home with their family around them. It is a win/win for the employer and for the taxpayer.

Even in the private sector the business gets a bigger bang for its buck in a similar scenario where employees can take their work home with them on a laptop to work. For the least experienced, lowest paid educator the "pay back" for this investment in a laptop--in Jordan School District, Utah-- is about 35 hours. On the other side the most experienced, best paid senior level teacher reaches invested "payback" at around 19 hours. That is a straight dollars and cents analysis that the accountants love but what is the REAL value of that teacher's time, the morale, the value of their work? That is much more than dollar and cents investment and payback for the taxpayer. The value is far more than what we pay them. Another factor to consider is that laptops last a lot less time than desktops. Andrew compares two schools with which he is working--one with desktops (longer rotation with less expensive machines was 4 years. 24" monitor to work on for very little money.) The school that went with laptops required a 3 year rotation to keep people in good working computers. There is a finite amount of $ so districts need to take these other factors into consideration. Rotation is shorter for a laptop...battery life, in particular, is a a big issue. In laptop machines there is a significantly reduced battery life after 2 years of life. By year 3 people almost always need to be plugged in. The end of the battery is almost the end of the laptop. The $ in the budget will almost always dictate the choice...but Dean maintains that districts will get more out of a laptop investment over their life because of the increased use the flexibility affords employees.

Another factor to consider is that tech support is in bigger demand on laptops. Another piece that's kind of a downside with an upside...and that is that teachers use them for a lot of personal things. Someone has all their family photos on the hard drive and when it crashes now the tech support staff needs to work on something that isn't technically work-related. BUT the upside of this is that if employees are using their machines for personal things they are USING it and are more familiar with it and that plays out at work as well.

In Sevier School District...teachers were encouraged to use their machines on their personal time for personal reasons. Matt had an old Apple II e at his disposal as a student growing up because his father's work allowed him to take a machine home over the summer. Matt could get his hands on a computer early in life where he had the opportunity to break and repair it often which, in turn, led to his current employment "gig." Dean shared the example of his niece who was able to take her district computer home...where she was using and learning about FaceBook. Her excitement for social media when it first came out was transferred to her school experience where she was a ready-to-roll leader at the time these social media programs hit the classroom doors.

Most districts have a repair structure for repair of machines. How expensive is a new MacBook Pro battery? Is it even replaceable? The end of a battery's life in a MacBook Pro is NOT the end of THAT machine's life. Although the battery in this machine is actually glued in place a 4-5 year old MacBook Pro runs between $40-$80 for battery replacement. Andy says that in his experience the factory spec battery is actually not even available for a MacBook Pro. He's had to purchase knock offs which are lower in quality and either don't work to begin with or only work for short duration. Our Goggling of this question turned up the fact that an Apple Store in Paris will replace a MacBook Pro battery for around $100. Then there is the question of who pays for the battery replacement when the time comes. In one district the repair budget that's been set aside will cover it. In other districts the school, department or individual teacher may be stuck with the cost. Thinking ahead to put things in place for such needs is helpful.

We do not think that putting laptops in the hands of students is the best choice. Fixed labs with laptops is a no win scenario. That scenario makes no sense whatsoever Battery life, getting storage and transport carts...all of these things need to be taken into consideration. A brand new MacBook will give 4 hours of continuous use but this is not a full day's worth in a school. Matt often has to plan his day around the battery life of the machine he's using as a tech support tech. Other tech blogs talk about processor speed, memory capacity all taking a back seat to battery life. How long will this device last me without tethering me to the wall? The average computer...especially in gaming...is just sitting there idling. There is no advantage to the extra horsepower. We often turn this off and power it down so that the energy consumption is conserved and battery life is extended.

The gathering areas in schools have now become the electrical plugs for phone or laptop charging. This is so even in schools NOT serving kids one-to-one. Dean calls these folks huddled around power sources, Power Refuges and we think that is a humorous and very fitting description of reality. We are all familiar with folks sitting on the floor in the airport sharing the power outlet. School are the same now days. Power refuges.
Dean is planning a building for his district right now and the power accesses are a big consideration in this design. Power outlets have been designed every few feet because of the demand for charging electrical devices. In the classrooms power outlets will be located all around the outsides as well as in the floor in the middle. Back in the 50's there was no consideration for these then unknown demands for electrical devices. Dean is wondering what there could be coming down the pike 50 years from now...for technology demands...that he will not have been able to plan for or anticipate. We're betting it's gonna run on electricity.

Andrew says the answer is Tesla coils.

So the elephant in the room in this conversation is whether to invest in PC or Mac? Andrew prefaces the fact that he loves Apple but from his experience at the tech end, he never has much say. What people want is usually what they're gonna get. In Dean's district the elementary are 99% Mac. Secondary gets around 50%-50%. The 50% PC is to give students work experience on PC they'll encounter in the "real world."

One school recently did a Pilot of Netbooks....and from that experience we say, NO! DON'T Go there! 30 in the elementary's were piloted. They had many problems. One of the biggest was giving a PC to people who don't know how to make use of the PC applications. Tools were unfamiliar to them on the PC. They already knew things in the Mac world such as Garage Band for making music. If you're going into a homogeneous environment...stay with it. There is a lot of effort in training and learning their way around these systems. Why climb that learning curve all over again if it isn't really necessary?When districts and school stick with the uniformity of either Mac or PC this pays off for the tech

specialists as well as the staff. Matt mentioned his experience in Sevier School District in Utah. They had 2.5 tech specialists available to handle 11 schools, three of which were high schools. There was a lot of uniformity in this district as they were 95% Mac. Matt asserts that this is the only reason he and his tech team were able to service that many schools and machines with so few support staff--Uniformity and the fact that the uniformity was with a Mac system. The PC network takes more manpower though we did not go into detail as for the cause of this during this podcast. Dean came from private industry prior to joining up with Canyon's School District. The real killer was trying to mix the Macs and the PCs. He says that if you're going to pick one then PICK ONE.

Sometimes you can hire some really smart people to do for the Mac world what the PC world has a number of vendors doing. Both Mac and PC have their problems. On the Mac side...smaller scale there are some things that make them easier to support than a window machine. Target disc mode...assuming you buy a machine with the ports you need. You can't exactly do that with a Windows machine. On a smaller scale you've got to give Mac some credit. Apple Remote Desktop is probably the only pay-for program you actually need to support a Mac infrastructure. Stick with what's succeeding for you.

Matt is seeing administrative departments making the switch to Mac. Andrew finds that odd...dealing with Microsoft Office as administration does...Windows on a PC has a much clearer version of MicroSoft Office than what exists on a Mac.

Tags: education classroom pc, mac, desktop,