Illinois school system to phase out Macs
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Dec 18, 2006 at 1:41pm
Yet another ill-conceived move by a school system: Community Unit School District 300 in Illinois is leaving its 300 Macs for more “appropriate technology,” according to the Courier News.
Eric Willard, the district’s new director of technology, will spearhead the Platform Transition Task Force. The group will begin meeting in January to develop implementation of the districtwide change. Willard, shortly after beginning his position in April, decided to phase out the district’s use of Macintosh computers and focus on Microsoft’s Windows Operating System and Lenox Softworks’ open source systems, the Courier News says.
Willard said he decided on the new platform because most people use Microsoft programs in “the real world,” and open source systems provide a way for the district to keep students from downloading items such as music and movies onto the school’s computer hard drives. Currently, the district has about 3,000 Mac in use, in addition to 1,500 Windows computers. The average age for the Macs is eight years.
A referendum proposal that voters approved in March allowed for the district to revamp its technology and purchase new Macintosh computers this school year, but Willard does not know how many. “We just bought Macs; we can’t throw them out,” Willard told the Courier News. “We can’t just change everything over tomorrow. It will probably be a three- to five-year process.”
sad Says:
sad. but you see this alot… hope they love windows xp and all its headaches. and increased costs.
Posted on December 18, 2006
Johnny Appleseed Says:
Just as “the real world” is discovering Macs, some are determined to go backwards.
Posted on December 18, 2006
DC Says:
This is more of the same. Willard doesn’t know Macs or OS X(Considering the older Macs which really can’t run OS X well). So, instead of looking to the new Macs they bought and seeing that they can indeed solve his downloading issues and run any Microsoft wares a school needs( Office, can willard be sure?) he is doing what most IT guys will do and that is falling back to what he knows and refusing to learn anything new (to him) since that might be work.
Along the way, he’s going to spend a lot of transition money on training, or not since he might figure everyone already knows the “better technology” and doesn’t need training.
Too bad he didn’t do a study of the most effective platform rather than just moving to a transition mode, but his mind was already made up. He loses nothing, other than spending money that isn’t his. The kids lose, the parents lose and the teachers lose.
Oh, and btw from a buddy who lives near District 300, that school district is strapped for cash as they are building and under other expenses. They can’t come up with funds for teachers and other things, but Willard is going to bull ahead and fix what isn’t broken.
Posted on December 19, 2006
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
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Vermifax Says:
Thank the Lamb of God, I don’t live in Illinois...!!!
Posted on December 18, 2006