Apple has worked pretty hard to make their operating system play nice with
Windows, so a dual-platform school is doable and manageable. You will need
to make sure that your technology staff are comfortable with Macs so that
they can support users of both platforms. There is some work involved in
getting single-sign-on to work smoothly so that users can use the same
username/password on both platforms and have easy access to their
network-based storage from both platforms.
A few other recommendations:
* - ask for volunteers who want to switch from a Windows-based computer to a
Mac and make sure your first round of switchers are prepared for problems
and willing to deal with them. (I hand-picked our first round of switchers
when we added Macs to our school 2 years ago. It made my life easer, it
made it easier for the tech. dept. staff, and it made these users happier
because for the first time in years, they got to use their platform of
choice.)
* - set up special group training sessions for your switchers so that they
have an opportunity to learn from their peers and develop a peer-support
group
* - get training for your staff ahead of time
* - remember that you can run Windows on Mac hardware. So, if you buy some
Macs and the users bail out on you and give up, you can always just install
XP or Vista on the Mac hardware and they can return to be happy Windows
users.
Christopher
--
Christopher Butler
Academic Technology Director
St. John's Preparatory School
Danvers, MA
--
On 1/6/08 12:46 AM, "Karen Ortiz" <kortiz@graland.org> wrote:
> Happy New Year!
>
> We are in the process of upgrading our desktop/portable hardware. Graland is
> presently 100% PC, Windows 2000 network. We are wondering what experiences any
> of you have with a dual platform deployment, both technially and
> educationally.
>
> Thanks in advance for your candid responses...
>
>
> Karen M. Ortiz
> Lower School Technology Coach
> Graland Country Day School
> kortiz@graland.org
>
> [ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
> Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution,
> non-commercial, share-alike license.
[ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license.
