New Computer Lab
Wow, after a year hard work and lobbying I was informed that I would get a new computer lab. Given today's economy it seemed like a long shot, but when you have a kick-butt program I guess things happen.
I teach Game Design (GameMaker and hopefully Torque soon), Web Design (Fireworks, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop), IBMYP Tech (Fireworks, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop), Digital Recording (Studio Logic Pro), Web Internship, and a future college level Java Programming class. Unfortunately, vocational training is being pushed aside for college preparation. Myself and my department chair have been pushing for a solid vocational program that will address the needs of the kids who do not want to go to college. In three years, I created all of the above courses and it finally came down to the big question that we had to pop to the School Board and school adminstration..."Do you want this program to be successful?"
Hah, a loaded question. That being the case, we need some new computers if we are going to compete. The big push was for putting Dell's in my lab since a lot of the software that I will be using is for the PC. I wanted a Mac lab, since kids go nuts over Apple graphics...eye-candy. Also, the Apples have a far longer life than the Dell's...3 years of so and they are only good for word processing. The eMac's that I am using now are 5 years old but do not have the power or RAM necessary to: 1) run Logic, and 2) they don't have dual boot capabilities. I laid out a sweet plan that addressed how we could use both Windows and Mac OS, and argued that by using OpenOffice we could save ourselves x-amount of dollars since we will not have to buy MS Office.
They took it and said I would get a new....iMac lab.
By 1Aug09, I will have 33 new 20" iMac, 2.66 GHz CPU, and 4 Gb RAM.
I am stoked, and I think the students are going to be even more jazzed about it. Hell, I know they are. Some of my classes only had 25% of the seats filled. Now? All classes filled.
I hope that the MS world is not too upset...their pathetic ads did not sell me nor has using Vista Ultimate. I hope that more schools will continue to invest in Apple like they did in the 80's. From what I am seeing from the inside looking out, that appears to be the case.
I teach Game Design (GameMaker and hopefully Torque soon), Web Design (Fireworks, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop), IBMYP Tech (Fireworks, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop), Digital Recording (Studio Logic Pro), Web Internship, and a future college level Java Programming class. Unfortunately, vocational training is being pushed aside for college preparation. Myself and my department chair have been pushing for a solid vocational program that will address the needs of the kids who do not want to go to college. In three years, I created all of the above courses and it finally came down to the big question that we had to pop to the School Board and school adminstration..."Do you want this program to be successful?"
Hah, a loaded question. That being the case, we need some new computers if we are going to compete. The big push was for putting Dell's in my lab since a lot of the software that I will be using is for the PC. I wanted a Mac lab, since kids go nuts over Apple graphics...eye-candy. Also, the Apples have a far longer life than the Dell's...3 years of so and they are only good for word processing. The eMac's that I am using now are 5 years old but do not have the power or RAM necessary to: 1) run Logic, and 2) they don't have dual boot capabilities. I laid out a sweet plan that addressed how we could use both Windows and Mac OS, and argued that by using OpenOffice we could save ourselves x-amount of dollars since we will not have to buy MS Office.
They took it and said I would get a new....iMac lab.
By 1Aug09, I will have 33 new 20" iMac, 2.66 GHz CPU, and 4 Gb RAM.
I am stoked, and I think the students are going to be even more jazzed about it. Hell, I know they are. Some of my classes only had 25% of the seats filled. Now? All classes filled.
I hope that the MS world is not too upset...their pathetic ads did not sell me nor has using Vista Ultimate. I hope that more schools will continue to invest in Apple like they did in the 80's. From what I am seeing from the inside looking out, that appears to be the case.