Trustee, teachers complain

A decision of the Toronto District School Board to switch from Macs to PCs is proving controversial, reports say. The changeover was first announced on November 13th, and has since been explained as happening because a PC can be bought for less than the cost of an equivalent Mac; PCs are further described as having cheaper and easier automatic maintenance. "The Apple computer in a large-scale network -- their capabilities for automatically managing that many machines really pales to what's available in the PC world," says the TDSB's general manager of Information and Technology Services, Lee Stem.

The TDSB is already mostly PC-based, given that Macs account for only 8 percent of the board's approximate 63,000 computers. The school system will nevertheless stop introducing general-use Macs into classrooms, and replace most end-of-service Macs with PCs. The only new Macs to be bought will be ones for subjects where a Mac is considered industry-standard, like illustration or video editing.

The move has engendered complaints from some teachers, who note for instance that GarageBand is bundled with every Mac and makes it easier to do multimedia projects. It is also argued that Macs may be less expensive in the long term, allegedly because of fewer breakdowns and malware infections. The pro-Mac faction has the support of trustee Michael Coteau, who has motioned not only for continuing the Mac program but for iPhone integration.

Stem has defended the switch by pointing to studies favoring PCs in terms of overall ownership expenses. A committee has been organized to determine the exact plans for the platform migration; the TDSB has in fact renewed a contract with Dell, and already has plans to pay $6 million to the company annually for desktops and supporting technology.

Apple has a long-running history in education, and it is currently rare for a board to switch back to PCs.

by MacNN Staff