The Stillwater school district and Apple Computer have agreed to provide laptops to students at Oak-Land Junior High in Lake Elmo and all of the district’s junior high teachers by next fall. The plan was originally supposed to include Stillwater Junior High students as well, but district officials scaled back over concerns about the cost of the five-year program.
“Stillwater Junior High students will still use laptops in school, but they will not be allowed to take them home, as Oak-Land students will. Stillwater Junior High will thus serve as a control group, said Superintendent Kathleen Macy, enabling the district to study how round-the-clock access to computers affects student achievement. ‘All of our students will benefit by what we learn at Oak-Land and Stillwater Junior High School,’ she said. School board member George Thole was one of two who voted against the proposal at a Sept. 22 meeting, and he still doesn’t like the plan. ‘If it’s that good, both schools should have it,’ he said.” Megan Boldt reports for The Pioneer Press.
In a nice touch, the agreement also includes a discount on Apple products for any family living in the school district.
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews article:
Stillwater, MN students to get 2,300 Apple laptops; some parents raise objections – September 23, 2003
Another 100+ iBook win for Apple. Does it seem like they are winning a new school district a day? Apple’s school sales force is pretty impressive. I imagine the iBooks with their G3 processors and cheaper components have a lot of room for discounting built in. It’s a strategy that is really working for Apple. Funny, whereas price differentiation is not a big deal for Apple in any other market, they are the ones to beat in the school market. I guess if Nintendo can sell a $99 IBM G3 based gamecube, the G3 processors must be real cheap.
Another 100+ iBook win for Apple. Does it seem like they are winning a new school district a day? Apple’s school sales force is pretty impressive. I imagine the iBooks with their G3 processors and cheaper components have a lot of room for discounting built in. It’s a strategy that is really working for Apple. Funny, whereas price differentiation is not a big deal for Apple in any other market, they are the ones to beat in the school market. I guess if Nintendo can sell a $99 IBM G3 based gamecube, the G3 processors must be real cheap.
In fact Nintendo is giving away the game cubes, hoping to earn back on software sales. It’s the same thing MS does with the XBox and telco’s with mobile phones. I don’t think Apple’s doing the same with iBooks, though.