“A former Cobb County commissioner, accusing school officials of planning to misspend taxpayers’ money, has filed a lawsuit to stop a laptop computer program,” The Associated Press reports. “Former Commissioner Butch Thompson filed a lawsuit Tuesday claiming that voters were not informed that a 1 percent sales tax would be used to start the program.”
“County voters approved the tax in 2003. As they did, school officials said they would replace students’ “obsolete workstations.” The lawsuit contends that language was not specific enough to inform voters that the system intended to provide computers for all students in grades six through 12,” AP reports. “‘I didn’t vote for laptops for every student in the county, and I don’t think anyone else did,’ Thompson said. ‘In essence, they took funds designated for one purpose and used it for something else.'”
AP reports, “The first phase of the program costs about $25 million, which the school board approved in April. The system began distributing Apple iBook laptops to some of its more than 7,100 teachers last week. It has named four high schools as pilot sites where students will get iBooks next school year. The first phase of the program also calls for upgrading middle school computer labs starting next fall. The Cobb program eventually could distribute 63,000 iBooks to all teachers and all students in grades six through 12, if the school board approves the rest of the program in coming years.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Slow Apple news day? The Cobb County Soap Opera (and you thought it was over, huh?) butts its ugly head into our peaceful moment of silence. Yippie!
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Cobb County school board approves Apple Mac plan; could eventually distribute 63,000 iBooks – April 29, 2005
Henrico school board dumps Apple Macs, picks Dells with Windows – April 29, 2005
Cobb County school officials intend to move forward with Apple iBook program – April 21, 2005
Cobb Commission chief urges delay in Apple iBook program, says issue has become too emotional – April 20, 2005
No conflict of interest in ongoing Cobb County Apple iBook saga – April 19, 2005
More controversy in Atlanta-area school district’s plan to buy Apple iBooks – April 16, 2005
Cobb County Georgia approves first phase of plan that could equip schools with 63,000 Apple iBooks – April 15, 2005
Atlanta-area school district on verge of deal for 31,000 Apple iBooks – April 12, 2005
Cobb teachers voice concerns over using Macs for proposed laptop program – March 29, 2005
Cobb County Georgia meeting discusses plan to equip schools with 63,000 Apple iBooks – February 24, 2005
Report: 90 percent of emails opposed to Georgia’s Apple iBook program – February 10, 2005
65,000 Apple iBooks for Georgia schools one of the largest school laptop programs in the country – February 10, 2005
Georgia school district to propose 63,000 Macs for students and teachers – February 07, 2005
http://www.scroom.com/SCROOMtimes/Humor/Lawyer.shtml
You know, a few years from now laptops for each student will be commonplace. People can complain and sue all they want, but they are just slowing things down.
MDN – Slow Apple news day?
Yeh, but one story every five hours or so still doesn’t a busy news day make. But it’ll change. I can remember a day around the release of Tiger when there were 20 stories, and some people actually complained they couldn’t read through all of them. Can’t please everyone all the time.
I never did see the wisdom in giving 11 and 12 year olds thousand dollar gadgets.
replacing obsolete workstations is very different than giving every teacher and student their own computer. If the first phase of the program costs $25 million, how much will the total program eventually cost? Just the cost and work involved in servicing the thousands of offsite laptops would be a nightmare in itself. Even though Macs are not going to have a lot of problems, the task of ensuring that each computer gets its periodic system update would be almost overwhelming without a huge IT staff. It is very understandable for this person to be upset with this decision.
Apple is doomed. Doomed! DOOOOOMED!
“ensuring that each computer gets its periodic system update would be almost overwhelming without a huge IT staff”
– yeah, I mean it takes HUGE numbers of staff to ensure that the kids click on “OK” when software update asks them to update their system software… wow – I bet they’re quaking over the cost.
Get real…
Updates can be done at school by the students. There are study halls and time allotted that could be used. A little organization goes a long way. A Mac update although large is no reason to not do other things, after all it is Unix at the core and handles multitasking much better than some OSes.
: )
Tommo & Left Rear,
You’re assuming it’s a good idea to ensure security and stability to a bunch of school kids.
1. Not everyone has internet at home.
2. You’re assuming that kids will want to spend their own time updating their computers. Kids don’t even do their homework, but they’re going to maintain their computers?
3. System update is a menial but necessary task. I just used that as an example to illustrate the challenges that may be faced. How much are the students going to be responsbile for, and how much should they be responsible for?
The IT staff will be overwhelmed if they are spending all their time reinstalling accidentally deleted software and replacing hard drives that crashed because the computer was dropped. How much time will be wasted on servicing computers that have a cracked screen or that had some beverage spilled all over the keyboard?
Tommo, thanks for completely missing the point of my post. At least Left Rear Tire thought about the problem and offered a solution.
The issue here is not about their decision to use Macs, it’s about whether there will be any benefit to the students if they have their own computer instead of using one at the school. If there is a benefit, is it worth the extra millions of dollars, or should that money be directed elsewhere? Butch is right in saying that the school officials overstepped their authority by going ahead with this plan.
Tommo_UK & king_alvarez, for security reasons I doubt kids will have the privileges to run system updates.
Well, fine, then. Stop the program if they want…but if the first Dell/Gateway/HP/AOpen shows up, sue the pants off the county commission for collusion. The deal with Apple, from all appearances, was made above board; if there are to be computers placed in that school they should be according to the agreement already made, in place and agreed to by both parties.
Personally, I have a bit of trouble believing that a computer at every desk is actually going to be all that beneficial, but I’d rather see an Apple than some time-eating, money-eating POS from one of the cheapo hacks.
MDN MW: against. As in, I am against these idiots.
I would sue, too – that’s a lot of money stolen from tax-victims to piss away in the public school system. They should abolish the school system, sell off its assets and use the proceeds to buy EVERYBODY in Cobb county an iBook.
Isn’t that what remote desktop is for? Doesn’t it batch install programs, updates, and system stuff over many computers?
And what’s this about an overwhelmed IT department? IT departments are PC mentality. If it was a mac based network, the IT department would be one guy that comes in once a week just to make sure things are still running smoothly. I’ve had this discussion with the IT guy at my work, and we both agreed that he would have to stop working full time (40hr week) and come in as needed if the company moved to Mac OS X. Most of his time is spent hopping computers and checking virus definitions.
Magic word is higher, as in lawsuit is being supported by MS higher powers.
To: King_alvarez and anyone else that wants to know.
http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/features/softwareupdateserver.html
That is how OS X will get updated. This is included with 10.4 Server, but if you want to go with Windows, it will cost you a little extra to get this functionality. And if the IT staff wanted them too, the teachers could do the updating for the k-6 kids since the laptops stay at school, and the 7-12 grades can surely follow directions during home room at the beginning of the day.
As for kids deleteing apps. Read here: http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/features/workgroupmanagement.html
You can set for only certain applications to be used for a certain user or group. That means you can completely turn off a program from being used, or allow the user to use but not delete something.
As for the dropping/break down of computers, the k-6 children usually stay in the same room, and probably wouldn’t be taking their laptops home with them. The reason for the laptop and not a desktop is a desktop takes up space, and a laptop can be used at the child’s desk. The teachers will most likely be the ones carrying the laptops around for the younger k-1 kids, while 2-6 only have to walk a few feet (from their desk to where the laptops are stored, back to their desk). And when was the last time that food was allowed in the classroom. I don’t remember being able to eat or drink at my desk as a kid, which is where these laptops will get the most use if the only use. As for the 7-12, they have a little more responcibility in that they probably take it home, but they are most likely able to do that without causing that much worry about harm coming to the laptop.
The reason why a laptop is better than buying desktops and making labs, which is basically what this sueing person is saying, is that laptops can be moved around easily and the students can work right at their desks. No need to share resources, computer labs, with other teachers to get certain projects done.
I could go on and on about what I have seen in a classroom that had put iBooks in the hands of the children. All I can say now is read.
http://www.apple.com/education/onetoone/profiles/cobbcounty.html
And for those that want to know I have personally visited this school.
http://www.apple.com/education/profiles/irving/
Getting the courts to police what elected school board members (i.e., politicians) say during a referendum is INSANE. Doesn’t anybody give a cr*p about our democracy?? If you think a politician misled or even lied, vote the bums out in the next election!
Hopefully, a judge with integrity will throw the plaintiff out on his ear and dismiss the case, but I’m not counting on it…
The guy’s a shill for Dell.
The guy’s a shill for Dell
Or a shell for Dill.
Anyone that would complain about empowering the youth of Cobb county by not only giving the 6th-12th grades a laptop to use, but giving them a machine that is not going to require a gigantic technical staff is either a complete idiot or a shill for Microsoft/[insert your favorite PC hardware vendor that didn’t get the contract here].
What can this guy possibly be thinking? A 1% sales tax increase to fund schools is fantastic to say the least, I would be happy to see that in my hometown, and I am POOR. If it will help kids, then I am all for it. I can only HOPE that my son’s school will implement a similar program. Hell I would happily DONATE to the school that my son attends if they were going to get iBooks for each student. Sadly, I can also say that if they reccomended a Windows solution, I would have to vote against it, because of the additional costs for support, training, etc. that would be involved.
How can exposing kids to a laptop of their own be a bad thing in any way?
COMPUTERS ARE A CRITICAL SKILL PEOPLE. WAKE UP!!!!
-G5Man
G5man,
Considering that most jobs do not require extensive, or in many cases any, computer training, computers can hardly be considered a critical skill. but let’s say it is a critical skill, is it the responsibility for the schools to invest millions of dollars teaching this skill? No, that is what supplementary education is for.
The public school system is to teach children concepts and help them to learn, think, and react. It concentrates on the ideas that enable technology to work, not the technology itself. It enables children to gain the foundation necessary to be successful regardless of what kind of technology is being used now and in the future. Understanding mathematical concepts, social interaction, human behavior, and basic communication skills is much more important than learning how to use a tool that has only been around for a couple decades and which may not even be used beyond the near future.
If children want to learn how to use technology, let them use an elective and take a specific class or go to college for a specific trade.
Greg,
This is not about empowering today’s youth, it is about whether taxpayers should pay for thousands of computers when 90% of high school students already have a computer or computer access. Why pay millions of dollars for a tool that they already have, especially if that tool plays a very limited role in a person’s education. A 1% increase to fund schools is great, but is computers the best way to spend that money. Basically the school officials are saying through their budget choices that technology is more important than teachers, even though technology cannot teach a single thing on its own. The students can have the greatest technology available, but what good is it when they don’t get adequate attention from the teachers because the school only supplies one teacher per 30 students?
Alvarez, stop making sense.
I totally disagree with people that claim that computers are an uneccessary part of education. Computers are more than a “critical skill”. Learning to manage information comfortably is going to mean the difference between master and slave in the near future. As the world goes digital, computers and software are quickly encompassing every aspect of our lives and economy. And computer skills are important for a lot of professions, especially those that bring any kind of decent income. A machine that acceses and manipulates information flexibly is a critical learning tool, but only if students are free to immerse themselves… this sensation does not come from a lab. Labs are useless, because there is no ownership or connection to the machine beyond the confines of a single limited session. There isn’t any useful way to integrate that single machine for use in the learning experience, and so it become a tool for teaching students how to type and dishing out educational software during the weekly alloted computer session. And a single computer for an entire classroom? I grew up with that. You know who used it? The teacher. It didn’t help me at all. But if I would have had a computer… now THAT would have been useful. In fact, I think the only viable way to include computers in education is to equip every student with one. Anything else diminishes the worth of the machines so drastically that it’s almost not worth it, and to not even touch on what will be one of the central skills in our society for the rest of time in education? That’s insanity. We need less calculus instruction, more programming. Less fake literature analysis, more blog writing and web page authoring. Lets stop teaching our children how to be citizens of the world of 20 years ago and teach them, from a young age, how to start participating and interacting in a digital society. Computers are cheap. Cut printing costs and use electronic textbooks. It’s worth it. Think big.
“I don’t see why these young’uns need these fancy-pants com-pooters, dadgummit! When I was their age, I took my notes on the back of a dead possum I scraped off the road as I walked to school, six miles, uphill both ways, in a raging blizzard!”
I receive email updates for all of these posts and I was going to ignore this thread and let it run its course, but then I read this … by LordRobin …
“I don’t see why these young’uns need these fancy-pants com-pooters, dadgummit! When I was their age, I took my notes on the back of a dead possum I scraped off the road as I walked to school, six miles, uphill both ways, in a raging blizzard!”
LOL !!! … classic.
the back of a dead possum … LOL !!!