News Staff Reporter
Apple Computer, Inc. hosted an Education Technology Convention at Choate, on Tuesday, September 26th. Teachers and Technology Education Professionals from multiple schools in the greater Connecticut area attended the day long convention in Getz Auditorium.
Apple Computer’s Educational Division of New England regularly holds this event two to three times a year, in Massachusetts, Maine, and Connecticut. It occurs three consecutive days at the three different locations.
This year, Choate volunteered to host the convention because of its central location and reliable facilities. Mr. Speyer, the Choate ITS Acting Director said, “We do it mostly as a public service, but we do charge them.”
It was a technology filled day for the attendees at the convention. The convention served as a guide for various school IT representatives explaining Apple Computer’s plans for upcoming educational products. Mr. Speyer described it as “a review of all the new products and initiatives in Apple Computers.”
There were nearly 250 people at the convention, mostly technology leaders from public and private schools who use Apple products. The attendees were able to learn about Apple products out in the market, as well as the newer versions which are being developed. An Apple engineer talked about many of the Apple devices that could be helpful to educational institutions, from Macbooks to the new Intel chips in Apple computers. Ipods were also mentioned at the convention, along with new microphones that can be placed on the iPod Nanos.
Additionally, the Apple representative introduced the large audience to the new Mac operating system, called Leopard, coming out in the summer of 2007. This new operating system will have the ability to host Wiki servers and RSS, or Rich Site Summary, feed servers. Mr. Speyer explained, “This means we could have a Choate Wikipedia, where students and teachers can write their own articles on various subjects.” He later explained, “RSS servers will enable us to have the Choate News’ headlines on the chip webpage.”
People were also updated on new software, such as a help desk online database. There were also many vendors who were advertising new products. A representative for Pasco, for example, was selling science laboratory probes, which could record various data such as temperature and velocity.
Apple is one of the only companies to hold these conventions for education professionals. Mr. Speyer said, “[Apple] is very unique because Microsoft doesn’t have a regular K-12 education seminar. Many tutorials are available on the Microsoft website, but they are not like this.”
Another interesting feature that Choate Apple owners may see in the near future is a software called Remote Administration, enabling ITS to control other Macs right from their office in Brownell, without requiring the student to bring it over. This means, says Mr. Speyer, “[The IT staff] can do remote repairs.”
All the new technology for Apple users may leave the PC owners at a disadvantage. This may be why more and more new Choate students prefer Macs. For the first time ever, there were more new students who brought Macs to school than PC’s. Mr. Speyer presented another possible reason by stating, “This could have been because of Apple’s summer promotion of getting a free iPod Nano with designated Mac purchases.”
Every year, Choate gives laptops to the new faculty. For the first time this year, more new faculty chose to receive Macs than PC’s.
By introducing many new products, Apple Computers, Inc. is showing that it can compete with Microsoft.
“Apple will grow, and always be in competition with Windows. They make very good hardware and computers with no viruses or spyware, and people like that,” said Mr. Speyer.
