mj0i+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU (Marquis Eugene Jones) (08/11/89)
I just thought I'd mention a little item I saw in the San Jose Mercury
News. Everbody knows that Apple II's are used very widely in secondary level
and lower education, right? Wrong! In the 'Living' section of the San Jose
Mercury News (silicon valley's eyes and ears to the world), the is a large
article on pre-school child care. Just off to the side, there is a large
picture of a little boy sitting at a Mac+ with disk and wooden blocks,
kissing his father (who works for apple) good-bye. Having a little kid
working on a mac doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that this day care
center is at Apple HQ in Cupertino! It seems very hypocritic of Apple to
push Apple II's to educational sites, touting how great it is for education,
while internally 'Macinizing' toddlers. Of all people, Apple itself should
know that there are many more education applications for youngsters
(especially toddlers) available on the II series than macs. Granted there
are some impressive ports of stuff to the mac, but that still doesn't
explain this inconsistency.
Marquis Jones
-------------
"Byte Knight"
mj0i+@andrew.cmu.edu
"Disclaimer: I wouldn't even think of letting ANYONE take credit for
what I've said!" :-)abc@BRL.MIL (Brinton Cooper) (08/11/89)
Marquis Eugene Jones <mj0i+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes: > Everbody [sic] knows that Apple II's are used very widely in secondary level > and lower education, right? Wrong! >... > Having a little kid > working on a mac doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that this day care > center is at Apple HQ in Cupertino! It seems very hypocritic of Apple to > push Apple II's to educational sites, touting how great it is for education, > while internally 'Macinizing' toddlers. Apple doesn't "push" anything to educational sites; at least not around here. There are about a dozen Apple II-class machines in each of our public elementary schools. The local Catholic schools, too, use Apple II machines since they often attend workshops with public school teachers. The sale of Apple II machines here is "demand pull." When the systems' Computer Committee, an individual teacher, or a local PTA purchase a computer for the elementary school, nothing but a II (usually a IIe or IIc) is even considered. On the other hand, one must recognize that the II won't last forever. How many CP/M machines are sold today? How much new software is developed for them? At some point, more powerful machines with more memory, and improved sensory I/O will be the norm. Remember that Apple's competetor in the school market is IBM! It makes no sense to compare even a IIGS with a 386-class PC. IBM has made heavy inroads at the high school level here. Surely Apple feels the breath on their necks and must stake out their territory carefully. _Brint