djo7613@blake.acs.washington.edu (Dick O'Connor) (01/28/89)
<Apple folks please be patient..your question follows!> I'm serving on a committee to review the state of the microcomputer equipment available at my daughter's (small) private elementary school. It turns out they have a handful of working Commodore 64's and Apple II's and are interested in putting together a modern 15-station micro facility together with a computer curriculum for grades K-8 that will supplement the regular classroom curriculum. I missed the "field trip", but other committee members visited a larger school where they used a system of hardware and software set up and supported by IBM. It consisted of 27 PS/2 Model 25's (single disk drive, mouse and sound chip) networked to a server with a large (?? I'm guessing 100MB or so) hard disk. Over 200 educational programs were provided for the K-8 users via a system that automated record-keeping for individual students. This allowed the individual student to pick up where they left off automatically, which eases the task of the room monitor substantially. Pricetag for this setup including some level of support (that the teacher in charge was *very* pleased with) was $70,000. I got a chance to look at some of the curricular materials supplied with this system by IBM, and I was favorably impressed. I didn't know IBM had gotten that involved in elementary education. I'd like to collect some more advice, war stories, good news and what-have-you from those of you in netland who have experience with similar educational setups. Specific questions: 1) Is anyone familiar with the system I described? What networking hardware and software are they using? Is it a workable system and worth the price? Is there a specific reason Model 25 PS/2 machines are required (i.e. could PC-compatibles fill the bill?) 2) Is anyone familiar with IBM's educational curriculum? In actual practice does it work as well as it appears on paper? Is their software support helpful and timely? 3) Is there an equivalent setup available (tried, tested, and true) using Apple IIe or Apple GS machines? Who would I contact to find out more about such a system (I don't know much about Apples at all). 4) Finally, what are your thoughts as to the tradeoffs between using a networked system of simple workstations versus the same number of standalone machines, particularly with respect to elementary education? It appears at first glance that a network decreases the amount of setup time the teacher needs to spend preparing the room for instructional use, and increases the control over software integrity. What else should be considered? Feel free to respond by mail (djo7613@blake.acs.washington.edu) or by posting here, as I regularly monitor this group. I'll post a summary of what I receive by mid-February. Thanks for your participation! -Dick O'Connor Washington Department of Fisheries djo7613@blake.acs.washington.edu