PCs are cheaper, right? That’s why schools should buy them?
Hmmm …
The results from last year? IT service calls to the high school tripled from the year before. The IT office had to hire another full time tech and contract with an outside consultant to keep up with tech calls. After factoring in the cost of software to prevent virus, malware, and adware infection as well security software to prevent students from messing with the systems the Dell computers cost US$19 apiece less than the Macs the school system would have bought. That, of course, doesn’t count the extra personnel.
That’s part of a pleasant reverse migration story. Here’s a piece of another:
”It all sounds very familiar (my district has it its own Dell mess following heavy Mac use). Recently, one of our totally Wintel centric IT guys admitted that ‘we have wasted millions’ on all this Windows crap.”
Yay.
Education is always a few years behind business in terms of technology adoption. Maybe the realization that PCs are not actually cheaper in spite of initial appearances is taking a few years to seep in as well.