July 22, 2004

School Technology Monoculture?

The Madison School District has more or less standardized many computers on Microsoft's Windows operating system software. This approach, pitched as "sensible" because "that's what most people use" ignores the explosive growth of other technology platforms such as:

The MMSD technology approach also ignores the fact that much will change by the time today's K-12 students enter the workforce. At the end of the day, the network (the internet, essentially built on unix) is truly the computer.

Finally, one of the arguments for a windows monoculture is price. Advocates argue that windows pc's are cheaper (generally ignorning the cost of virus, worm and other TCO (total cost of ownership) issues such as ongoing security patches, software compatibility issues and network support). Some of the cheapest pc's around are linux based "LindowsOS PC's, starting at $278.00.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at July 22, 2004 07:30 AM | TrackBack
Comments