Choosing Computers for use in Elementary Schools
EXIT
Created in September 2004 by Michael Gordon, helpdesk manager and
network engineer for a medium size business with operations in four
western states. My computer experience started in 1969 on an IBM
1620.
You can quote it, link to it, but remember -- your mileage may
vary and so will mine next year when everyone issues new software and
hardware. Trademarks used descriptively include Windows, a
(disputed) trademark of Microsoft Corporation; MacIntosh, a trademark of
Apple Corporation; Corel Draw and Corel Photo Paint, trademarks of
Corel Corporation; Photoshop and Illustrator, trademarks of Adobe
Corporation. Linux, a trademark of Linus Torvalds (so far as I
know).
Objective
"What is wanted?" should be the first question, the driving
force behind discussion and decisions regarding computers in school.
In the case of an elementary school, "reading, writing and arithmetic"
is the core curriculum with expansion of these themes as the child gets
older. Many things that a computer can do are not relevant to
elementary education (admittedly, you may have an exceptional student,
for such persons a few special computers may be appropriate).
Many years ago when computers became small enough and cheap enough for
use at home (the Apple II in 1980) many people wanted them but did not
know how to justify having one. One conversation I had with a
fellow sailor who was contemplating such a purchase went something like
this:
"I want to get an Apple II computer," he said.
"What are you going to do with it?"
"I will use it to water my lawn on a schedule every day," he said.
"Why would you dedicate a thousand dollar machine to that task when,
for sixty dollars, you can get a water timer valve at the hardware
store?"
"Well, how about if I use it to control a solar panel on the roof and
make it follow the sun!" he said.
"Why would you dedicate a thousand dollar machine to turning a solar
panel, when a cheap timing motor can do it?"
"Well, how about if I put it in the kitchen and my wife can use it for
her recipes!" he said.
"Did your wife ask for it? Probably not. She has a Betty
Crocker cookbook, plastic coated full color pages with photographs.
Besides, do you really want flour, eggs and sugar in your
keyboard, and do you want to never use your computer because it is in
the kitchen?"
"Well, I just WANT it!" he said.
"Now you are talking sensibly," I said.
Fact is, he didn't have a reason for having a computer, he just wanted
it.
Machine Paradigms
Does a philosophy or guiding principle underly a particular computer
system? Very much so, and the philosophy or reason for a computer
to exist goes right down to the chips from which it is made.
Generally speaking, all computers can do the common functions
and are certainly more similar than they are different.
Apple's MacIntosh is right-brained, so to speak, appeals to
intuitive, artistic types that don't like a lot of detail and want
things to work as automagically as possible. It has only
one menu bar on the screen at a time; even if you have multiple
programs open, only one of them can have focus, its menu will
be the only menu, and the menu is detached from the document window.
Mouse has only one button. Some paradigms are mysterious;
to remove a disk, you drag its icon to the trash and while you'd
think you just erased everything, what actually happens is the disk
pops out. Technically, Mac's started out with the Motorola 68000
series chip; using a flat memory model and seven identical index
registers -- extremely well suited to working on large blocks of data
(ie, digital images) but not very efficient on varying sizes of small
data (ie, text, word processing). I believe newer chipsets (The
G5 for instance) now include variable length instructions and operands, converging
the characteristics to be more similar to that of its main competitor.
Microsoft's Windows is left-brained, so to speak; coming from the
world of the IBM PC. It speaks rows and columns, numbers, data.
Everything down to the processor chip itself is tuned to business
processing. The CPU chip uses a segmented memory architecture,
instructions and data is variable length. That produces
exceptionally high code efficiency and is great for multi-tasking. The
segmentation philosophy means that each "window" has its own menu bar
and exists independent of all other windows. This can reduce
errors that happen on a MacIntosh when you forget which window
(application) the menu bar is now speaking to.
Linus Torvald's Linux is compiled for more than one platform so
it is not confined to any particular chip but is most frequently
found on the same Intel chips that can also run Microsoft Windows.
As such, Linux combines the telecommunications and security
strength historically associated with Unix (Linux is not Unix, but is a
"work-alike") and the CPU efficiency of the Intel chipset; in other
words, it leans toward business use, data processing and
telecommunications.
Educational Functions
Educational functions that might benefit from a computer and a
hint as to what kind might be most suited:
- Reading. The computer does not really help anyone read
but it can assist with phonics exercises and comprehension exercises.
It also has place with people that have visual impairment and need
to see text larger.
- Writing. The computer merely assists with the tedium
of report writing.
- Benefits: Much faster erasing. Readability of report.
Style considerations may be easier to use. Speed may
be faster than handwriting for elementary children.
- Downside: It could retard penmanship and it can certainly
retard scholarship if the student learns only "copy" from a web page and
"paste" into my report.
- Preferred computer: None. All of the major types of
computers offer word processing. Convergence has caused
nearly all word processors to become very similar.
- Applications: Microsoft Word (for Windows), Open Office
or Abi Word (Windows or Linux); many others.
- Arithmetic. The computer can either organize the math
or actually do the work. At the elementary school level, I would
prefer children NOT to use the computer as a "homework machine."
- Benefits: Hardly any for younger children. They
must learn to do arithmetic by hand. On the other hand,
spreadsheet programs may be useful as a presentation tool to
produce meaningful charts and graphs out of seemingly meaningless data.
- Downside: The "original" homework machine. If children
are going to use a machine, let them use an abacus to work
problems (the abacus has mechanical equivalents to "carry" and "borrow"
and I even learned to multiply and devide on an abacus).
Dependency on a computer for arithmetic must be avoided.
- Preferred computer: Any business oriented system. First
choice: MS Windows, followed by Linux and MacIntosh.
- Applications: Microsoft Excel (for Windows), Quattro Pro (for
Windows), Mathematica (higher math and calculus, for Windows),
Open Office (for Windows or Linux), Gnumeric (for Linux), a higher
math program exists for Linux but I have not played with it yet, I
think it is Gnuplot.
- Thinking. One of the best uses for a computer
in the classroom.
- Benefits: The inherent determinancy and logic of a
computer is ideally suited to playing games. Games usually involve
some degree of problem solving and memory; the electronic versions of
well known board games such as Reversi (also known as Othello), Chinese
Checkers and Chess come to mind. Electronic card games can
require careful thought; one such is "Free Cell" and it teaches ordering
and planning. Many of the "Adventure" style games (Warhammer,
Final Fantasy) require players to evaluate the mission, choose
companions, weapons and supplies, and then deploy them correctly
through the game. The most cerebral of the genre is "Riven" and
"Myst" where you don't shoot anyone at all but to escape this virtual
world requires solving a blizzard of very interesting and difficult
puzzles, as well as remembering where you have been and what you
already tried that worked or did not work. The graphics are
beautiful and it requires a substantially powerful computer to play
many games.
- Downside: Is there a downside to thinking? Anyway,
some students might experience difficulty utilizing excellent skills
developed on a computer to real life similar situations. Other
students may simply not be thinkers and may find "thinking" computer
games frustrating or pointless ("NF" in the Myers-Briggs Personality
Type Indicator) yet find happy fulfilment programs more appealing.
My daughter played that type for a year, earning computerized
praise with the efficiency of a laboratory pigeon but I'm not convinced
that she learned anything that transferred to the real world.
- Preferred computer: Any. Microsoft Windows has more
of the first-person realtime action games, Linux has a nice portfolio of
thinking and logic games and very likely the same portfolio exists for
MacIntosh.
- Applications: Simple games such as Freecell and Reversi work
well for all age groups. Intensely visual games such as Myst and
Riven would probably work well with autistic children whose "input" is
narrowly defined yet whose minds are very intelligent.
- Presentation and Public Speaking. Students need to
be able to communicate; visually and verbally. The computer can
help with the visual part of this.
- Benefits of Powerpoint (or equivalent) screen-oriented display
programs: Add some pizazz to student presentations to the class.
Use a projector and a screen. Page oriented display ensures
that each screen contains exactly and only what you want to see on that
screen.
- Benefits of Web presentations: Global audience, portable
presentation -- almost everyone has a way to view your
presentation. (Privacy problems can be mitigated two ways: access
controls and secure website).
- Downside of any electronic presentation: Complexity, the medium
can become more important than the message. Powerpointitis
is a well known government disease.
- Downside of Web presentations: Global audience (privacy
problems); not predictable what size screen people have, not usually
page oriented.
- Preferred platform: MS Windows; followed by Linux or
MacIntosh.
- Applications: Powerpoint (Windows, maybe MacIntosh);
Corel Presentations (Windows); Impress (part of the Open Office suite
for Windows and Linux).
- See, Show and Tell. As implemented in the computer,
through the use of graphics, either images or vectors.
- Bitmap graphics: photographs and scanned images composed of pixels
(picture elements).
- Benefits: Visual input is extremely useful for learning
with an estimated 50% retention rate. If children manipulate
relevant images themselves, they are very likely to remember the image
and its meaning.
- Downside: Not much; but it can become consuming and
distracting because of the power of images. It also eats a lot of
disk storage. Bitmap images cannot be scaled to different sizes
cleanly.
- Preferred platform: MacIntosh is widely regarded as the
imaging platform. Windows and Linux compete for second place.
Linux has a slight advantage insofar as superior memory management
goes, Windows has a wider variety of applications and a generally
smoother interface.
- Applications: Corel Photopaint (Windows), Adobe Photoshop
(Windows, Mac) -- about the same thing at twice the price of Corel.
"The Gimp" (http://www.gimp.org) for Linux (and Windows and Mac
for that matter). Primitive applications include MS Paint
(Windows) and many others.
- Vector Graphics: images composed of lines and shapes rather
than pixels.
- Benefits: As with photographs, visual input is very
compelling. The simple shapes obtained by vector graphics are
better for charts and diagrams.
- Downside: Expensive and complex software.
- Preferred platform: None, but good applications seem to
be existing only for Windows and MacIntosh.
- Applications: Corel Draw (Windows), Adobe Illustrator
(Windows, Mac; very expensive). I know of no general purpose
illustrator program for Linux.
- Need Input! In the movie, "Short Circuit", the
robot, Number 5, comes alive and has a thirst for knowledge. One
way that is now gained is through the World Wide Web;
traditionally the computer offered CD-ROM libraries containing enormous
quantities of information.
- Benefits of the Web: An enormous repository of information and
images; a small portion of which can be considered useful and factual.
- Benefits of CD-ROM knowledgebases (Encyclopedia, Literature):
Enormous quantities of probably correct information at cheap prices.
- Downside of the Web: the larger portion which is not considered
useful or factual.
- Downside of CD-ROMs: The slight nuisance in choosing
which CD is likely to have what you want. Also, recent events are
not going to be on CD.
- Preferred platform: Linux, followed by MacIntosh and
Windows bringing up the rear. Windows is a magnet for hostile
websites. This is mitigated somewhat by using Mozilla rather than
Internet Explorer; Microsoft fights back by making some websites work
ONLY if you are using Internet Explorer. I fight back, in turn,
by advising webmasters that they really ought to make their websites
correctly so it doesn't matter what web browser a person is using.
- Applications: Microsoft Internet Explorer (for Windows and
Mac), Netscape (all platforms), Mozilla (all platforms), Opera (all
platforms). Mozilla is much safer and preserves privacy much
better than Internet Explorer. Netscape seems to be dead; Mozilla
is its successor.
Things that probably do NOT need to be considered for Elementary
School Computer Lab
- Computer programming. Linux is easily the champion
here; the platform is free, the compiler for the programming languages
C, C++, and presumably Fortran and some others are all free and very
good. How many child computer programmers do you know? Not
many; if you have one, get at least one Linux computer.
- Computer Aided Design (CAD). The premier spots go to
Sun workstations, Irix, Silicon Graphics -- very expensive, Unix-based
systems. The leading "affordable" software is AutoCAD but it
retails for $2,500 or so and then you add modules. Difficult to
learn but certainly capable of designing houses and other things with
great detail.
- Application Serving. This is where one computer does
all the computing; all other computers are merely windows that show what
the virtual machines are doing on the one and only application server.
It is very expensive to implement in Microsoft Windows
but not too difficult; much more challenging yet "free" of capital cost
in Linux. Benefit: generally speaking you need to buy only one
copy of a program. Downside: the terminal server license are very
expensive and the host computer must be profoundly powerful (hence,
expensive). In Linux, the X-windows system was designed a very
long time ago (20 or more years ago) in an era when efficiency was much
more important. It can remotely compute and display with much
greater efficiency than can Microsoft Windows (in my opinion; your
mileage may vary).
- Email. How many of your children should be sending or
receiving email at school?
Value Matrix
To choose the computers for your situation, a value matrix helps.
Using a spreadsheet is a good idea for this since you will
undoubtedly adjust the weights and values.
To get everything to a meaningful range, we use a multiplier, called a
weight. For instance, the cost of software, in dollars, can be
weighted to a similar range as an arbitrary assessment of value.
For instance, in this demonstration I weight the Reading function at 10
(important), the Linux-factor at 1 (how well does Linux address the
reading function) and the product, 10, is the value of Linux to the
reading function. Windows is better suited to reading software so
it gets a 3; producing a value of 30.
The cost of software is divided by 10 (0.1 multiplier) so a 200 dollar
reading software ends up with a value of -20. So long as you use
reasonable values, the method is quite reliable and is largely free of
religious bias (religious meaning that tendency of advocates to prefer
one system or another based on emotional rather than rational values).
Obviously, we compare only those platforms that meet your goals.
If only one platform can do what you want to do, no further
analysis is needed. However, for elementary school labs that need
basic functions, any of the popular operating systems will
suffice.
Function
Weight
Linux-factor,result
Windows-factor,result MacIntosh-factor,result
Reading
10 1, 10
3, 30
3, 30
Cost of reading software
10 0, 00
-3, 30
-3, 30
Writing
10
5, 50
6, 60
5, 50
Cost of word processor
10
0, 00
-9, 90
-7, 70
(Remainder of functions)
(Remainder of cost of software)
Software Result (add columns)
60
-30
-20
Cost of Operating System 0.1
-0
-28
Cost of Hardware
0.1
-0
-50
-90
Help cost times frequency 0.1
-30
-40
-60
(Windows needs help 5 times more often than Linux, but is usually
cheaper so we split the difference)
Total Benefit of Ownership
30
-148
-170
(Assuming you already have computers that can run Linux but
would have to purchase Windows or MacIntosh computers)
And so on. In this simple demonstration, Linux comes out far
ahead of the other choices, but of course, statistics have meaning only
when comparing "like" things. In my helpdesk experience, Linux
needs intervention 1/5 as often as Windows, but part of that difference
is because Linux is usually used as a server and Windows is primarily
used as a desktop. If we compared like-with-like the outcomes
will almost certainly differ.
Implementation
So you are ready to do it. What now? The show stopper is
whether or not you have talent on-hand. The cost of a human expert
exceeds all other costs combined. Right after looking at what
is wanted you should look at what do I already have.
If you have nothing -- no hardware and no talent, then it doesn't
matter much -- you're going to pay a lot. If you already have a
Windows expert, then it's a "no brainer", that's the way to go.
His/her $30,000 wage becomes a weighted factor of 3,000 in the
above value matrix and no other factor comes close. If you have a
Linux expert, same story, different outcome; go with Linux.
Only in a LARGE installation (more than 30 computers of $1k each,
becoming equal in cost to the annual cost of your expert) does it
really start to matter what kind of hardware and software you use.
In a very large installation of several hundred computers, it matters
so much that you choose the hardware and software first then
hire an expert to run it.
Facts.
- The Linux kernel is much more efficient than Windows,
meaning, you can operate Linux on old machines that will not support
current versions of Windows. This fact is relevant if you
have several old machines that you wish to continue using. Many
companies are willing to donate good used computers to schools; they
will not run the latest version of Windows but they will run
Linux and you should not continue to use the old versions of Windows
because of security vulnerabilities.
- Microsoft Windows is the de facto standard for
business computing in America.
- Apple MacIntosh is the de facto standard for graphic
arts and publishing in America.
- Linux is the de facto standard for computer
programmers on a tight budget, school students on a tight budget,
families on a tight budget especially that tiny fraction that is
religiously honest in their software acquisition.
- More software is available for Microsoft Windows than any
other platform. However, that is relevant only if you are
planning on purchasing a huge library of software.
- Microsoft Windows generally cannot be fixed if something
goes wrong -- it's a "black box" and it does magical things.
In case of disaster, you restore from CD and start from
scratch.
- MacIntosh is also a black box; maybe even blacker.
- Linux is wide open. You can inspect, change, repair anything
about Linux -- if you possess sufficient skill, so it is great
for students of computer science, especially poor students! How
much that is depends on what you are changing. Removing "mp3" from
the list of automatically downloaded files in the "Gary" program is
easy; it is written in the PERL plain language program and you can see
the "mp3" sitting right there. Take it out in your word
processor, run "Gary" and you have just changed the program. Easy
as pie. On the other hand, if you have a Netgear FA-410 PCMCIA
ethernet adapter card stuck in 100 megabit mode, you'll have to write a
small program to send it the appropriate commands to switch it to 10
megabit should you need to do that (I did, and it was not very easy at
all).
- Security, Privacy, Viruses
- Windows: bad, bad, bad.
- Linux: good, good, good.
- MacIntosh: good, medium, good.
- Details: Ever hear of anti-virus software for MacIntosh?
Well, neither have I. Nor for Linux. But you'd better
have antivirus software on your Windows machine. Privacy is a
function of the software rather than the operating system.
Programs for MS Windows, especially Internet Explorer, tend to
invade privacy as does its vulnerability to worms and viruses.
Programs for Linux can steal your privacy, too, but for the moment not
much of that sort of thing exists for Linux. Mozilla is more
privacy conscious right out of the starting gate than is the current and
previous versions of Internet Explorer (version 6) and is easily
enhanced to be almost paranoid about security and privacy. IE can
also be adjusted, but it is not very obvious what you are doing, or how
to do it, and it is not very granular (IE can turn on, or off, Java;
Mozilla can allow specific functions to work and others to not
work).
- Maintenance. I have about six Linux boxes and about
200 MS Windows installations to service, a ratio of 33 to 1. I
(with two other men) have completed about 22,000 (yes, twenty-two
thousand) services on MS Windows installations in the past three years.
In that time, 130 services were for the Linux computers, a ratio
of 169 to 1. That works out to a maintenance intervention
ratio of about 5-to-1 in favor of Linux. That is not the whole
story of course; most of the Windows interventions do not require the
level of expertise that those few Linux interventions required and the
Linux were used primarily as servers while the Windows were used
primarily as desktop computers. However, the Windows computers
were also running in restricted user mode which greatly reduces their
need for maintenance and we still consumed 22,000 tickets.
- Windows: Like a certain brand of pickup truck that
needs to be "fixed or repaired daily," but is relatively easy to fix.
If it is broken completely, fixing it is not a choice, you pop in
the CD and rebuild the computer from scratch. "Ghosting" or
imaging the disk is the fast, easy way to do this. Google "Norton
Ghost".
- Linux: Like a Ferrari. Reliable, efficient; but
when it breaks you're gonna need an expert. Or you can do
it the Windows way and just pop in the CD and start from scratch.
Fortunately, experts are developing every day in high schools
and colleges and bedrooms all across America!
- MacIntosh: Another Ferrari, and not very many
experts to choose from.
- Sun Workstations, Irix, Silicon Graphics: Lamborghini,
twelve cylinder, 24 valve turbocharged computers. You wouldn't
put your seven-year-old at the keyboard of one of these, but these
computers scream through hard work and can do it 7 days a week,
round the clock, for years.
Bottom Line
Generally speaking, up through this year, I would probably
recommend Microsoft Windows for small elementary schools who wish to
expose their students to applications rather than pure technology
(ie, gadgets, gizmos and computer programming). Such schools
should teach basic principles (reading, writing, arithmetic) and
computers should directly assist those functions. Technology for
its own sake is probably wasted on most elementary school age children
-- how many first graders are going to appreciate the nuances that
define Linux versus Windows?
I recommend schools choose a mix of platforms that represent
approximately the market share (and thus, the probability that children
will have one at home) of the contenders -- 80 percent Windows, 15
percent Linux and 5 percent Mac, depending on your community
demographics which may vary from national market percentages.
A mixture ensures that students can take work home whether they have
Linux or Microsoft Windows at home; or even a MacIntosh -- school labs
ought to have a MacIntosh or two for those students that display a gift
for graphics.
Generally speaking, all of these computers can talk to each other;
Linux excels at being the hub in a lab with a mixture of
operating systems.