I am not anti-MLTI in fact I was always jealous of the program previously and it appears that the Macs are not as locked down as I thought thanks to all the commenters, but at the same time if I have my druthers, I would just as soon have my own laptop than using someone else’s. I am a bit of a geek and part of the fun of having a computer is being able to tweek it and try out new things to see how they work.

Harold

1. If you need your machine customized so that you can do your work, then you need to work with your school’s tech dept. and possibly your administrators to get the machine set up to work for you rather than against you. Staff in my school district have admin accounts on their machines so they can try out whatever they want. That means they also have a responsibility to take care of their system, but if they mess it up, I’ll just re-image the machine and life goes on. Some staff, such as the SPED dept. have Parallels installed on their machines for various programs that they need to use. The math dept. gets specific software as does the science dept., and the CAD course gets their software too. IF a teacher or program needs something, then we do what we can to support them. Licensing and funds might be an issue, but the machine itself very rarely is.

2. We do take all machines back in the summer for reimaging, cleaning and checkups/repairs. Students give them up when they leave for the summer. Teachers need to get them to me during a week long time period in August. For the teachers who really can’t part with their machine without going through withdrawal, I set up a 2hr time that is convenient for them to reimage their machine and get it back to them. This ensures that they start the year with a machine that is running well, has the latest software and drivers and that their gradebooks are ready to go for the new year. It also forces staff members to back up their machines at least once a year. Yes, it is annoying for everybody involved, but after running a 1:1 laptop program for 10 years, I also know that it pays off for everybody during the course of the year if we do this.

3. If you really are having an issue with setting your machine back up the way you like it after you have it reimaged, then you should check out a few resources out there that will make it easier. Barbara Greenstone has published a back up notebook – it is available on the ACTEM Noteshare server at Noteshare.actem.org. It explains how to save your various files and setting so you can have them set back up in short order. Invest in an external hard drive and setup Time Machine – use it on a regular basis to back up your work and then use it to put all your files back where they belong when you get your machine back. Your local techies should be able to show you how to move your files back where they need to be.

4. Contribute ideas and suggestions to the MLTI team about what you would like to see on the new image. If you think the current image is locked down, you should have seen the original one way back when. The MLTI image has come a long way, partly because of user feedback.

5. As far as personalization goes, about the only thing you can’t personalize on a MLTI machine is the desktop background and I know more than a few students who have found a way around this issue!

Good Luck!

Crystal

Thanks for commenting…I know and agree with what you have said. I guess I just am an old curmudgeon – if I want to try something new out, I want to try it out or if I want to do something to the computer I want to.

So until I can figure something out, I will keep my HP tablet as my primary machine, put as much stuff in the cloud to be platform independent and keep playing with the Mac, when I have the opportunity.

In the age of standardization, individualization is not an option. I wouldn’t ask them to jailbreak it, because I have to turn it in at the end of the year anyway. So I will wait until either a trade or some funds come my way to purchase one.

Thank again

Harold

That was three years ago. It was a first gen iBook the DOE gave to me to test out. I made the mistake of answering “yes” when some program I was using asked if I wanted to update the application. As you know, that’s verboten and the critter went into the permanent re-boot-loop. I gave the unit back to Jeff Mao and felt it confirmed my bias that Macs were just toys, especially the low end units that were being distributed to MLTI students.

I eventually got another similar iBook but without the MLTI image. The experience was better, but the quality of the small Mac just didn’t meet my expectations.

Last week I was fortunate enough to get that iBook replaced by a brand new MacBook Pro. This is a step above the MLTI-issue Macs with a faster processor and more RAM. It is a pretty sweet machine. But, like you, I do not own this and can use it for demos and to test things out. And that is a bit of a burden.

I understand the logic behind the MLTI “image” and the need for standardization, but I think they did not consider the value of individualization. In Maine, we have been talking about the importance individualized and differentiated instruction for 15 years, and yet we give out teaching and learning tools that are locked down and told not to modify them. Can you imagine if we required all students to use the same exact paper notebook and pen? Or insisted all curriculum had to come from the same textbook…? Okay, okay, that’s a bad example because there are probably many schools where that is indeed the case. But it’s still wrong.

I guess the solution for you – other than winning the lottery or finding a sugar daddy – is to see if your IT people would jailbreak the unit you have and allow for some creativity.

Good luck with that…

In Maine all public school Junior High Students and Teachers are issued Mac Book laptops, so we are very fortunate. Maybe I am to old fashioned, but if I want to try out a new “application” or software, I want to be able to and that means I have to have my own equipment, can’t expose the networks to that “unknown” factor.

I do most of my work in the cloud now and attempt to have very the minimum of desktop software to stay on a desktop. In actuality I am attempting to become O/S neutral where ever I can. If it wasn’t for my gaming, I could probably get by with a netbook pretty easily – I just have to connect it to a monitor, if I am on them for a long time, just like I do with my 12.1 HP tablet.

As we move more and more into WIFI it makes IT dept more likely to provide access to the network proxy, because you can’t really do any damage (unless you know what you are doing).

I know it is more expensive for me to own my own machine, but I really don’t like being responsible for a “loaner” and I really, really don’t like the limitations that go along with using a “loaner”.

Thanks for commenting

Harold

A very interesting dilemma. I can empathize with the struggle of not being allowed to customize the notebook because it is district-issue and destined for re-image at the end of the year. And I can also understand your concern about working with a different-from-usual platform. For what it’s worth, consider investing the time and energy required to get to know the Mac — making use of as many cross-platform opportunities and cloud-based services/software as are available.

I’ve carried around a notebook for close to 16 years now, and for the last fourteen of them, the laptop has been my own, personal machine, normally Mac. Different jurisdictions approach the teacher-issued-notebook question to varying degrees. In my district, administrators are provided with notebooks and blackberries, but teachers are expected to use the regular student-use desktops (not that I haven’t raised the question of hardware-for-teachers numerous times.) And so, to support my professional use and my practice, it’s been my personal hardware that has always done the heavy lifting for me at work. Granted, it’s not allowed on the district network either — but for the last few months, my iPhone tether has given me ‘Net access, so that’s a step forward.

Because it’s my own machine, I have the opportunity to modify it and install software of choice — as you do with your tablet. I have to hope that as we (and jurisdictions, in general) move forward, we’ll all be able to gather in a more happy middle. One where platform choice and lockdown are less significant issues, and empowering our professionals (and our students) to do their best work in the way they do best is more to the forefront. After all, knowingly imposing constraints and sameness seem counter to the notions of enabling and differentiating — key concepts in our approach in education these days.