Feb
Apple Tech Update for Education
I had an opportunity today to participate in this Apple sponsored workshop for IT professionals in education. The event was held at the Terre Haute, Indiana Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana. This was a free event and lunch was provided. I feel bad as I didn’t even think to blog about this event until after lunch. Guess I’m not a true blogger yet. Also, I composed this in a hurry and really didn’t have a chance to do any proof-reading, so please bear with me. I’ll try and get to some edits later.
After lunch I grabbed my RAZR, took a couple of shots and began to create this post. The images are pretty bad as I have an older RAZR. I really need to find a really good quality micro camera, but that’s for another post. The presentations were specifically targeted toward those who support Mac classrooms and institutions that deploy Mac servers. The topics of discussion for this presentation included:
- Introduction to Leopard
- Introduction to Leopard server
- Introduction to deploying Podcasting in Education using Apple hardware
- Remote management
- Boot Camp
There was little additional information concerning Leopard and Leopard server that hasn’t already been mentioned during recent Apple presentations or on various blog posts around the net. As a matter of fact, the Apple presenters mentioned that there are still many secret features that even they do not know about at this time and that they are holding the information close to the home base at Cupertino.
An interesting item that I was unaware of was the fact that Leopard could run both 32bit and 64bit software on the same machine without any performance hit. They mentioned that Professors doing research with extremely large data sets would benefit from the extra memory space available by 64bit software. I also found it interesting that Leopard includes a significant number of open source software. They threw up a list of images that included all of the open source code and it was very impressive (wish I had taken a picture). Leopard will also be a true POSIX based Linux system. I’m no Unix guru, but I think that means that X11 will finally be a thing of the past. Correct me if I’m wrong by posting a comment.
The most interesting piece of Leopard information was the fact that an educational institution could join the Apple Developers Connection and receive the Leopard Early Start Kit for $500. It was also mentioned that the educational institution might be able receive this membership free of charge. Institutions should contact their representative for availability and eligibility. Coordination with an Apple Educational representative was required to make this happen. This is a good way for institutions to begin testing Leopard deployment.
During the podcasting session they shared information on hosting podcasts and provided some examples of some interesting uses of podcasting in education. They also spent some time discussing how the iPhone will integrate into their whole strategy of providing classroom instructional material to students. It was also mentioned that residential campuses are being encouraged to evaluate the cost of PBX system in the dorm rooms. Apple’s thought is that when students are already coming to campus with mobile phones and iPods, or being asked the purchase them, institutions should consider having student purchase an iPhone and have both devices on a single platform. Students can then download instructional materials, manage their schedules and communicate with other students all from the palm of their hand. It’s an interesting proposition and just might make $599 price tag seem reasonable.
Apple Remote Desktop and Filewave were probably the most impressive packages demonstrated. This software allows for the remote administration of complete labs of computers. By simply selecting and de-selecting from a list of software, an administrator can install or remove software from specific machines. We use Apple Remote Desktop at the office, but having a demo did make me aware of some features that might make lab management a bit more manageable.
The last session discussed the use of Boot Camp. Just in case you don’t know, Boot Camp allows you to install Windows on a Mac, for those of you who just have too. Unlike Parallels, this is not a virtualization product. You actually run Windows from a partition at full speed using Apple provided drivers for the hardware. It was mentioned that on Mac Pros with multiple hard drives, you can now install Windows XP on another drive. The recommended Windows version is XP service pack 2. The process for installing Boot Camp and Windows was provided along with some tips and uh-oh moments. Warnings using BootCamp included the fact that the Boot Camp beta will expire in September 07 and Apple DOES NOT support Windows and Microsoft does not support Apple hardware. That last warning shouldn’t be a shock to any of us.
Parallels was also discussed as an option. A favorite feature presented was that Parallels can now support the Boot Camp partition and share the same Windows installation. Coherence mode was also demonstrated. This is truly an impressive feature as it allows you to run a Windows application as an actual sole application without seeing the Windows desktop, the OS X and Windows applications share the same windowed workspace. What was even more staggering is that the applications even shared the clipboard. What was even more amazing was sharing music between the Windows version of iTunes and an OS X version of iTunes using remote music sharing. Very kewl. The presenter even “geeked out” on us and actually discussed installing Fedora Core Linux under parallels.
The final presentation was a MacWorld Update. First on the list was Apple TV. They discussed the features and capabilities, nothing that hasn’t been discussed elsewhere. They joked that we should all buy one and start experimenting with the use in education. I threw out that they should send us all one and we’ll get back to them. Next they discussed the new AirPort Extreme and the 802.11n spec (300Mbps and around 150′). I was also very excited about the USB port on the back of the Extreme. Not only can you hook up a printer you can also add…hold on now, a USB hard drive! Combine this with the Apple TV and you have an excellent way to put together an awesome media server.
They completed the presentation by discussing future events and is sounds as if the sales team in Indiana was ready to enhance their access to educational institutions and were anxious to meet with us again at least two to three times a year. I look forward to future sessions and found this one, while not extremely revealing, to be very valuable. Since I couldn’t attend MacWorld, this was a very nice substitute.
Oh and I now own a nice Apple water bottle. What a day!
Technorati Tags: Apple, Education, Presentation
