(For those new to the column, Forward Migration is our term for companies moving from Wintel machines to Macs — or at least adding or increasing the number of Macs they use. A Forward Migration Kit is an overview of Mac OS products for a particular occupation, such as photography, optometry, etc.)
Rolling Meadows, a public elementary school in the Halton School District of Burlington, Ontario with approximately 800 students, recently had 25 Indigo 500MHz iMacs delivered. They’ll go into the library computer lab, and the 25 iMacs they are replacing will be located in classrooms throughout the school, John Primrose, key computer teacher, told MacCentral.
“Also, I am getting a Graphite SE iMac to begin working on two iMovie video yearbooks,” he said. “One is for K-6 grades and one for the 7th and 8th grade students. I am planning for each movie to be an hour in length.”
We first mentioned Rolling Meadows in December 1999 when the school purchased 10 of 20 iMacs planned for the school year. At the time the school said that any computers purchased from then on would be Macs. The first round of Macs were used in classrooms and labs.
Meanwhile, Holland (Illinois) Public Schools’ East Middle School opened this school in August with a new wireless backbone, based on Lucent’s technology and provided by Wireless Information Systems of Chicago.
There are approximately 60 iBooks on the wireless system. However, the school also has approximately 75 Power Mac 54/5500 systems and 60 iMacs. About 600 students are served by Apple technology.
District Technology Coordinator Michael Allgaier said they use Macs rather than Wintel systems because they’re the district standard, they are easier to use, and are easy to set up with wireless/network connectivity. By the way, Allgaier thinks the Holland school system was the first school system in the country to use iBooks wirelessly on a system other than Apple’s Airport base stations rather than the Urban School as we reported on Oct. 5.
Do you have a Forward Migration story? Send it our way.
Requests for help
Now it’s time for our weekly requests for help from folks who need your advice and/or assistance in forward migrating — or at least being able to keep the Mac platform alive and thriving in their businesses. Contact the requesters directly at their e-mail addresses.
Andrew Stout, systems administrator, Century Marketing, Bowling Green, OH: “We would be very interested in finding information on call center technology available for the Mac and future technology looking forward with Mac OS X. We have about 220 Macs including about 60 call center Macs. We are trying very hard to keep our Macintosh environment intact while management sees Wintel as the only way to get CTI integration and call center management. Any advice?”
Daniel Keder: “I have a Yamaha AP U-70 and it just won’t work with my Power Mac G4. When I connect the unit to my Mac, it doesn’t play any sound. I can, however, control the unit with software, but what good is it if it doesn’t play? In the Mac audio out settings it doesn’t show. It does show in the audio in setting, though. So, basically, the Mac can find the device, communicate with it, but no sound can be heard. The sounds only comes out from the dinky built-in speaker. Can someone help?”
Mark Altmar: “I am a math and computer teacher in Palm Springs, and I am currently teaching my Algebra class how to solve equations. Rather than trying to show them millions of examples, I am showing them how to solve a general equation (e.g., ax + b = c). As we solve more general forms, I would love to have the kids write a BASIC program that would allow them to create a library of equation solvers. I think back to old MacBASIC. That program was simple to use, and didn’t require the user to define windows for answers, etc. My question: Is there a version of BASIC out there for the Mac that is simple to use, like MacBASIC? I know RealBASIC is out there, but that is much more involved, and I don’t think the eighth graders would easily understand it. Any help would be really appreciated.”