Macs only in media studies curriculum?

We currently have some Macs in the media studies department, the media department say that this years media curriculum specifies that the students 'have ' to use Macs so they need more. Has anyone else heard this?

This year we have a 'very' tight budget we aren't planning on replacing anything other than failed hardware so there certainly isn't any money to buy some new Macs, especially as they are only for use by the media department.

I find it most unusual that a curriculum authority would specify a particular company’s product i was under the impression that you could use anything that you can produce your media on including Linux desktops.

Thanks for any input.

ruddy media artisty types...psh. Macs only look cooler. :p

No curriculum specifies brands. They may specify functions which end up with their only being a single brand which can do the job, but the brand won't be mentioned.

Ask for a copy of the curriculum to look at.

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Originally Posted by cookie_monster

We currently have some Macs in the media studies department, the media department say that this years media curriculum specifies that the students 'have ' to use Macs so they need more. Has anyone else heard this?

This year we have a 'very' tight budget we aren't planning on replacing anything other than failed hardware so there certainly isn't any money to buy some new Macs, especially as they are only for use by the media department.

I find it most unusual that a curriculum authority would specify a particular company’s product i was under the impression that you could use anything that you can produce your media on including Linux desktops.

Thanks for any input.

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I don't blame them specifying particular applications to use....but this is GCSE Media not A-Level or degree level, where you have to specify industry standards such as FCP, Avid or Pro Tools.

GCSE Media in schools appears to consist of basically a little bit of exposure to Movie Maker and iMovie or a third-party cheap and cheerful 'video editor'....so dictating software and platforms does seem a little bit odd.

However i do think they should be moving towards using industry standard software for year 11's in Media studies, whether that be on PC or Mac should be down to the school and what decisions they can make based on budget and in-house skillset. FCP and FCP express are exclusive to the Mac...yes Avid Express and to a lesser extent, Premiere, are equivalent. But all three are pretty advanced for all but the most able Year 11's.....plus the fact the examining bodies are still demanding coursework to be handed on VHS ffs indicites they don't know they're mojo from their kona.

If the computers are only going to be used by the Media department, and yours is tight, why not get them to pay out of theirs?

Yes, they are more expensive, but make them dual boot and those that want windows can have it, those that want Mac OS can have that too ... you are not restricting yourself.

I know of one local college that has Mac's in their Media department, but insists on having them dual boot Windows/Mac OS (not exactly politically correct for the Mac purists).

Personal opinion is that Macs are OK for Media/Art, but when its down to delivering a wide range of applications and networking, it has to be PC's.

P.S. we don't have Mac's at the moment, but I know a Deputy Head has had a demo recently, and is interested. My argument is that the IT Support in house is PC based, and none of my technicians are keen on learning about supporting Mac's because of the limited field.

I don't think they will be getting 30 so we can't replace a whole room and our prefered option is to replace a room of dead P2's.

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Originally Posted by cookie_monster

I don't think they will be getting 30 so we can't replace a whole room and our prefered option is to replace a room of dead P2's.

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Well explain that to SMT. Media studies can have 30 Macs all to themselves, or you can buy 100 PCs to be used around the school. Let them make the desision and then pass people onto them when they complian they havent got a pc

I hope its not true about requiring macs for media studies, 2 years ago our media studies dept insisted that they required macs for their course. So we bought a load in, and they just never got used (teachers said they didnt know how to use them or the media based software on them (we had premiere/ulead). They pretty much sat gathering dust til they were reallocated to the ICT dept.

Hoping we arent going to have to buy another wodge load in to give to the media dept to not be used

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Originally Posted by cookie_monster

I don't think they will be getting 30 so we can't replace a whole room and our prefered option is to replace a room of dead P2's.

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They don't really need 30 macs. One mac per group of 2 for doing video projects would suffice. You could have a combination of Mac and PC in the room to have a full suite of 30 odd computers...it would ease the budget slightly while still making good use of the media dept. And allow them to do video and graphic design work on the mac.

I understand the technical staffs reluctance to learn the mac environment......but if the money is there for any kind of technical training, i can guarantee they'll get a lot of enjoyment and job satisfaction in administering an OSX environment. And it's not a limited field in education, a lot of schools now have a signifacnt mac presence in their IT environments....corporate IT is a different kettle of fish. But then we all know how hard it is to break out of the education bubble for school technicians.

. Plus once you get going with os x server it's a really cool way to learn most of the unix command line and you can even setup unix services such as apache and samba....Mac's aren't all bells and whistles, the core is built on a powerful and flexible unix underpinning.

I'm almost certain that an exam board wouldn't specify a vendor they go to great lengths to make sure they don't specify MS products as a course requirement.

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Originally Posted by cookie_monster

We currently have some Macs in the media studies department, the media department say that this years media curriculum specifies that the students 'have ' to use Macs so they need more. Has anyone else heard this?

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Our art / media department is getting itself a whole new building built at the moment (I can see a half-dozen Polish tiling chaps scrambling around on the roof at the moment), and wants Macs in their new ICT suite. For its size and quietness, I still haven't found anything cheaper than the Mac Mini - £400 for the basic device, add your own screen, keyboard and mouse. We've got a quote off of some company for around £550 each all-in, and of course that includes the wodge of decent software that comes included with Mac OS X. We should have us a suite full of completely silent computers, with some decent elbow room between workstations.

--
David Hicks

"I understand the technical staffs reluctance to learn the mac environment......"

I know how to use Macs and as i say we already have some so that's not the issue.

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I haven't used a Mac Mini but aren't they a bit underpowered for video editing?

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Originally Posted by cookie_monster

"I understand the technical staffs reluctance to learn the mac environment......"

I know how to use Macs and as i say we already have some so that's not the issue.

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I haven't used a Mac Mini but aren't they a bit underpowered for video editing?

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sorry, it was nexus-6 who said something about learning the mac skillset.
thought it was:o you