hailstorm Posted May 28, 2010 Posted May 28, 2010 Just a question I wanted to ask to satisfy my own curiosity. It's not unusual for a school or uni in the USA to be all Mac. Think they are fairly dominant in some states. Any schools in the UK gone down this route? I work for the county council and I've only ever seen the lone 1 or 2 Macs in a school. Even then they are usually just standalone with no connection to the school's domain.
AXE Posted May 28, 2010 Posted May 28, 2010 I've been to dozens of schools around the country. Independent schools tend to have more macs than most, the highest ratio I've seen is about 50:50 (but that was very exceptional). Usually I see around 30-40 mainly in media/music etc. mostly stand-alone but sometimes with a server linked to AD.
dirtydog Posted May 28, 2010 Posted May 28, 2010 we used to be all Mac years ago before I worked here. We are about 70/30 PC/MAC but many of the macs are dual boot Windows 7/OSX now. We have some mac servers so they are fully integrated.
bossman Posted May 28, 2010 Posted May 28, 2010 @hailstorm: I do believe that the Academy 360 in Sunderland could be all Macs, not entirely positive on this but I am told this was what the Principle decided along with Ipod touches etc. From what I hear it has been very expensive and the staff just don't use the Macbooks as they have had no real training and find them less intrinsic than PCs.
nicholab Posted May 28, 2010 Posted May 28, 2010 The MIS used in schools does not run on OSX a slight problem.
arthur231283 Posted May 28, 2010 Posted May 28, 2010 My wife works at an all MAC school. They still have to use windows because their MIS only works on it so they have VMware setup on the macs for staff to access it.
Hightower Posted May 28, 2010 Posted May 28, 2010 The MIS used in schools does not run on OSX a slight problem. Depends what MIS you use I suppose. If you use the openMIS systems then AFAIK these are web based and should work on pretty much any device.
HodgeHi Posted May 28, 2010 Posted May 28, 2010 We are an all-mac school. Our Admin Staff also have iMacs on their desks, although as mentioned they need to use Windows on them due to SIMS and FMS requiring it. The class-rooms do currently have Windows running on them but with access to SIMS via the web browser this may not be the case anymore. I am just going through the process of finding out what software is needed on the Windows side and see if there is a web-based version or an alternative. The back-end though still has an AD system along with an integrated OD.
AntonioRocco Posted May 28, 2010 Posted May 28, 2010 Hi I know of at least half-a-dozen in and around the West Midlands area as well as 3-4 in the Leicestershire area. All Open Directory Environments. Admittedly some ares mall 5-20 workstations expanding to much larger ones 60-180 workstations with multiple servers. There is also one school in the Ripley/Codner area which is all mac with roughly 6-8 servers and 300-450 workstations. Of the half dozen in the West Midlands area 3 were all PC (Active Directory) which were scrapped after 2-3 months in favour of the Mac (Open Directory) environment. If you're also counting parallel LDAP environments I know of half-a-dozen again in the West Midlands area. From others that I know working in this field there are a number in the London and Home Counties area as well as Manchester/Leeds. Some of them quite large. In addition I know of at least three Corporate environments which are also all mac. These started out as PC/Active Directory but were scrapped not long after the first macs went in. Antonio Rocco (ACSA)
hailstorm Posted May 28, 2010 Author Posted May 28, 2010 @hailstorm: I do believe that the Academy 360 in Sunderland could be all Macs, not entirely positive on this but I am told this was what the Principle decided along with Ipod touches etc. From what I hear it has been very expensive and the staff just don't use the Macbooks as they have had no real training and find them less intrinsic than PCs. Well if it's like most schools I deal with the teachers are very much creatures of habit. Just moving from Office 2003 to Office 2007 has caused some to freak out. Can't imagine what it would be like changing to a completely different OS.
hailstorm Posted May 28, 2010 Author Posted May 28, 2010 Hi I know of at least half-a-dozen in and around the West Midlands area as well as 3-4 in the Leicestershire area. All Open Directory Environments. Admittedly some ares mall 5-20 workstations expanding to much larger ones 60-180 workstations with multiple servers. There is also one school in the Ripley/Codner area which is all mac with roughly 6-8 servers and 300-450 workstations. Of the half dozen in the West Midlands area 3 were all PC (Active Directory) which were scrapped after 2-3 months in favour of the Mac (Open Directory) environment. If you're also counting parallel LDAP environments I know of half-a-dozen again in the West Midlands area. From others that I know working in this field there are a number in the London and Home Counties area as well as Manchester/Leeds. Some of them quite large. In addition I know of at least three Corporate environments which are also all mac. These started out as PC/Active Directory but were scrapped not long after the first macs went in. Antonio Rocco (ACSA) Do you know if the county councils provide IT support for those schools or is it a outside firm? The one thing I'd like it to get more experience in mixed environments but the council I work for will only touch Windows only networks.
Sean-OC04 Posted May 29, 2010 Posted May 29, 2010 Do you know if the county councils provide IT support for those schools or is it a outside firm? The one thing I'd like it to get more experience in mixed environments but the council I work for will only touch Windows only networks. I would imagine then that your county council keep a tight rein on IT within the school in your area? I have lots of schools that are supported by us for their Macs, as the general level of support from county councils is so poor!
iSteve Posted June 14, 2010 Posted June 14, 2010 We're about a 70/30 split in favour of Mac OS here. Those who use our MIS are on Windows, as are a few machines in Technology which run some crappy CAD program. We are quite often donated Wintel PCs too from the University. All 6 of our IT rooms are Mac, as are teacher computers in each classroom and open access study / library areas.
Moby Posted September 19, 2010 Posted September 19, 2010 I am aware of around a dozen schools, even after going through BSF that are all MAC. Major stumbling block is cost of machine, software and finding enough support staff who can support them. My current school has 3 suites of them, and only one on my team knows anything about them. Real problem.
iSteve Posted September 20, 2010 Posted September 20, 2010 My current school has 3 suites of them, and only one on my team knows anything about them. Real problem. Learn? It's what we did.
Moby Posted September 20, 2010 Posted September 20, 2010 Learn? It's what we did. Well obviously yes. But that assumes I have an interest in MAC. In truth I don't!
GrumbleDook Posted September 20, 2010 Posted September 20, 2010 I don't have an interest in Project Management ... but have had to learn. Sorry if that sounds harsh.
HodgeHi Posted September 20, 2010 Posted September 20, 2010 Give them a chance. You may find that you like em. Once you start to work out their little quirks they're not that bad to manage. Yeah there's some issues but then they aren't really network client in all honesty. Work through the issues (as you do with anything), find the workarounds and then you may end up feeling like you've accomplished something. It's a great feeling resolving a problem when you don't really understand the system. Hell, I've been doing it for years
Moby Posted September 20, 2010 Posted September 20, 2010 PRINCE2 Practitioner certified since 2007. Paid for out of my own funds, and a week of my holidays. Never smegging used it!!! Done loads of projects before and since!
Moby Posted September 20, 2010 Posted September 20, 2010 Your probably right. Same old problem though. School want it fixing now, now, now, not when I've figured out what I'm doing. Google here I come!
HodgeHi Posted September 20, 2010 Posted September 20, 2010 Well we are all here to help. Any issues just give us a nudge
dave.81 Posted September 21, 2010 Posted September 21, 2010 We've just put in our first mac suite, i've never had any experience of them before this and although i still think they are massively overpriced, i have to admit i'm enjoying using them. Not setup correctly yet just using a locked down guest account i have yet to get the mac mini setup to do it. As for moving the entire school over to them, i can see some plus's but not sure they outwieght the cost.
mbrunt Posted September 21, 2010 Posted September 21, 2010 I recently went to an "all mac" school, however they are running lots of windows servers , so kind of pointless. but yeah!
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