Skip to main content

Moving Beyond Platform Bias or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love (well, Like) Windows 7

My wife will tell you I'm a Mac snob and she's right. For the last seven years I've been an avid Mac user and all-things-Apple proponent. I'm a veteran of platform battles. XP drove me nuts. Back then I felt people wanted it because it was easier for network folks to manage and it allowed users not to have to think about much. "Computing for Dummies" I thought in my younger, more smug days. I argued with folks up and down about why we needed the Mac OS, how important iLife was to creating things that register on meaningful parts of Bloom's Taxonomy. I still believe those things are important, I'm just realizing it can be done a couple of different ways.

For seven years I lived in a 90% Mac district. We were early adopters of all things iOS as well. Then I moved out of the Apple Orchard on to new adventures this past month. More than one former colleague thought it was pretty funny I'd be moving onto a Windows district that ran a Novell network. Maybe 100 iPads in the district. The bread and butter of my training expertise was gone - no iLife, no iBook Author, few iOS devices.

Great your title says "integrator," now what? Back to square one?

Our district bought brand new HP Elitebooks this summer for all staff members. Other than the size (I was getting very used to a 13-inch Air) it's a great machine. Windows 7 does what I need it to do 95% of the time. I purchased Camtasia Studio for my video editing and screen casting needs. When I stop and think about it, it's very Butter Battle-y to quibble about platforms. There's an Apple Menu, there's a Windows "Start" orb. There's a Dock, there's a Task Bar. One has System Preferences, the other Control Panel. The display isn't as sharp as I'm used to, but it's not like I'm doing high end graphic arts. I'm working off of spreadsheets the majority of the time right now as I get acclimated to assessment and data responsibilities.

A combination of middle age wisdom on don't sweat the small stuff (and it's all small stuff) and the rise of online resources have moved me beyond worrying about platforms. Evernote, Dropbox and Google Drive - three apps I use a lot - work just as well in any environment. As my Jedi Master, Doug Johnson told me, Google Chrome and the iOS will probably make the mainstream platforms obsolete in the not-to-distant future.

For the near-term I'll continue to buy Apple products for my household, mainly because when they break I know how to fix them. But when it comes to work, my horizons are widening. That's a good thing.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Do we have to call them 21st Century Skills?

I'm glad a few years ago I introduced the book 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times  to our administration. It was exciting to have an assistant superintendent interested in changing the conversation for learning in our school district. While I still certainly appreciate the content of this book, I am soooooooo sick of hearing about 21st Century Learning, 21st Century Skills, 21st Century ad nauseam . Isn't there a better way to phrase this for everyday conversation? Perhaps we need to stick with this so everyone hears consistent jargon, but I don't think people overall have the right idea of what it means. I would imagine if we polled our staff or parents they would say its technology or computer skills. That couldn't be further from the truth. If I say higher order thinking skills  I think that's pretty clear (at least to me) of what that means. I worry 21st Century  means the Jetsons or Star Trek to all too many people. I appreciate Tony Wag...
2 comments
Read more

...moving in.

...getting used to my new digs in Germantown . I moved into an office I'll be sh aring with a soon to be hired Student Information Specialist. To be honest there were plenty of times in the last week I felt like I was going to puke - moving on from all I've known for 7 years professionally. Stomachs have settled now and great conversations are taking their place. Had a great one today with our high school media specialist Jeff Schreiber  who has done great things integrating technology, boosting circulation and getting kids reading. I know we're going to do some great things in the next few years and I look forward to the challenge of discovering what works for Germantown in terms of instructional technology. In addition to instructional technology integration, I'm also working on data and assessment analysis. This is a hot topic in Wisconsin right now, as the DPI NAEPized  (more than you care to know on this link) our standardized test scores. Students who may...
2 comments
Read more

The Future of Technology Funding and Support

Will Richardson and Chris Lehman shined a light  on what I found to be horrifying statements. At the Education Innovation Summit Lehman reported defeated former Mayor of Washington DC Adrian Fenty said "if we fire more teachers, we'll have more money for technology."This happened a while ago - back in April, but this morning it came back to me as I contemplated the future of technology funding and support in schools in the face of ever-decreasing budgets. In my opinion, people are more important than machines for our kids. I can buy an iPad or laptop, but a personal teacher/mentor/advisor that's a little more pricey. Can we find ways to use technology to lighten the load for teachers - of course - but as a parent, a school flush with laptops and tablets, but devoid the necessary number of caring professionals to support learning is not a school I want my kids in. To contradict Mr. Fenty, "the more technology we don't buy, the more caring professionals we ...
2 comments
Read more