Educational subsidies

From: Doug Spence <ds_spenc_at_alcor.concordia.ca>
Date: Sat Oct 24 18:58:57 1998

On Sat, 17 Oct 1998, Max Eskin wrote:

> Slashdot.org has a story explaining that the UK school system can't
> afford NT 5 and are considering another OS. In light of this, people
> were bringing up Apple's success in schools in contrast to the current
> situation.

I thought that Acorn dominated the UK school system? Perhaps I heard
wrong.

At any rate, it's definitely country, if not region, specific, as I don't
recall ever hearing from anyone around here that they went to a school
with an Apple lab.

My high school had TRS-80s. Model IIIs, I think. Another one that I
visited had Ataris. Three people that I know had labs full of PETs
in school, though one of those labs was at a technical school and not
high school or elementary school.

My high school had a single Apple //e in the physics lab, but that's all.
Also several PETs in the music department, and an Altair 8800, which all
disappeared a year or two before I got there (I went to the open house
while my brother attended the school). One of those PETs is sitting in
the other room as I type this (my brother bought it from the high school
music teacher).

The TRS-80s were replaced with some rediculous things from France while I
was attending the school, but I can't remember the name of the computer
even though I saw one at the Salvation Army a while back. They were PC
semi-compatibles, I think.

The college I attended before entering university had at least two labs
full of Commodore PCs.

Sun and DEC seem to dominate the university I attend, with a sprinkling of
SGI, Macintosh, and Amiga.

Quebec government subsidies supported those things from France, and I
don't think Apple really had much of a foothold in the educational market
here. I could be wrong, of course, but when I mention PETs to people in
my classes now, often they mention that those were the first machines that
they used back in high school or elementary. I don't get the same
response for Apples, which were often owned at home but not used at
school. (And I was an Apple user back in my high school days, so I do
mention it.)


-- 
Doug Spence
ds_spenc_at_alcor.concordia.ca
http://alcor.concordia.ca/~ds_spenc/
Received on Sat Oct 24 1998 - 18:58:57 BST

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