By Lars Kongshem
SEPTEMBER 1999 -- The new tangerine and blueberry-colored portable
computers from Cupertino start shipping this month, but the
verdict is still out on whether Apple's $1,599 iBook
is the laptop that schools have been waiting for. On the plus
side, it's relatively inexpensive, it features a well-integrated
wireless networking option for untethered connectivity
in the classroom, it's cute and sturdy, and it's got neat design
elements such as a hinged handle and a power cord with its own
retracting spool.
On the minus side, it's too heavy -- 6.7 pounds -- for younger
students to carry around comfortably, its standard allotment of
RAM is a pathetic 32 MB, and the list of missing features
is long: No microphone, no PC Card slot, no SCSI or FireWire connections,
no video-out port for doing whole-class presentations -- and,
once again, no floppy drive.
With the iBook, Apple's quixotic and arrogant refusal to
ship its computers with built-in floppy drives is looking increasingly
foolish. Granted, floppy disks are nearly as ancient as punch
cards, but they're still useful for sharing smaller files when
there's no network connection around. After all, the iBook is
a portable computer, and as such it is unlikely to spend
its entire life jacked into an Ethernet drop. What are students
supposed to do when they take their iBooks home and Mom and Dad
ask for digital copies of their homework? Dial out to the Internet
and send an e-mail attachment? Give me a break. If Apple
really believes its own hype about the death of the floppy disk,
the company should place its bets on a modern removable storage
medium such as Iomega's Zip drive and build it into every computer.
Closing the door on floppies is bad enough, but neglecting to
provide a replacement technology is just plain dumb.
However, it's hard to find fault with Apple's brilliant implementation
of wireless local-area networking technology. The $299 AirPort
base station can provide wireless Internet access to as many as
10 iBooks that have been equipped with the $99 AirPort option;
to accommodate additional iBooks, simply add another base station.
Just a few years ago, wireless LANs were prohibitively expensive
and used mostly in locations where pulling cable was impractical.
Now, wireless LANs have come so far down in price that schools
are beginning to use them for their instructional and pedagogical
advantages: Students have the freedom to work anywhere in
the classroom, and teachers are able to move from one group to
another without tripping over wires.
Kids love to find hidden features, of course, so it won't
be long before they catch on to this one: AirPort-equipped iBooks
can initiate direct wireless connections with each other, without
the need for a base station at all. Just imagine: Students passing
digital notes to each other in class -- even through walls,
from one classroom to another! Now that's what I call progress.
Lars Kongshem is an associate editor and the webmaster of Electronic School and American School Board Journal.
Socket archive: June
1999, February 1999, November
1998
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