by Nathan Edwards

Created on: April 21, 2008

There are certain things that teachers need to get out of a computer. First, they need internet. Most PCs and all Macs now come with built-in Wi-Fi cards nowadays. Second, they need good word processing programs, which (since MS Office was released for Mac) Mac and PCs also both provide. "OK," you may be thinking, "Macs and PCs are pretty much equal when it comes to fulfilling the needs of teachers." Wrong!

Teachers also need computers that are ready for any special project thrown at the students, such as the creation of a movie or a song. With Windows, you would have to buy special software and drivers to import the video into the computer, and another set of software and drivers to burn the video onto a DVD, or compress the video to upload it to Youtube. None of these are absolutely guaranteed to work, and any new drivers on a PC run the risk of spewing out BSODs (Blue Screens of Death, those confusing error messages that you see right before your computer automatically restarts). Also, on PCs, you would have to buy software (and possibly microphones) to create songs and other multimedia.

All Macs provide iMovie and iDVD, which are movie editing and DVD authoring programs, respectively. These applications come standard, and are made and designed by Apple, for Apple hardware, thus guaranteeing compatibility and reliability. Furthermore, all Macs provide GarageBand and iPhoto, for song composing/authoring/editing, which could also make for good school projects.

Many times, you need to create something special, but neither Macs nor PCs have the right software. Well, you don't want to dish out $20 for the commercial version if you are only going to use it once. This is where open source applications come in. Open source applications are free, built in software developers' free time, and are usually cross-platform. However, many developers like Mac better, and some will only build their program for Macs. So, that leaves you PC owners out in the cold, unless you still want to pay that $20.

Finally, Macs can run Windows. If you have a Windows application, but only have Mac computers, you can run a program called Boot Camp, which starts Windows on the Mac, allowing you to install and run the Windows application.

So, in conclusion, Macs can do the exact same things that PCs can do for teachers, and then some. Plus, Macs come standard with several programs that you have to buy for PCs. Thus, Macs are by far better for teachers than PCs are, even if they are a little pricier.

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