The current situation (and recent past)
For years, the classroom instructor stations and refreshing lab computers at Carleton have been dual-boot iMacs: computers made by Apple that we have set up to run both Microsoft Windows and Apple’s MacOS. We’ve been able to do this because in 2006 Apple started using Intel chips to power Macs. Ordinarily, most people don’t care a lot about who makes the chip in the computer they use; as long as the computer does what they need it to do, they probably don’t even think about it. This change was significant, though, because it was the switch to Intel that meant that Macintosh computers could run both the MacOS and Windows, and that in turn allowed us to put only a single computer in each classroom while still letting individual professors teach using whichever operating system they preferred.
Getting Windows to run on Macs has become less straightforward in the years since Apple made this switch, however, especially as Apple and Microsoft add new security features designed to prevent hacking. As such, we need to prepare for a future where we may no longer be able to run both Windows and MacOS on a single piece of hardware.
Looking ahead
For the 2019-2020 academic year, all instructor stations will continue to run both MacOS and Windows. However, we are forming a group, with help from Associate Dean Gretchen Hofmeister, to look at our options. How do we ensure that professors are able to teach the software packages they need to teach in the appropriate rooms? How do we ensure that students can access the software they need to do their coursework? We will be exploring things such as virtualization and changing the hardware makeup of the labs, as well as creating contingency plans in case making the Macs dual boot becomes unsustainable.
Another important shift that has occurred since Apple introduced Intel-based Macs is a marked increase in the number of Carleton faculty whose primary computer at work is a laptop. A survey conducted by the Dean’s Office earlier this year showed that about 40% of faculty on campus bring their laptop to class sometimes, and a significant portion of these do so regularly. Attitudes have changed a lot since 2015, when we last explored this question.
Things to consider
We are considering the trade-offs of not replacing the instructor stations in most classrooms when the computers we are installing this summer age out, over the summer of 2023. The scenario we currently envision would leave the instructor stations in teaching computer labs, as well as in the few spaces that regularly host presentations by non-Carleton visitors, and would switch most rooms to a bring-your-own-device model. We plan to use the next four years to explore the potential teaching and learning effects of this change, as well as the financial impact. Many faculty find that teaching from their own laptop gives them significantly more control over how things are set up, and we feel it is a logical area to explore further. Buying more than 70 instructor stations every four years is expensive – around $140,000 – and saving that money would help offset the increasing costs of providing technology-enabled classrooms (and the growing number of those rooms). These are only a few of a number of factors to weigh in a decision of this magnitude, and we will be carefully considering a range of options and collecting input over the next four years.
A move to a single operating system and/or the removal of classroom instructor stations would be significant changes to the computing environment at Carleton. Though we can’t predict what Apple and Microsoft will do, we welcome your feedback on how Carleton should respond. Please don’t hesitate to contact Janet Scannell (jscannell), Gretchen Hofmeister (ghofmeis), or Austin Robinson-Coolidge (arobinso).