I use this medium rather than his blog or one I create to respond to Phil Shapiro's criticism of Apple's Tiger campaign because I am one of those who is more comfortable with the easy give and take of email dialog than I am with the formalities of the blog.
(That may change.) The notion that Apple does not know that learning takes place outside of the school setting is wide of the mark: anyone who knows the history of the two Steves and their work and statements over the years knows of their belief in the power of nonformal learning. There is a simple explanation for Apple's current focus on the formal educational settings which does not involve ignorance of or indifference to other possibilities for teaching and learning. In the early days of school computing Apple had the lion's share of the school and college market: the Apple 2 and the early Macintosh's were everywhere, and all the others including Tandy and Morrow and Eagle--and IBM--far behind. That of course has changed, and currently Apple has only a minority share of the school and college market. The campaign that Phil criticizes is nothing more than a focused marketing campaign aimed at getting Apple back into contention in the school and college market. This focus on a target is of course how marketing works, and does not at all mean that Apple does not know or appreciate the nonschool contributions of nonacademics and nonschool settings to learning. Steve Eskow [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Phil Shapiro Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2005 8:59 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [DDN] apple feels learning happens only at k-12 schools and colleges hi everyone - apple computer feels that learning happens only at K-12 schools and colleges. that point of view is ingrained into their corporate culture. see apple's tiger educator evaluation program for one more instance of this. http://www.apple.com/education/tigerevaluation/ it's a pretty sad reflection on the company that its outlook is so limited. we who are outside-of-school educators feel that learning goes on everywhere at all times. and we feel you don't have to be a K-12 teacher or a college professor to be an impassioned and effective educator. apple hasn't yet heard of outside-of-school learning. we need to teach them. the question on the table is can a company involved in education learn. can they learn? let's hope they can. if you feel this is an issue that needs some public attention, you can link from your blog to the blog posting http://www.digitaldivide.net/blog/pshapiro/view?PostID=3078 adding your own comments and point of view. if you don't have a blog yet, you can set one up for free quite easily at http://www.blogger.com or, even better, the Digital Divide Network offers free blogging. http://www.digitaldivide.net do please send me any questions you might have about starting a blog. our collective voice is only as strong as the quantity and quality of our blogging. our cause is only as powerful as we are cohesive. - phil -- Phil Shapiro [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.his.com/pshapiro/ (personal) http://teachme.blogspot.com (weblog) http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/pshapiro (technology access work) http://mytvstation.blogspot.com/ (video and rich media) "There's just so much more creativity and genius out there than our media currently reflect." FCC Commissioner Michael Copps _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
