Apple for the Teacher?
Voice recognition is here. The Apple App of Siri may well have announced the start of the next digital revolution. The Guardian said:
When you ask or instruct Siri to do something, it first sends a little audio file of what you said over the air to some Apple servers, which use a voice recognition system from a company called Nuance to turn the speech – in a number of languages and dialects – into text. A huge set of Siri servers then processes that to try to work out what your words actually mean. That’s the crucial NLU part, which nobody else yet does on a phone.
Then an instruction goes back to the phone, telling it to play a song, or do a search (using the data search engine Wolfram Alpha, rather than Google), or compose an email, or a text, or set a reminder (possibly linked to geography – the instruction, “Remind me to call mum when I get home,” will work), or – boring! – call a number.
I always wondered what the Star Trek gadgetry would do to help us - call Mum was not one of the things I saw Kirk do. Did I miss that episode?
I have always been an Apple fan, and will look at upgrading to this next year. However, not everyone is a fan. Head teachers or bursars normally. We have been contacted by some of our subscribers, and they needed a little help in getting procurement sorted. We now have a handy guide for the PC v Mac debate - and all arguing in your favour. Here is your extract:
PC
- Tech Support - chances are that your IT technicians are PC users in the main. This means that if something goes wrong with your computers / server you will be able to get help - quickly.
- Many homes will have PCs, therefore making this more accessible to the class outside of the classroom. Many businesses, including those in the film and media industries, use PCs.
- The hardware can be purchased at very cheap prices on the high street. There are often deals at the large electrical chains, and your school / LEA will probably have a relationship with a PC provider already. You can build a PC from the ground up.
Mac
- Students should be using industry standard hardware and software. Macs are ultimately the computer of choice for many creative media occupations. Students should be both PC and Mac literature for 21st century careers.
- You can get free CPD classes from your local Apple store.
- Macs - hardly - ever go wrong, in my experience (ten years of running specialised Mac Suites in schools). They are VERY user friendly, so you will save time and money on ongoing minor issues as you can encounter with PCs. They are less likely to get viruses than PCs and you can do software upgrades for free.
If you need any more help with software, hardware or even tacking solutions in your school, pop a comment below and we will do our very best to help you too.
Link: MediaEdu | iTraining | Mac vs PC
Link: Guardian | Voice Recognition Apple Siri
Categories: Weeklies
Tags: apple siri voice recognition,mac vs pc,media studies computers,media studies equipment,media studies it suite,media studies procurement,pc vs mac
