My responses will be:
1. We need to consider ‘Total cost of Ownership’. Initial cost of a PC may be cheaper but when you take into account more downtime, extra support for fixing issues etc Macs are a more reliable machine
2. Exactly what part of Windows do the students need to learn?
We need to educate students about technology and how to use technology in their learning. Skills we need to teach include keyboarding skills and word processing, spreadsheets, multimedia and the Internet etc.
The next step is to learn how to apply the computer tool, discovering creative ways of using the applications which leads to real learning.
NONE of the above is platform dependent
Future employers look for qualities such as:
Integrity
Good communication skills
Dependability
Willingness to learn
flexibility
NOT whether a person can use Windows or Macs
This, I’m sure, will lead to further discussion…

That said, it’s going to be quite up in the air. Some schools will go Mac, some will go PC. As for Linux, I think that will happen when an ambitious teacher decides to start putting dual-boots on computers to teach Linux to aspiring power users (such as those in a programming or higher level computers class)

What it will come down to is which company the school district in question has a deal with. I know for a fact that my old school district for high school gets huge deals from Apple on mac computers. Thus, all of the schools in the area all have Apple Computers (Yes, even old IIe’s) If a district got a huge deal from, say, Dell, they’ll have a bunch of Windows-based computers.

I can agree with Chris on a few points: Computers should be taught from as many angles as possible. The more angles you understand a computer from, the better you understand them as a whole, regardless of operating system. I also agree that Linux should be introduced to schools. Perhaps not to people just looking to type up a paper, but getting even mid-level users familiar with a command line, etc. is a step in the right direction, especially with computers becoming ingrained in every aspect of life.

Currently at university for Computer Science Education (for the high school level.) This is something that I seriously have to consider, what am I going to teach when I get into a class room? Ideally, I do want to teach Linux to higher-level users, but whichever is there, Mac or PC, I will teach as well. Computers are a thing that people will learn regardless of operating system. I wouldn’t say one is easier than the other, and I wouldn’t say one is better than the other.

-LINUX
-WINDOWS
-MAC

very good idea, even though linux has even been trying to be speacialized in education with there “Edubuntu” which unlike most mac/windows that don’t even speacialize in education is completely FREE, which has to be the coolest thing ever about linux.

Go linux, Go Chris, thanks for listening

apple no way

i’m an apple user and i can’t understand why they don’t teacher macs