Dear Colleagues
In response to David’s email, yes it can be seen as a leading question.
Each course will have it’s own issues to confront within the context of the course vision and future direction.
It is not a simple Mac v PC.
At Nottingham Trent University Photography (Under and Post graduate course as my colleague has already pointed out) we use Mac.
Colleagues have highlighted the function and use of devices such as iPad and related media. We are all aware of the the teaching landscape, its function has changed, interaction with students continually evolving.
The issue raised must be driven by curricula. The mapping of the curricula should involve resources as part of team planning and future strategy.
IT do not plan curricula, there role is valid (invaluable) but quite specific, to each course and university.
There must be a business case to support all decisions I hope?
Mac v PC= Mac all the way.
I will bring this back to curricula, which must inform all decisions.

All the best
Max



Max Kandhola
Principal Lecturer / Programme Leader in Photography
Nottingham Trent University | School of Art & Design | Burton Street | Nottingham NG1 4BU

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________________________________
From: Association for Photography in Higher Education [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of John Gulliver [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 06 February 2013 20:55
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Any thoughts on this debate?

David,

At Ravensbourne we run (almost) exclusively Macs, especially on the D Photo course. We find software such as Capture One w. Phase One P40s and iQ appears to be optimised for Mac and is more stable than on PCs, our new students get a generous bursary discount on Macbook Pro, Adobe Suite thrown in, works beautifully.

Bw, John Gulliver.

On 6 February 2013 16:32, SARGEANT, Nick <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Hi David

As your former external examiner I can say this was not prominent on the agenda last year and as colleagues have already stated the industry norm seems to be Mac based. The similarities between our respective institutions is that we are in large Universities where the majority (and in particular the Computing courses) do prefer Pcs.

The IT support ditto. In Art/Design/Media we have argued successfully (but sadly its a constant) that we have to have Macs for staff and students. With (in our case) VMWare the Mac and iPads will run Windows. This has been something of a breakthrough and effectively with a Mac we have a machine that will do everything I seem to need.

I know of a photo course that was forced to replace Mac with Dells. The new IT person saved money and the photo students went up the wall. The Dells swiftly went to an Animation course and Macs were restored but I think students lost a lot of faith in the course – this is over 10 years ago. It would however be useful to remind your management that one size doesn't fit all and if they want to retain an excellent course they need to acknowledge the course team has some expertise and awareness of the employment landscape ( a little bleak) and students will stand out like a sore thumb if they are unfamiliar with Macs.

Best wishes
Nick

From: NOBLE David <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>>
Reply-To: Association for Photography in Higher Education <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>>
Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2013 14:27:57 +0000
To: <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>>
Subject: Any thoughts on this debate?

        Hello Folks

We have a small issue here at present that you might be able to offer some judgment upon for us;  based entirely on cost, our IT guys intend to move all of us over to PC's from Macs. We firmly believe that we need to deliver a programme that is fit for purpose and inline with industry standards. To enable our students to get jobs upon graduation and beyond, as well as undertake successful placements as part of their learning experience, we believe that teaching on Macs is an important element of all our programmes.

So the question I have is ‘do you use Macs, and do you think its valuable to learn on a platform you would then encounter in the work place?

This is clearly a leading question but we would really appreciate your thoughts and opinion on this matter.

Many thanks
David



  *   David Noble/ Award Leader BA(Hons) Photography


  *   Staffordshire University / Faculty of Arts & Creative Technologies (FACT)  / College Road Campus  /  Stoke On Trent  / ST4 2DE
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