Mac Setups: Computer Science Teaching Desk
This Mac setup comes to us from Barry L, a high school computer science teacher in South Carolina. The Apple gear is used to teach AP Computer Science, Computer Programming, and Computer Science Research, and the classroom is gradually converting to Macs from a bunch of Dells running Windows XP, which will then be used to teach a class on iOS development this Fall. How awesome is that?
The hardware shown is split between the teachers personal gear and the schools, here’s what is on display:
- Mac Mini (2011) with 8GB RAM connected to two displays
- Dell 21″ LCD
- LG 19″ LCD mirrored to 19 other displays around the room to show code
- MacBook Air 13″ with 256GB SSD
- iPad 2 32GB Wi-Fi
- iPhone 4S 32GB
- iPod touch 4th gen used for development
- Apple Wireless Keyboard and Magic Trackpad
What you can’t see behind the desk is the the remainder of the classrooms gear, which are the aforementioned Dell workstations, a 21″ iMac (2011), two Mac Minis (2011), MacBook Pro (2010), MacBook Pro (2009), and two more iPod touch.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I think it’s pretty great that iOS development, let alone computer science, is being taught in a high school. The only computer class at my high school was a generic “keyboarding” course which focused on how to type (ooh!) and use MS Office (ahh!), talk about boring.
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That. Is. Awesome. Seriously… I seriously think I should change my plan for my study table… And I wish I was taking your class!! I <3 iOS development… :(
Very cool. A bit better than the type writers we had in hs.
We live in the best of times ✨
Great thread as always 👍
What’s the mount system for the displays/ipad?
The 2 monitors are on Ergotron mounting arms so that I can move them around easily when working with students one on one. I literally unbolted them from my home office and brought them in as i needed the setup, but bought them from amazon. The students never see the monitor on the left, with the Lion on it, only the second monitor is mirrored throughout the room. The iPad stand is one Santa brought me for my iPad 1, made by Rocket Fish. Its not one of the all aluminum ones, but I like it. It swivels easily, and I just found a way to turn it towards a clipboard and use it to “scan” text using the camera to use for instruction. Pretty neat.
Thanks! I’ll look into the Ergotron arms. Need to setup something with different sized displays – 2 to start with, and I don’t like these ‘symetrical stands’ I often see in online shops. :) That Ergotron looked really good to.
// Initial idea was to do some sort of pipe system – just pipes and clamps. :) (a little bit like in “Painkiller Jane” (TV)) Hard to find here though. //
And to top it off, he’s an incredible teacher!
Nice, wish we had that course back when I went to high school.
But impressive gear none the less.
I want that desktop background.
I found the wallpaper from this Flickr group. Very cool. It automatically brings up the right resolution for whatever device your viewing the image from. Now, if they could just raise the resolution for my new iPad retina display.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/ipadinsight/pool/
Nice setup.
Where can I find the Lion in shadow desktop?
Does anyone else know where I can find that wallpaper?
Very cool that iOS development is being taught in high school.
How do you mirror a display to 19 others? Is that the most elaborate cord configuration in history, or is there an easy way to do that?
It is the most elaborate cabling system and powered splitters you can imagine! I had to clear out my room one summer for renovations and it took nearly 5 hours to hook eveything back up, thanks to the help of some of my students. The sad thing is, the splitters and monitors are all VGA, but we hope to slowly transition to DVI maybe over the summer. $$ is tight, and with looking to implement iPads for our students, I may have to beat the bushes, and have garage sales to raise the funds to update everything.