Technology is weird though. Schools can brag about technology resources despite a total lack of integration into anyone’s lesson plan.
My aunt is a elementary school teacher. They have like 10 3D printers. Nobody was trained on what to do with them or how they work. When I was in high school (2005), the district rolled out a Microsoft Sharepoint system. Not only did none of the teachers ask for it/know how to use it, there was a default-config directory page that was left on for months that had every student’s name and confidential student ID number.
When I was in high school in the late '80s there was a rumor that the school owned an electron microscope. The school was in a fairly affluent area so it was certainly within the realm of possibility, but I certainly never saw it and didn’t know anyone who had.
The 80s were wild man.
The company I work for now balks about $6k for the annual employee appreciation. Back in the 80s they spent $50k (in 80s $$) on a float for the small town’s annual parade.
See one of those is marketing. The other is effectively payroll. Companies will spend a ton of money on useless marketing because it has a 0.0001% chance of increased revenue… but will refuse to pay a penny more than they are required to employees because that’s always an expense.
I didn’t finish public school, but where I went to college, you could graduate without ever touching a computer unless you were pursuing an IT degree and, even then, you only had to use one occasionally.
We had 2 full classrooms with computers, a big deal back then (the swedish “Compis” computer with floppy drives and one hard drive in one of the classrooms). Our class got to use them once (1) in 3 years.
When I was in high school I was in a electronics program. They won a grant for a ham radio station with repeater and everything. It was valued at about 150k around 2000. It sat in a backroom never set up. The school would not spend the $150 in bolts to mount the antenna to the roof.
A recent job literally had a cabinet filled with keyence microscope lenses. Each one probably between 500-3000 dollars. Someone bought them, then left and they were given to someone else, I “inherited” them, then I left and I assume someone else was given them. There was probably atleast 50 of them of various focus lengths, magnification, mounting etc. None of them compatible with any microscope I saw while while working there… Corporate waste is on a whole different level in my experience.
Technology is weird though. Schools can brag about technology resources despite a total lack of integration into anyone’s lesson plan.
My aunt is a elementary school teacher. They have like 10 3D printers. Nobody was trained on what to do with them or how they work. When I was in high school (2005), the district rolled out a Microsoft Sharepoint system. Not only did none of the teachers ask for it/know how to use it, there was a default-config directory page that was left on for months that had every student’s name and confidential student ID number.
When I was in high school in the late '80s there was a rumor that the school owned an electron microscope. The school was in a fairly affluent area so it was certainly within the realm of possibility, but I certainly never saw it and didn’t know anyone who had.
Affluent enough someone could spend a couple M in the 80s?
Or they’re bought a used one from a nearby fab. Though the service contracts are no joke cost wise.
That’s probably why it was never used.
Or donated from a facility that upgraded, to use that educational donation as a tax write off.
The story was that it was donated by the parent of a student who worked for a company that made them.
The 80s were wild man.
The company I work for now balks about $6k for the annual employee appreciation. Back in the 80s they spent $50k (in 80s $$) on a float for the small town’s annual parade.
See one of those is marketing. The other is effectively payroll. Companies will spend a ton of money on useless marketing because it has a 0.0001% chance of increased revenue… but will refuse to pay a penny more than they are required to employees because that’s always an expense.
I didn’t finish public school, but where I went to college, you could graduate without ever touching a computer unless you were pursuing an IT degree and, even then, you only had to use one occasionally.
We had 2 full classrooms with computers, a big deal back then (the swedish “Compis” computer with floppy drives and one hard drive in one of the classrooms). Our class got to use them once (1) in 3 years.
When I was in high school I was in a electronics program. They won a grant for a ham radio station with repeater and everything. It was valued at about 150k around 2000. It sat in a backroom never set up. The school would not spend the $150 in bolts to mount the antenna to the roof.
At one of my early IT jobs, admittedly not a school, one of the PMs ordered (IIRC) four Xserves.
When I started there, they had sat untouched for several years. When I left there about four years later, the boxes were still unopened.
That was well over a decade ago and I would not be surprised to learn they were still there.
A recent job literally had a cabinet filled with keyence microscope lenses. Each one probably between 500-3000 dollars. Someone bought them, then left and they were given to someone else, I “inherited” them, then I left and I assume someone else was given them. There was probably atleast 50 of them of various focus lengths, magnification, mounting etc. None of them compatible with any microscope I saw while while working there… Corporate waste is on a whole different level in my experience.