Years ago, Macs didn't even acknowledge the presence of Windows networks, which made those LAN wine-and-cheese parties pretty awkward. Now, however, OS X machines are exemplary network citizens, and apparently can even manage Windows workstations under the right circumstances.

TidBITS linked to a roundtable discussion at Cornell University, where Philip Halcomb, of Cornell's Mann Library ITS staff, demonstrated managing user accounts in Active Directory. Now, this wouldn't be very exciting, except for the fact that he was using Mac OS X Workgroup Manager to do it. Sweet.

Phil's part starts at about 7:30. It's a long QuickTime video, too -- almost an hour -- but for IT folks, especially in an education environment, the roundtable series is a must-see.

(Thanks, MHA, for Phillip's name!)

For (let's say) "phans" of Crayon Physics, Phun 3.5 is a similar kind of physics simulator created by Emil Ernerfeldt for his thesis at Umeå University, Sweden. Not only is it Swedish, but it's just been released for the Mac.

Sure, it's rough-around-the-edges, and it follows pretty much none of the Mac's interface or key-combination conventions, but it's sure a fun (with an F) toy. Phun is Universal Binary, and freeware.

It's not often that we get to do an advice column here, but let's see how this goes. An email arrived at the office just the other day...

Dear Aunt TUAW,

I work in the engineering college of a large private university, where I manage 6 Mac-based labs. I just tried to order myself a brand new Mac Pro to replacing my aging PowerMac G5 and was told by my dean that the college would no longer be buying Macs because they had absolutely no place in the engineering industry. He said that from this point forward, the college "would only be buying Windows computers, period!"

I know that he is wrong and that there are engineers that use Macs professionally and I can give a few examples to support that. If I am going to win this argument I'm going to need a lot of proof.

Signed,

Mac-lorn Admin

Dear Mac-lorn Admin,

Darling, didn't you realize the Mac Pro is a Windows machine, and a darned speedy one? Last time I checked, Boot Camp + Mac Pro = a Windows dream! The adult in us loves the reliability and UNIX backbone, but the kid in us loves the GUI and tasty frosting! Having a single machine that can do double or triple duty with Mac apps, BSD/Linux engineering power and Windows compatibility would be the envy of any right-minded academician.

Still, we know that logic isn't going to sway that mean ole dean of yours. TUAW readers, can you help Mac-lorn? Leave us your testimonials about using Macs in your professional lives -- particularly in engineering or in higher ed -- in the comments.

Love,

Auntie T.

Do you make documentation? Do you constantly find yourself having to explain step-by-step procedures to do things on the Mac? BlueMango Learning Systems has been doing this stuff for a while, and the tedium eventually drove them to create their own tool to make things faster. That's innovation for you-- if you can't find a tool, build one (that's how Plasq wound up creating Skitch). Screensteps is truly handy for anyone needing to illustrate steps, like bloggers doing how-to's, all the way up to professional manual-makers. Scott got a quick demo on an excursion to Moscone West. Video after the jump.

Raybook licenses Cliff's Notes, Netter's Anatomy and other flash card and quick-learning properties, squeezes them down to miniature size, and crams them into iPods. Perhaps that is an oversimplification, but so is the Cliff's Notes version of 'War and Peace.' While a lot of "study guides" on the iPod use the Notes features, basically a stack of linked text files, Raybook uses the photos feature in your iPod to create some rather stunning flash cards. Check out Scott's interview after the jump to see them in action.

The guys and gals over at our sister blog Engadget were keeping busy at the recent CES and have turned up some interesting products with a Mac angle. In the video above they're checking out a new music instruction software package called Guitar Wizard which works a lot like the Guitar Hero game (our coverage). The key difference is that Guitar Wizard uses a real guitar and actually teaches you something about playing. The kit consists of the software and a midi pickup which can be attached to your own guitar for $150, or you can get a kit that includes a guitar as well for $300. New songs will be downloadable at 99 cents each.

Here's an interesting little tidbit. Apparently Apple has just landed large contracts to supply MacBooks to local school districts in Kansas City and southwest Louisiana. What's interesting though is that Apple is apparently customizing these MacBooks to meet various security requirements of the districts. The Kansas City Star notes that each of the computers has a sticker "clearly identifying them as the property of the Kansas City, Kan., public schools... [which] will not come off without virtually destroying the laptop." Furthermore, each computer will apparently have a GPS tracker and even "a remote device to destroy the hard drive" if stolen. One wonders whether Apple might eventually make these sort of security features available to the general public.

Update: Re-reading the article, It's not clear whether the modifications are being doing by Apple or by some third-party after purchase.

[via MacVolPlace]

In an education world where parents make all the decisions and administration knows less about teaching than the students, teachers can use all the help they get. While I wait for Assistants R Us to open in the Denver area so I can take some of the burden off my wife's high school English-teaching shoulders, educators of all kinds might be able to take some solace in Planbook from Hellmansoft. Designed and developed by Jeff Hellman, a 9th grade physics and science teacher, Planbook aims to do away with the clunky ways of writing lesson plans with paper by providing tools to plan, attach files, print, publish and search the digital way. Teachers can plan out lessons for one or multiple classes for the week, month or year, attach files the students will need for homework and publish it all to the web via FTP or to a local folder. Students, parents and administrators alike can then view the site, the daily lessons and download the files at their leisure. Still need paper versions? No sweat - Planbook can print out customized reports for students and administrators, great for handing out or posting in class.

Since I am the farthest thing from a teacher, my wife graciously offered to give this software a whirl and share her thoughts. To be honest, after a minute or two of poking around, she was absolutely thrilled. She was impressed with Planbook's feature set and how easy it was to start writing plans for multiple classes. She loved the publish-to-web idea since her school already provides some digital records for parents to check from home, but I am sad to report that there was one killer deal-breaker that took the bounce out of my wife's step - Planbook is Mac-only. Now my wife is a Mac user through and through, but her school lives in the Windows world making Planbook ineligible for consideration.

[Update: Jeff Hellman stopped by to comment that he's one step ahead of me; he actually is working on a Windows version and hopes to enter beta this weekend. This could certainly boost Planbook's appeal in Windows and mixed-OS environment and for teachers who live on both sides of that fence between the home and office.]

If you or your teaching friends are fortunate enough to work on the Mac side at school, I (via my wife) definitely recommend you take a look at Planbook. Even as a 1.0 product it sounds like Hellman has hit most of the large nails right on the head, and more interest and support can only make a good product get better over time. Check out the Planbook site for more information, including an example published Planbook, as well as IM support and a Yahoo! Groups link. Individual licenses are $30, while volume licenses begins at up to 10 teachers for $100, going all the way up to 65+ teachers for $300. As a bonus, the volume license allows teachers to use Planbook on both their home and work computers.

If you're the person responsible for Mac support in a big, cross-platform shop, it can sometimes feel like you're alone in the Windows wilderness. Established communities like AFP548.com (port 548 is reserved for the AppleShare Filing Protocol, hence the name) and MacEnterprise.org are critical resources for anyone who rides herd on a pride of Macs in a business or educational environment.

Hidden away among the postings and troubleshooting info are some true gems, including Apple engineer John DeTroye's "Tips and Tricks for Mac Management" PDF handbook. If you're trying to do anything with Workgroup Manager, you need this concise 116-page document, and you need it now.

JohnD's guide for workgroup and preference management -- particularly for implementing Portable Home Folders, where user data is cached and synchronized to a fileserver -- is so vital, it's linked from Apple's knowledge base article on Mac Manager. Along with Mike Bombich's deployment tips page and AFP548's AD/OD integration guide, it needs to be in the virtual library of every Mac manager. You can download the current version of the Tips and Tricks PDF here.

You'll have to indulge me in a little nostalgia here. Some of my earliest Apple memories are of crowding around an Apple II playing Oregon Trail. I couldn't help but think of that when I saw that our gaming blog brothers at Joystiq have uncovered an exciting new "edutaiment" title coming in December. Called WolfQuest, this wolf "simulator" is being created by the Minnesota Zoo to allow me (er, I mean, kids) to live out the dream of being a wolf on the great plains. If the pricelessly corny preview video is to be believed, the Minnesota Zoo and Eduweb will apparently achieve something beyond EA's capacity: cross-platform network play with simultaneous release on Mac and PC.

Alas this lupine sim won't be out until December 2007, but now you really have something to look forward to this Christmas. And by the way, if you want to relive those Oregon Trail days, it's possible in a Dashboard widget.

Remember when Apple ditched the clamshell iBooks and created the sleeker "icebook" form factor? My wife calls them Chiclets. Well we have 3 of them: a 500 MHz G3 from 2001 with a 10GB drive, a 800MHz G4 with a 60GB drive but a busted optical drive, and a 1.2GHz G4 with a 30GB drive but working CDR/DVD drive. The 800MHz machine is still my old personal machine, although between hacks and apps and data overload it is very slow. The other two have found new life.

The oldest iBook actually has the best build quality, I think. The keyboard feels good, and none of the keys have rubbed off. It is fast and solid. However, since it is so old, I decided to use OS 9 as the primary OS. We inherited a bunch of old educational CD's from the 90's and the iBook plays almost all of them better than the PPC-based Mac mini in the den. Perhaps the biggest drawback? The smell of burning plastic that is emitted from the possibly-not-covered-by-recall motherboard. Oops.

The newest iBook is zippy enough to handle video from apps like VLC (for the playlists) without a hitch, so we're using it as a video jukebox of sorts. Connected to the network I can either stream or move videos to it for the kids, plus it runs all the OS X educational software we've got. Oh, and TuxPaint, which also runs on my personal machine in case they both want to draw at the same time. The working optical drive on the 1.2GHz came in handy at the beach recently, when the TV in the kids room didn't work. So we used the iBook as a DVD player.

Of course, if you work in primary education this is probably a snoozefest to you. Apple sold quite a few (though not nearly enough) iBooks to the educational markets back in the day. So it should come as no surprise that my wife and I recycle our old work machines as kid machines. What makes the iBook so special is the ability to run OS 9 natively and the form factor. Sure, iMacs are great, but you can't take them on vacation. The old clamshells are OK as well, but a little bulky. Then again, maybe I just can't bear to throw anything away.

UPDATE: Added a gallery.

School is a lot of work as it is without having to worry about how you're going to remember that you have an essay due next Monday for your Sub-Aquatic Fiber Arts class. Some people swear by the tried-and-true paper notebook, while others can't cope without their fancy PDA. While there are a few software options for those hardcore geeks (like me) who take their computers everywhere with them (including class), Schoolhouse is far-and-away my personal favorite. In addition to an almost totally redesigned interface, version 2 introduces some really handy new features including the ability to attach files to assignments, sub-tasks for multi-step assignments such as research papers, and a way to store all your class notes directly inside Schoolhouse. Schoolhouse is available as a free download– all the developer asks is if you enjoy and use the software, that you consider donating (unfortunately, the donate link is currently down).

[via Lifehacker]

In February, we posted about Steve Jobs's anti-teacher's-union speech at a K-12 education reform conference. "I believe that what is wrong with our schools in this nation is that they have become unionized in the worst possible way," he said a few weeks ago. The education community continues to respond to that speech. Yesterday, in an OpEd News article called "Jobs against Jobs", Dale Hill a 34-year retired education veteran, took issue with Jobs and defended the NEA. He suggests that Jobs stick to making computers and gadgets and leave education to professional educators. Kind of harsh, no? Well, Hill is certainly not alone in his opinion and there are many supporters on the opposite side of the debate as well. A quick google for "Steve Jobs"+NEA reveals the very polarized response Jobs' speech has received from the Webosphere.

Well having annoyed a lot of folks with his recent missive on DRM, Uncle Steve seemed likely to be making more enemies on Friday at a conference in Texas about K-12 education reform where he appeared along with Michael Dell. The AP reports that Jobs said, "I believe that what is wrong with our schools in this nation is that they have become unionized in the worst possible way. This unionization and lifetime employment of K-12 teachers is off-the-charts crazy." Being in higher education, I see the results of our K-12 education on a daily basis, and it's clear that there's a problem. One interesting thing about this, whether you ultimately agree with Jobs or not, is that he felt free to say it. Jobs even allowed, "Apple just lost some business in this state, I'm sure," though the AP noted that "the audience applauded enthusiastically" several times. It is perhaps not surprising that Dell "sat quietly with his hands folded in his lap" while Jobs was being his charismatic self.

[Via NSLog();]

Your next class may fit in your pocket, according to John Austin of the Dallas Fort Worth Star Telegram. Distance learning is becoming "as portable as a pop song", a phrase I loved enough to use as the headline for this post. The article lists numerous success stories including one guy who works on an off-shore oil-rig, another who teaches cardiology and uses the iPod to help his students learn the distinctive sounds of heart murmurs, and distance learners who otherwise live their life on airplanes.

Going virtual means adapting content. Amber Finn of Texas Christian University talks in the article about how she learned to shorten her lectures and mix up her presentations to make them work better as portable media. One thing the article points out, which is often missed in this kind of coverage, is the additional costs of spoken over printed media. Given the high price of in-class instruction, whether for evening or regular University classes, I'm guessing there may be a long term savings for students despite short term cost increases.