"I'm a long time listener, first time caller" and would love some
general input on a project. At Marin Academy we have pretty much
already built one of California's "Digital High Schools." All students
have E-mail accounts and "digital lockers," direct access to the
Internet and a faculty who integrate multimedia projects into every
discipline. HyperStudio, PageMaker and Photoshop are basic tools used
throughout the curriculum. Among the four labs and 86 computers
available to students on campus we have a special Multimedia Production
Lab which is equipped with Power Macintosh 6500s running System 8.1 with
96 MB of RAM and Avid Cinema (one Mac has Premiere 4.0). Students are
producing videos all year and we/they love the basic tool.
Here's the question. Where do we go next for those students who are
beyond Avid Cinema? We have the option of "upgrading" to the latest
Premiere on all these machines and/or building a higher end Avid or
Media 100 suite. I've seen some stuff on Avid XPress and a friend who
works on Composer tells me it's basically a "crippled Composer."
What I'm looking for from you is: 1) no discussion regarding Mac vs.
Windows, if we have to buy new hardware it will be a G3 Macintosh; 2)
recommendations and approximate costs I should expect to pay regarding
Avid XPress and Media 100; 3) discussion of the merits of Avid vs.
Media 100; 4) and any other words of wisdom you would like to provide.
Keep in mind that in a High School setting emphasis is less on learning
the tools and more on the content created by the tool. We have precious
little time to spend learning software which is one reason why we love
Avid Cinema.
If folks find this tedious for the list I would understand and I
certainly don't want to launch a platform or tools debate so if you
would like to reply to me directly that's fine. I do, however enjoy the
conversation on the group so if you feel so inclined that's great too.
I thank you in advance for your assistance.
Warm Regards, Brad
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Brad Lakritz
Director of Educational Technology
Marin Academy --> http://www.ma.org
blakritz@ma.org