“It’s weird,” Hand says, “but here I am, this science teacher who has nothing to do with History Day. But I’m a fanatic about Macintosh computers! I believe that nothing else compares to the Mac, especially if you want to make movies. So when these girls came to me for help learning iMovie, they ended up winning the History Day competition, and then we won other awards including this one from Apple.”

The Best Thing Out There
As part of the iLife Educator Award, Mansfield Middle School will receive an Apple Mobile Digital Media Studio with eight new iBook computers, as well as an assortment of scanners, printers, and peripheral devices. Always a Mac evangelist, Hand already is making plans for after-school iMovie classes on the new iBooks.

But for Hand, the greatest sense of satisfaction (in addition to the kudos for his school and students) comes from seeing his colleagues recognize the enormous educational potential of the Macintosh platform. Someday, he hopes, Macs will start reappearing in his district’s schools.

One of the student narrators of the video about women’s rights in China.

“I really think, for the money, that Apple computers deliver the greatest value,” Hand says. “And iMovie especially is great, because the kids just pick it up so fast. In fact, the other teachers in our district were so impressed with the girls’ history project that they’ve asked me to teach them how to use iMovie ... and now everyone who doesn’t already have a Mac is learning how powerful these computers are.

“I’ve had these debates for years with IT people, who say, ‘We can get a PC and put in a FireWire card and do this and that, and we’ll be able to do multimedia,’” finishes Hand. “And I always say, ‘But you’ll end up spending $1000 more. Just give me $700 so I can buy an eMac, and we’ll be done with it!’ If you just want to surf the Internet or create a presentation, a Mac can do that very well ... and if you want to make movies, a Mac is absolutely the best thing out there.”