Doing a double-whammy of recorded sessions today–whew! A full day of class to catch up. I watched the recorded session of Traci Bonde‘s Implementation and Volume Pricing for mobile devices in a school setting. It was A LOT of information I never considered, but I am glad to get a crash course on the ideas.

Traci was really big on the idea of “having enough information to be dangerous” when your school is talking about technology issues. We got background information on WIFI–such as access points, density vs. coverage, and you can only slice your pipe/internet speed so many ways. She also posed the idea that most admin and tech support are focused on hardware rather than the idea of “what do we want our students to accomplish?”. With that question in mind, dig into that answer, and then pick the right tool: it could be BYOD, Chromebooks, or iPads.

To keep up with ed tech, and arm ourselves with dangerous information, she recommended a few sites for weekly reading:

1. Edutopia
2. Mashable
3. EdSurge

I was aware of Edutopia, and like to read articles from there from time to time, but haven’t heard of the other two resources. She also recommended an annual read of the NMC Horizon Report to stay current.

What I took away from the first hour or so of the presentation is that hardware really depends on the teacher’s goals. Put the goals first then select the hardware. She was also making a nice case for BYOD supplemented with hardware from the school. I know for a fact that some of my students have better devices than the 5-year-old iPad 2s we are using, why can’t they bring those in? It does open up the door about equity, though–something to think about.

I piggy-backed on the project that was the last half of the presentation. We created a group slide presentation on rolling out Chromebooks for a district and everything that would be needed or thought about.

I included a “Success Stories” slide that could be used. My main emphasis was on the local (to me) Minarets High School which was one of the forerunners in rolling out 1:1 devices. Their website is a great resource for school districts looking to bring in more technology.

Overall, this presentation felt like a waterfall of information and I was holding out a Dixie water cup. I do feel that I gleaned more understanding about what happens with technology decisions and even basic infrastructure information that I had never thought about before. This was a useful workshop. I now have some information to be dangerous the next time some technology decisions need to be made in my district- such as a pricing or the cost of the tools and the reason for the hardware request, not just a flashy Apple gadget–but something to match my pedagogy.