Better+technology+decisions

**How do you make better technology decisions? Facilitators: Rich Beran Gretna Notetaker: Deron Jakub Description: Talking Points: Discussion topics: Who should be involved? What do students need to be able to do upon graduation? Long term planning? New vs. used? Budgeting priorities. MOEC purchasing power? NE Coop? Lease vs Purchase?**

Notes:
 * Better Technology Decisions **
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 * There is a standard for the minimum laptop requirements. This prevents the purchase of cheaper products that don’t perform at optimal speeds. **
 * There is district tech team. It depends on what we are purchasing. We bring it upon the tech team to agree with this decision. **
 * Some decisions are made without us in terms of some software. We use what the whole district uses. We try to improve on the hardware and the software. We also have to incorporate the textbooks into technology and how they will be able to collaborate with the kinds of software purchased or licensed purchased. We have to make sure all the compatibility issues are known and if something is incompatible, we are informed. We base our new technology and software purchases upon this information. **
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 * We try to standardize our tech recommendations. We have the technology listed, vendors, etc. available to everybody. **
 * We buy an agreed upon technology for the school. This standard purchasing guide makes things cheaper, easier to manage, and easier for the tech department if troubleshooting is ever necessary. If we choose a projector, for example, the same projector will be used whenever we decide to buy a projector. **
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 * Wifi issues are prevalent. Signal drops occur in many classrooms. It is hard to upkeep the standards necessary to run an efficient network in a school system. Budgeting is difficult when try to update technologies when the money is spread between so many different schools. The new elementary will probably not have a video retrieval system. We started to replace televisions with projectors because the technology can be used over a wide array of different teaching strategies. The televisions cost more to replace and it is just a better plan to use a projector. **
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 * Long term planning? **
 * A tech plan was done and we now use a tech replacement cycle. We used 4 year laptop cycle and a 5 to 6 year desktop replacement cycle. Leasing allows all the teachers a laptop and now the technology all works together which promotes using that technology more often in the classroom. Leasing vs. purchasing was a night and day difference in terms of budgeting limits. A key factor was that the all teachers are allowed a laptop. A systematic refresh seems to be the best method to keep the technology updated, staying on budget, planning ahead, and using the technology with greatest effect when used for education. Teacher access to a laptop is great because we can use online curriculum guides. An administrator must plan on the tech budget increasing as the new technologies become increasingly available and used to expand the learning environment. **
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 * New vs. used? **
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Software used nowadays is mostly online or available cross platform available to download for free. There is not a need to upgrade all computers as the programs become available online. We need to ask how much the students use the software on the computers and what types of computers are needed to run these programs. What will be running on those computers will determine what condition the computers need to be. Cutting edge software will need those new computers, or programs that incorporate video editing or data intensive apps will be most expensive. Computers that are being used for just word processing or other simple applications don’t necessarily need to be the latest and greatest systems. **
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">== **
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Researching New Technologies **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Pilots are performed before any technologies are decided upon. We have to send out people to test different products or visit schools that implement the technologies already. We then have to find how that technology has impacted education and how the purchase of these products compares to similar products with possibly cheaper prices. **