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6 comments:
Interactive Boards:
Not that I'm against the commercial ($$$) variety, but.....for about $50 you can have an interactive white board (Mac, Linux, Windows) through a Nintendo Wii controller and a trip to Radio Shack, using any white board. We're having some of our GenYes kids build some as a project over the Winter Break. Tickle me in April if you want to see how it goes on deploying/using them in classrooms with open source curricular resources, or build your own and test it for yourself.
Came out of a research lab at Carnegie Mellon University.....
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgKCrGvShZs ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgKCrGvShZs
Jeff....
Disruptive Technology Alchemy; Turning Tech Lead into Education Gold
I have not heard of anyone doing this at a school. AT&T and Apple have told me no one else is doing this or apparently approached them with the idea. Our phone system is end of life. Most just replace one enterprise system with another enterprise system, usually VOIP. I question the paradigm altogether. Why does a school need a business grade enterprise VOIP system? What real value does it contribute to the core missions, teaching and learning? Wouldn't be great to spend that same money, and actually add value to teaching and learning?
The new disruptive paradigm flips the phone overhead (that is exactly what phones are, overhead costs to a school)upside down, or should I say, "rightside up". Give iPhones to every classroom instead of expensive ip phones. It now makes the communication systems, when equipped with the right software, a curriculum tool FIRST, a phone Second. We are playing a bit of Technology Alchemy, turning lead into gold, turning a phone into a highly valued classroom tool. Let me explain.
Education First Uses-
I do not want provide an exhaustive list of iPhone uses in education, but here are 2 that makes buying an iPhone worth it in itself, for education. (1) Turning the iphone into a Airliner/Wireless slate (2) Using it as a "clicker/responder" device, when used with a system like Moodle. Tons of other uses too.
Awesome Communications Tool
Now, even though when it comes to the core mission of the District, the phone function is secondary, replacing the phone system with iPhones in many ways is far superior to a PBX system. The phone is now a muli-channel communication device (chat, email, twitter, blogs, and the Phone) andsocial networking with GPS enabling technologies (very cool for field trips and geocaching)provde things a VOIP phone could only dream of. The student safety value, now that the phones can travel with the teachers, the phones can be in the field or court with PE teachers, ability to email instantly stranger danger photos to authorities and the campus, and tons more.
Business communication continuity - during an evacuation, teachers/administration have their phones, so communications continue when they are the most critical. Relying on an immense infrastructure of AT&T, with their redundancies, failovers, etc... will give your communications service more uptime than most schools can afford on their own.
Many are turning to managed services, like STC and Trillion. This is pretty much doing the same thing, but your managed provider is AT&T, which is still e-ratable. I do not need to house and ensure an adequate operational environment for the managed systems. It is in the AT&T cloud. I do not have to worry about PRI lines and WAN lins ad QOS, and PoE switches. This saves in TCO.
Are there risks and issues with this? Definitely. But when we can add much more value o the classroom by doing what we are already doing differently, isn't worth it. Any innovation, especially when you are first or among the first, always presents the organization with a "first time penalty". Let's think different, be technology alchemists, and turn tech lead into education gold! Look at everything from the lens of student achievement, even things traditionally not looked at in this way, such as phones, and great things may happen.
Perhaps I will start a blog on my progress to get this started on our Middle School opening this Summer. Anyway, I am sure many will not agree, but I think this is the future.
Absolutely wild John, I love the idea and totally agree with the philosophy, but I can't get the numbers to add up for me. Say $50 a month for the plan per teacher. I have 2,300 teachers and that comes out to $1.3 million - figure VoIP phones last at least 8 years and I'm up to over $10 million during the life span. I can get VoIP a lot less than that.
If there was some way I could pick up an iPhone service through my internal network and route the calls through my gear to an aggregation point, maybe I could figure it out. Then there are problems of wireless service inside our bricks, organized phone numbers, buying the actual devices, how long they would last, and M&O versus Capital.
I love the idea, and am processing it, believe me. I tend to think that a soft phone through the teacher computer has more potential, would allow to converge and continually invest in the laptop, but the cultural shift and technology to make calls private ain't quite there yet. We're probably three to five years out of having the perfect mobile device - iPhone is great, laptop is great, but I want the mix of the two.
This post has me thinking big time, because we're getting ready to pop some millions to finish VoIP, network upgrade and wireless LAN. Dang, I hate the trapping of phones on the wll - don't care that they're VoIP - they do little for the core mission.
I hear you Jeff, the price is what I am working on with AT&T. But, it may not be as bad as you think when you consider the following:
1. Compare it to managed services, from say Trillion or STC. They charge $30/month. For 1200 phones (I will use your 8 year average, it will cost us 3.5 million).
2. AT&T is working on an out of the box plan. We do not need data, our wifi network will take care of that. Also, the plan needs very little group minutes, since most calls will be mobile to mobile. I could see it being less or equal to $30 /month.
3. The bill is e-ratable, so half of that for us.
4. AT&T will put in repeaters to ensure signal strength.
5. Compare an iPhone cost with a VOIP phone. It is actually cheaper in many cases. That can be factored in TCO.
6. Hard to calculate, but energy reduction savings by not needing to power the pone switch, AC, and backup power for the PBX.
7. Lifefespan of the equipment. iPhones are still fairly new, so who knows . I still have an ipod that works from 7 years ago though.
In summary - it "may" cost about the same when compared to a managed service, but with tons more benefits.
But who knows, this still may not be feasible, but I am going to give it a shot in exploring it. It is worth thinking outside of the box on this one.
My dream alternative is use VOIP, ipod touch with the iphone handsfree, and a VOIP app that runs in the background. I got Fring to work on it, but it must be running to receive calls.
I hate spending tons of money on things not contributing to teaching and learning. Teachers rarely use their phones (at least here) and yet we spend a disproportionate amount on the systems.We will never get over out rep as "the black hole" until we can change this.
Well, this idea is dead, I am sad to report. Jeff, in the end, was quite right. It is not financially feasible
.
I was told by Todd Dandy, the AT&T sales rep ( I am blacklisting him, by the way), that they could do away with the data plan, and sell us only the voice side, for the iPhones. This brought the price down to where we could afford it, with e-Rate. Since we were supposedly past the first hurdle, cost, we needed to get through some technical unknowns and risks.
After working with AT&T and Apple on widdling this list down to where the dream was almost a reality, Todd Dandy dropped a bomb. He stated that we would have to buy the data plan. He stated he never told me otherwise. Well, witnesses from Apple on our multiple phone conferences can vouch with me otherwise. So, he told me early on a lie, and now is having to lie to cover his own rear end. Sorry for the rant, but I have spent tons of time on this project, and would have killed it a long time ago if he was honest from the get go. I would not recommend dealing with him.
Well, the idea is still sound. Perhaps when Apple uses other providers in 2010, or the promise of the Palm Pre, or a VOIP app that runs in the background on the touch it may be an affordable option.
Back to the same phone paradigm, that sucks away tons of money from the classroom.
WiiMote Interactive Whiteboards-
For those of you doing this, how is it working. I have it working great in out IT conference room. The teachers I have shown really love it.
I have found that using 2 Wiimotes works best, but of course, drives up the cost a bit.
Some issues, though:
1. Calibration is very sensitive
2. How do you fix the wiimotes so they remain in place after you calibrate, but allow them to change batteries and press the Wii buttons to turn it on and off?
3. Will the teachers recalibrate it if it moves? Do the IT staff coome out and help?
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