Schools collaborating to get bulk discounts

Traditionally schools make purchase decisions on their own, but if enough of them get together, then vendors sit up and take notice. At NIST we are planning to purchase 250 tablets but with other schools also buying, it gives everybody good discounts and we can share our experiences about demo machines. I recently got this email from a tech director in Bangkok, which was sent to several other schools.

Subject: RE: tablet reduced price

It would be good for us to have a chat about Tablets, where we are all up to, quotes, security and anything else. Effectively, I think that this means that we pick Paul's brains!!

See you on Friday.

Cheers

Some would say "why share", but in the end, everybody gains.

Laptop Bags

There is some debate about the best kind of bag for a student laptop. If you give students a big bag, they will stuff it with other things that could damage the laptop



such as
The other issue is one of fashion. Whatever bag you buy them, they won't want to use it. A laptop carried without a bag will be dropped and they don't bounce well.

Damage done by dropping is cosmetic, but the plastic assemblies are expensive.

We have decided to give the students a slip case, that they can slip inside the bag of choice (this week).

Tablet PC Selection

We are currently in the process of choosing a Tablet PC for next year - we will be buying 200 more for students use in our 1:1 program and more carts for elementary, as well as additional staff machines. A number of International Schools in Thailand and the Asia Pacific region are looking at starting a 1:1 Tablet PC program.

This is the spec we went for:
I feel that 2Gb of Ram is the minimum spec for VISTA - 2 batteries for whole day use.

This is the email we sent to vendors:

The purpose of this email is to formally invite you, to be a tablet vendor candidate.
For your information, NIST is expecting to buy 200-250 new tablet computers for next academic year.

We would like to the request specifications of your recommended tablet computers and a test machine for testing such as battery life, Windows XP and Vista drivers, checking performance and actual specification.

We will shortlist the tablet companies that we want to invite to a meeting to discuss in detail our new tablet computer requirements at NIST.

In closing, please see our additional requirements to help on your preparation as below;
- Model and Price
- Must be able to deliver in June 2007
- XP and Vista drivers
- Roadmap for the product offered – e.g. When will it be replaces?
- Delivery time for initial order and any additional orders – e.g. replacements
- Warranty - how long - what covered - onsite or not
- What offers – standby machines – free accessories etc
- Cost of replacement/spare parts – chargers – batteries - pens – most usually broken parts – e.g. plastic casing
- What support offered - technical - problem solving –Marketing etc

Technorati Tags:[Education], [Tablet PCs], [Technology], [Teaching], [International Schools],

Google Videos

............. Google Video is a good way of uploading videos for use in the class. This is a video I uploaded - a clip from one of Bill's webcasts - "Bill Gates Unveils Technology Breakthroughs in Education at Microsoft Government Leaders Forum Europe January 2007" Bill and Tablets A nice feature is "Unlisted" - your video will not be included in search results - just add the URL o your Blog or Wiki

Technorati Tags:[Education], [Google Videos], [Technology], [Teaching],

IBAP Teachers' Convention 2007 continued

The final dinner at the presenters' table. Left to Right: Ed Lawless, Professional Development Manager ; Ian Jukes; Peter Woodhead; , ICT Advisor, English Schools Foundation; Judith Guy, Regional Director IBAP; and myself.

Missing from the table was Stephen Heppell who showed us how he is getting students and teachers to learn collaboratively using technology.

IBAP Teachers' Convention 2007

This photo was taken at the opening session of the IBAP (International Baccalaureate Asia Pacific) Teachers' Convention 2007: Information Literacy Across the IB Programmes in Singapore, a few moments before my presentation. You can see that I am still making finish touches!

More details of my presentation can be found at: IBO Convention Keynote . It was difficult to leave a soft copy of my presentation, as it was mostly pictures and video. I had to add a number of annotations to each slide to make it make sense. I was also used Powerpoint 2007, which is much prettier than 2003 - what do you think? The convention computers had only 2003, so I had to do a quick computer swap at the start of the presentaion.


I have some strong views about presentations - They should be interesting and engaging. I am sure that we have all experienced "Death by Powerpoint" - "You don't need to make notes, as it is all in the handout, but I am going spend an hour reading the words from every slide to you"


Technorati Tags:[Education], [IBAP], [Technology], [Teaching], [International Schools],

EARCOS Teacher's Conference in Bangkok

Nothing much to report from the Earcos Teacher's Conference - I was only there for the first day as I had to fly to Singapore for the IBO Technology Convention. I was presented two workshops - one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Workshop I
Topic: Technology
Title: Using Multimedia to enhance Teaching and Learning
Description:Students of the digital generation respond much better to multimedia than simple text based resources. The research has shown that because of multimedia stimulation, young people's brains are literally wired differently.This session will look at first why and then how to produce multimedia resources incorporating video and sound to enhance teaching and learning.

Workshop II
Topic: Technology
Title: Teaching with Tablets
Description: Many schools are moving to a one to one laptop program, but Tablet laptops offer many advantages for education. If your school was to give every teacher a tablet laptop and projector, it would revolutionize the way teachers would teach. If students had them as well, the results would be even more dramatic. This presentation will give you the evidence to take back to change your school into a Tablet school.

I would like to thank all who attended both of these sessions, it was a full house both times.

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