WOW - What a district!

At MACUL, one of the neatest things I heard was about this school that has THE technology set-up, that just makes your arms get goosebumps. The presenter first gave an overview of some of the "newer" technologies and then gave a case study example of THE tech school.

Ideas for new technologies:
Polycom Interactive Whiteboard (more than just a smartboard)
ThinClients - ClearCube.
Extended Batteries
Acer - Tablet PC (no swivel heads)
Biometric encryptions
GoSpeak - portable presenter, self contained, little personal A/V system, fairly big classroom, wireless mics, not mounts, portable, cafeteria, school play, teacher to teacher.
Bretford Cart - portable laptop system, secure laptop cabinet, wheel from room to room
Proxim - wireless access point, mesh wireless capabilities, use different points as a transport
NEC Projector - projection systems, carry with me, portable, 2.2 lbs, highest display, industries brightest display, remote control
KEYBOARDS: Keyboards, Trackballs, Keyboards on the smallest size

CASE STUDIES. Doctor's Charter School. IT Admin 3 months to prep an entire IT infrastructure. Building a school with a blank check and a blank slate. What are some of the new stuff they did?
Walk through the door, first thing you see is a series of LCD displays for announcements (parents, teachers, students). Interactive. Principals can type in and change the display. Lunch schedule, announcements, teacher location.
Classrooms. Interactive whiteboards, connected printer, and projector. PC for every student. ClearCube. Every single student has the device under their desk with a swing away monitor.
Wireless throughout the entire district. Teachers and students are set-up on different networks. You can ride on a public (students and parents) or private (teachers and staff) network. The network scans the computer before allowing it to access the network. Looks for viruses, content, etc... on the computer asking to connect.

Entire building. Wired for audio/video. Send streaming content to student desks. The principal comes through the video on each classroom.

Voice over IP in every single office. It extends through the district. They can ring your desk. As they build more charter, it seamlessly integrates as well.

Able to pull some of the best technology to this school district. EVERYTHING IS GOING WIRELESS. We're in a different age - don't rely on wires anymore.

WOW - What a district!