Part 4 of a 5 Part Series
The first steps in designing a BYOD (or even a 1 to 1) strategy should include looking at what pieces of your curriculum are currently delivered digitally, what your teachers have requested to add to their curriculum, what you have found as a district that you would like to implement, and what other districts are using in their classes.
Forming a technology committee is also a good first step in understanding what the curriculum currently offers and what can be added to enhance the quality and depth of what your district is providing. Getting varied opinions on what is out there can help in designing the future goals for the teachers and technology staff. This includes choosing digital content that works with a wide variety of devices so there is a minimum of restrictions in the list of allowed devices at your district. Does the service work on an iPad as well as an Android tablet? Is the App available on all platforms? These all need considered when choosing content.
Another important first step is including in your strategic plan a method of managing both district devices as well as consumer devices so that both have the same experience. If you are using apps, how will they be delivered to the consumer device?
The final first step involves your district policy. Has it been updated to include the level of rights a district has on a consumer device if it is used on the school premises? It has to be well defined what rights the IT staff and teachers have (or don’t have) on the device so there is no confusion when the device doesn’t function properly or needs an application installed. In the cases of laptops and netbooks, does the device have the latest anti-virus? Can the district IT staff install another browser?
Read Part 1 of this BYOD series here.
Read Part 2 of this BYOD series here.
Read Part 3 of this BYOD series here.
Questeq is on the rise for 2013. With a 17% growth in employees during Q1, we are projecting another 20 new positions at 11 new school district sites in Q2 and Q3.
The following employees have been added to the Questeq team:
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Jeremy Bell - Desktop Engineer
- George Heinitsh - Director of Project Services
- John Creehan - Help Desk Engineer
- Tony Pienkosky - Desktop Engineer
- Andrew Kachik - Technology Budget & Asset Coordinator
- Craig Rawlings - Desktop Engineer Level 2
- Don Clark - Application Support Analyst
- John Walter - Systems Administrator
- Bruce Yang - Network Engineer
- Mischelle Grubbs - Application Support Analyst
- Kris Kaufmann - Multi-Media Support Coordinator
- Brian Campbell - Director of Technology
- Keith Brant - Lead Infrastructure Engineer for Project Services
- Kory Miller - Desktop Engineer Level 2
- Nicholas Fetcho - Help Desk Engineer
- Jake Hooks - Desktop Engineer
- Courtland Marrow - Desktop Engineer Level 2
- Eric Galentine - Desktop Engineer
Additionally Questeq is happy to welcome back Jim Klingelhoefer to the team! Jim will be working on a part-time basis focusing on special projects directly related to our rapid growth.
These are exciting times at Questeq. Positive growth creates exciting opportunities for both existing and new employees.
One of our customers, ACLD Tillotson School, is participating in the Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Walk for a Healthy Community on Saturday, May 18th. This annual fundraiser helps local, nonprofit health and human service agencies by giving 100% of the money raised back to the participating organizations. Tillotson will be raising money to purchase interactive whiteboards for every homeroom at their school.
At Questeq, we believe in giving back to the communities and customers we serve through sponsorships and scholarships. We are happy to partner with Tillotson as a Gold Sponsor for the Highmark Walk this year. For more information about ACLD Tillotson School visit their website at www.acldonline.org.
The 1-to-1 Essentials Program recently released by Common Sense Media aims to provide a proactive plan for implementing a successful 1-to-1 program in your school or district. To use the resources you must create a username and password but all of the resources appear to be free of charge.
The program introduces three phases towards a successful implementation: Envision, Communicate, Implement. Each phase provides a downloadable action plan and many downloadable tools and resources for your use. In addition, helpful videos appear for each phase to support the ideas being discussed.
This program is very new so expect new features and resources to be added as they develop and refine the offering. One interesting feature that is “coming soon” is an online compass which will allow you to survey and monitor your stakeholders on their comfort level with the 1-to-1 implementation.
To learn more about this program visit
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/1to1.