I began to work on my classroom on July 21st. As of today, I have put in 138 hours in my classroom, and the majority of which has been setting up all of the awesome new products, and a lot of trouble shooting. Now that everything is working, I can honestly say that all of the hard work and long hours is going to pay off. There is an upside in setting up the technology yourself, and that is that you know how things work! I am sure that a professional could have set things up in half the time, but I had to work through it, read manuals, call tech support, and learn from my mistakes. Here are a few of the biggest lessons that I have learned…
- 1. Getting the newest and the best comes with a downside. It is NEW, so sometimes not even the companies that make the products know how to solve the problems. In some cases, they have never even been made aware of certain glitches that exist. It is awesome to be able to get the newest and best products out there, just realize it may take time to do the trouble shooting as not many people have come before you, therefore, there may not even be forums on the topics.
- 2. Do not assume that the representatives from the companies whose products you are using know what they are talking about. Call at least 2-3 times to see if you get the same answer. Give yourself some credit, if something doesn’t seem right, it probably isn’t.
- 3. When you find solutions to your problems, write those solutions down. Often when you trouble shoot you click through so many different places that it is hard to remember what you did to fix the problem. Start a notebook and take notes. I know that you think you will remember, and maybe you will, but I did not!
- 4. CHECK for COMPATIBILITY with ALL PRODUCTS!!Even if you think that they should work together, be 100% sure. Do not take vague compatibility advertisements as enough, look for detailed tech specifications. Read the fine print!
It was important for me to get Apple products because I am more familiar with them and I believe that in education technology is headed in that direction. I wanted to be able to trouble shoot on my own and not have to wait for tech support from our system or external companies, so I made the decision to go with Apple, which is not supported by our school system. In doing this I knew that I would be on my own. It has been a lot of work for me, but I am confident in my decision. If you are one of those who would rather just have someone else do the “fixing” than only get products that are supported by your school system. My students from last year are coming in for technology training tomorrow and the big reveal is on Tuesday. Stay tuned to hear all about all of the amazing products!