ETT21 #142: Bill Stites: 800 Laptops and Evernote

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ETT21 #142: Bill Stites: 800 Laptops and Evernote           Bill Stites
October 27 2010

Bill Stites, Director of Technology for The Montclair Kimberley Academy and Blogger in Chief at edSocialMedia.com  joined us to discuss MKA's first year laptop program and their use of Evernote.  


<Chat Trans>


 12:28:54  Sheila ->  That was me testing the chat room!
 12:30:02  PeggyG ->  Hi William-waiting for the gang to gather! Really looking forward to this conversation about Evernote :-)
 12:30:27  William Stites ->  Will be happy to share all thaty I can
 12:30:51  PeggyG ->  wonderful! I just retweeted your tweet-had to shorten a bit :-)
 12:32:30  PeggyG ->  just discovered it's coming in on ustream :-) usually listen in itunes
 12:33:10  PeggyG ->  are you in the skype call yet William?
 12:34:59  PeggyG ->  hi powerranger-audio is coming in on ustream
 12:36:09  PeggyG ->  Hi Alex
 12:36:26  PeggyG ->  excited about this conversation re Evernote!
 12:36:43  alex.ragone ->  We are too Peggy!
 12:37:02  PeggyG ->  very exciting that Bill's program provides Evernote Pro for all students!
 12:37:14  PeggyG ->  Hi Vinny
 12:37:29  alex.ragone ->  Bill Stites is the Director of Technology at MKA: http://www.mka.org/
 12:37:48  alex.ragone ->  They just added laptops for grades 4-12.
 12:38:01  PeggyG ->  wonderful!!
 12:38:06  vvrotny ->  Hey I am in another web conference right now. Hope to be joining soon
 12:38:28  PeggyG ->  these sessions go fast Vinny! hurry back :-)
 12:38:40  arvind ->  800 laptops is absolutely insane!
 12:38:51  PeggyG ->  I can't imagine rolling them all out!
 12:38:59  arvind ->  or even storing them
 12:39:01  arvind ->  imaging them
 12:39:03  arvind ->  unboxing them
 12:39:39  PeggyG ->  huge transition!!
 12:40:14  arvind ->  macbook pro's with 100gb backup drives
 12:40:20  arvind ->  3 year lifespan
 12:40:27  PeggyG ->  incredible!!! what fantastic tools for the students!!!!
 12:40:31  William Stites ->  500GB
 12:40:33  vvrotny ->  I know. But got to focus on the local once in awhile
 12:40:43  arvind ->  using Casper to manage all of the laptops
 12:41:19  PeggyG ->  they can be managed remotely so students don't every have to turn them in??? that's fantastic!
 12:43:13  PeggyG ->  would love to hear more details about the PD
 12:44:58  PeggyG ->  the long term pre-planning is really significant!
 12:45:19  PeggyG ->  makes a big difference with the success of the rollout
 12:46:02  arvind ->  yes and yes long-term planning and thinking!
 12:46:58  PeggyG ->  does Bill blog or have anything online that describes this process? Fantastic model!!
 12:47:35  alex.ragone ->  Here you go Peggy: http://www.mka.org/page.cfm?p=492
 12:47:43  PeggyG ->  just went there :-)
 12:48:31  arvind ->  The Laptop Institute in Lausanne
 12:49:07  PeggyG ->  do the teachers create the curriculum? I see they're using Moodle to manage it
 12:50:10  PeggyG ->  Evernote has changed my life!! access it from my iphone laptop desktop anywhere :-)
 12:50:28  arvind ->  Now we're talking Evernote: http://www.evernote.com
 12:50:55  arvind ->  I used the free account for a long time. Recently switched to Pro when I started using it for work and personal
 12:51:15  PeggyG ->  I switched to Pro almost immediately! Really wanted all of the features :-)
 12:51:19  arvind ->  I access it from PC laptop Mac desktop Android phone and BlackBerry phone
 12:51:52  arvind ->  Premium service gives you the ability to share notebooks and upload just about any file type
 12:51:56  PeggyG ->  that's it! ability to share notebooks with others for collaboration!
 12:52:30  arvind ->  I am also using my documents folder less and less. Sort of a weird feeling.
 12:53:47  PeggyG ->  very important point about backup of all docs and files :-)
 12:54:06  arvind ->  i dont like that i'm tied to them for life now
 12:54:11  arvind ->  sort of
 12:54:24  alex.ragone ->  Hi Fred!
 12:54:26  PeggyG ->  can one student delete something from another student's folder?
 12:54:56  PeggyG ->  I was thinking the same thing Arvind. What if something happens to evernote?...
 12:55:18  fred ->  Hey Alex
 12:55:20  PeggyG ->  I love the way Evernote is integrated with yolink search enhancement--fabulous combination!
 12:55:29  arvind ->  or what if I don't want to keep paying forever
 12:55:50  arvind ->  I haven't looked at the yolink integration - tell us more
 12:57:06  PeggyG ->  I like that they don't lose their docs when the leave the school
 12:57:52  PeggyG ->  yolink is inredible! not a search engine but search enhancement tool that integrates Diigo Sweet Search Evernote Easybib and Google docs!
 12:58:18  PeggyG ->  http://www.yolinkeducation.com/education/
 12:58:56  PeggyG ->  http://www.yolinkeducation.com/education/how-it-works.jsp
 13:01:02  alex.ragone ->  Students needed to earn a drivers license before they gain admin rights to their laptops.  The Drivers License goals were created by their student leadership team.  
 13:01:06  alex.ragone ->  Empowering students!
 13:01:31  PeggyG ->  very creative!! love it!
 13:03:29  arvind ->  we have a similar gradient for students who receive their laptops in 8th grade. at first they keep them in school then they take home later they earn admin rights
 13:03:30  PeggyG ->  I think the quality tools are those that are open and responsive to feedback from users--espeially in education!
 13:03:37  fred ->  software as service  ... probably the way most things are heading
 13:04:23  fred ->  the 800 laptops will age you quickly bill
 13:04:35  PeggyG ->  this is fantastic!!! would love to continue the conversation!!! Come back Bill!
 13:05:01  arvind ->  SAAS seems to always let me down - waiting for better products
 13:05:18  William Stites ->  will send the url for the drivers manual
 13:05:24  PeggyG ->  thank you all! very excited about this information!
 13:05:32  fred ->  thanks guys!
 13:05:47  PeggyG ->  see you next week
 13:06:07  arvind ->  Head of School from Think Global School
 13:06:09  arvind ->  next week
 13:06:12  PeggyG ->  great! Think Global school!
 13:06:52  alex.ragone ->  http://thinkglobalschool.org/departments/faculty-staff/