Is a Standard Computing Device REALLY a Way to Save Money?

Ok group,  I have some questions...

I am wondering if this old saw about saving money in IT costs is true...

The concept goes something like this: "If everyone has the same computer we will save money in the IT budget."  or "We must standardize devices to save money."

I am really wondering if this applies to the world of K-12 schools.

I say this because the computer I would buy for the types of projects I tackle needs to be more powerful than what an English Department member would need to do his job.

So naturally, I think the standard should be that everyone needs something running at about 3.3 gigahertz with about 32 gig of ram, a wicked fast video card and oh, maybe about 4 terabytes of storage (preferably SSD storage.)  A nice big monitor, a decently fast scanner, a midi keyboard, an amplifier and some decent external speakers for playback.  I am sure everyone will be happy with this set-up.  Until they have to move it.  Or pay for it.

Of course. everyone else is thinking of something they saw on sale at the office store for $200 on Black Friday... with both gigs of ram and 128 gigs of hard drive.  A nice browser and they are all set.

I see a real problem with the plan as far as needs go.  Obviously, everyone should have my computer, right?  OR do I have to waste time waiting for the beach ball while I am working on my latest Finale project with theirs?

Where are the savings?  Does a standard really save?

We don't have a wear house full of spare parts to maintain.  We barely have techs to install parts and a hard drive, is a hard drive, is a hard drive.  Having been inside a variety of computers, the hardware isn't that different between devices.

We don't really buy in enough bulk to qualify for the really-low-super-valued-customer-club price on devices.

If we have a bring your own device plan in place, doesn't that imply security is planned for multiple platforms?  So are we really saving on security software?

Is the savings in the IT department not having to learn about new devices and software?


I guess I am looking for some numbers.  A real case study with side by side comparisons and everything.  Has anyone proven they save money with a standard computer for everyone?  I know, Google it,  but no real examples with data show up in the first 10 pages of results.  Everyone writes as if they assume this is true.  I'm not so sure that it fits most small enterprises.

Is a standard device a money saver, or is that just an accepted truth that has no data backing it?  I know that people will end up with exactly the wrong thing if they are locked into standard computer.

iPad Accounting vs School Accounting

I was in an interesting conversation this morning about iPads at school.

Ideally, I would think the students would be bringing their own iPad (Chromebook, Laptop, Cray XE6) and filling it with their own legally purchased software.

But the world is not ideal and not everyone can afford to send their kid with their own device.  We fill in.  Sometimes by department budget.

The iPads we have are being paid for out of several different budgets and that brings up some interesting scenarios.

For large lab purchases the multiple purchase plan is ideal.  Nice to get a break on the price and I really like to stay legal with software purchases.  I really like to see developers get paid so they can keep on developing.  It even helps with accounting.  What labs have that software?  There is a place to go look.

But what about the really specialized places in the school?  Special Ed with four iPads that need licensing.  Do you manage this like a personal account at the iTunes store and iCloud?  It isn't really personal use, so I would think that you would need four accounts.  How do you do the accounting on that?  Who manages that?  What about back-ups?

This is something that really needs a plan.  Got one?

How to Avoid Getting Campaign Calls

We recently re-did our phone numbers and became an all cell phone house.

It was time.

The youngest is starting to get busy with activities that happen after school.  He is also in that gap between needing a baby sitter and needing some reassurance from a parent once in a while.  His sister has had a cell for a while and it has been pretty helpful.  So when the phone modem started acting up, we took that as a sign that it was time to get him a phone of his own.

He got the old home number and with that there are some upsides and some down sides.  Not having to learn another number was pretty big plus for him and me.  Having missed a couple of calls because of his message taking skills?  Not so good for me.

Although, I can see why he might have gotten the wrong idea.  He got the phone during the campaign season and for some reason that number is on both the Democrat and Republican phone trees.  I may have told him that a couple of those messages for me weren't really for me personally and he just took it on to filter them for me from there!

There may be the idea for the next campaign season.  If the parties aren't going to leave us alone even when we are on the Do Not Call List, we should make sure our phones are being answered by 11 year olds.  If you can't get past them, your platform needs work.

Garageband in the Band Rehearsal

http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/

Turns out that Apple's Garageband is a good fit for rehearsals.

We are getting ready for our December concerts and it was definitely time to open some ears in the room.  The kids think they know what to do and we do have most of the notes and rhythms figured out as individuals.

But working together?  Not so good.

We have issues with blend, balance and phrasing.  Some things that every audience member will notice if they aren't done well.  They may not be able to tell you what the problem is, but they will notice that something is a little off.

So I set up my little Firewire mixer, fired up Garageband and created a recording set-up that would be as truthful as possible... no reverb, no tuning gimmicks, neutral mics, at about the distance where the audience will start in auditorium.

I also set the kids up with our state's adjudication sheet (for ideas to evaluate the work) and a couple question reflection sheet for each section of the band.

We recorded, played the piece back, gave each section a few minutes to discuss and write down what they liked, what they didn't and what they needed to do to improve. Record, playback, discuss, repeat.

The discussions were focussed.  And the band made some rapid improvements.  Each section had something to say and work on.

Will we do this ALL hour.  Probably not.  But I think each piece is going to get the treatment between now and the concert.

Recording your band in the process of learning their concert.  Give it a try.

Big SmartMusic News

http://www.makemusic.com/Pressroom/Default.aspx?pid=560

http://techinmusiced.wordpress.com/

It is happening!  SmartMusic is coming to iOS.

I am pretty excited about the possibilities here.  If an when we get to true one to one computing at school, I am guessing that it will involve the iPad or similar device at the middle school level.

The form factor for school is an excellent fit.

When an iPad sits on a desk it is just like the paper worksheet we oldsters grew up with.  A teacher can just walk by and really see what you are working on.  Math teachers can actually have kids show their work without having expensive software packages involved.  A stylus or finger can draw the math symbols.  Reading on a tablet can be very much like reading a journal.  The camera (still and movie) has applications in science and visual art.

With SmartMusic available on tablets, the music class will fit in with the crowd that is migrating to the digital and convenient world of tablets.  I could actually see an iPad on a music stand.  Laptop?  No.

Some things I would love to try:

• A class were everyone had easy access to a tuner in rehearsal.
• A class where everyone knew where they played the wrong note.
• A deployment where anyone who was having trouble with the program could bring it in for some help and show me. 

I think kids are more likely to have access to a tablet than a computer in the near future.  It is more cost effective than the laptop/desktop computers that are available now.  Heck it is even more portable than books are now.  What was the Steve Martin tweet? "I just loaded 10,000 books on my tablet and now I can't lift it."  Or something like that.  We know that isn't true, but it is the near future for kids and computing.  And now it looks like we are going to be able to load over 50,000 scales and exercises, a dozen method books and a whole bunch of literature on there too.

As usual, Dr. Russell has beat me to the analysis of this announcement.  Don't forget to hop over to his blog and check out his take!  

This is big news.  It is going to be fun to see what this will do.

No Apple TV in Your Classroom?

http://www.airserverapp.com/download
http://techinmusiced.wordpress.com/

I have Apple TV at home and I love it for sharing what is on my iOS devices.  Pictures, videos, songs...just beam them to the box and up they go on the big screen tv.

I thought this would be cool to have at school, but it has problems with our locked down network.  Something to do with multicasting needing to be enabled or sunspot activity, something like that... I'm not sure.

We have a new network manager and he has  PLENTY to do with getting his feet on the ground, so I am not eager to pester him right now.

You know me, I like to find work-arounds for all kinds of problems so I took a look at what I had and what was available and I ran across AirServer.  This $15 program runs on your computer and with a little tweaking to my Macbook's network settings and I was good to go.  I set my Mac to create a network with its AirPort, turned on internet sharing in system preferences so the computer and iPad could both use my ethernet connection.

Upsides?  It is available for Mac or PC.  It is waaaay cheaper than a dedicated box like a Wii, Playstation or Apple TV.  It didn't need me to shuffle around a box and computer every time I wanted to use the iPad on screen.  It didn't need an adapter to work with my current projector set-up.

Dr. Russell in his blog Technology in Music Ed points out that a big screen TV monitor is a better purchase than a projector as far as cost goes and I think he has a different approach to what apps/software to use to get this done.

In class this works great.  I run my presentations on Google Apps.  I then bring them up on my iPad and run them from there to my computer via AirServer, which then puts them on screen via the projector in my IWB.  I still have access to my computer for running SmartMusic in class and other programs that the iPad won't run, but for my presentations I no longer have to run back to my IWB to move to the next slide.

Another big plus is I don't have to take my eyes off the more talkative students in my room to get the next slide up.  For some reason, I have a couple of students who think slide transitions are a good time to visit.  This took away that time.

I am really enjoying this combination of tools and as Red Green would say, "No professionals!" were involved.

Teachers, Want to try SmartMusic?

http://www.smartmusic.com/promotions/2012/1103/index.html?utm_source=cheetah&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=SM_12012_123ReferralEM

If you are a music teacher who wants to try SmartMusic, have they got a deal for you.  They are giving away a free educator's subscription and a microphone.  (Just follow that link.)

The offer is only good for folks new to SmartMusic.

If you are new, I would jump on this.  I would put it on a computer at school.  I would give kids access to it (with lots of things to try... current method books, exercises, solos, band music... they will find something to do.)  Set up and send a couple of assignments (they wouldn't have to count.)  Really kick the tires of this program.

Things to notice while your students are using SmartMusic:

Like all good video games, SmartMusic can be addictive.  Don't worry, getting hooked on practice is a good thing.  You won't hear, "how much time should I practice.?"  The answer is right there...how is your score?

There is lots of support for students in this program.  Want to hear how it goes?  What's that fingering?  Can I slow it down?  are all possible questions for students to get help with in this program.

Assignments can be a "beat the machine" activity.  So you got all the notes green on that scale, can you go faster?  "Beat the machine" also puts the focus on the work and not the teacher.  Kids won't think you are kidding them when they see the red/green note report.

Teacher things to notice:

You will really get to hear what your kids are doing.  There is no hiding in the section pretending to play right notes and rhythms.  You can also set parameters (tempo, instrumentation, metronome on/off) for the assignment to meet before it is submitted.  You can even see how much time the really spent on this.

The teacher account will make it possible to send and receive assignments as if by magic.  Really.  Just send the assignment, the elves at SmartMusic will get it to the kid's computer.  When the student sends it back, the elves over at SmartMusic will magically get it to your SmartMusic grade book for you to listen to and evaluate.

 I don't miss tapes, discs, floppies, thumb drives and all those other dongles and doo-dads that you had to deal with before to get a recording from everyone.

We make progress faster and easier with SmartMusic.  It is easy to find where your students need help and adjust your teaching.  The question, "do my kids really get this?" is easily answered with an assignment.  Reteach if you need to, move on if it is time.

At the end of our first year of using SmartMusic everywhere (home, practice room, rehearsal hall) in our program, I was comparing years by what we got done in our method book.  It was as if we added 8 weeks to our year.

If you haven't tried SmartMusic, please do.  It will change the way you teach and your students learn.