Bill MacKenty

Your elementary school needs a supercomputer

I belong to an invite-only listerv for New York City independent school technology folks. It is a wonderful resource - and especially fantastic as a sounding board for all things technological and school. 

Recently, a question was asked to allow vendors onto the list. The question was batted around a bit, and I don’t think there is a resolution. I personally don’t like the idea of a vendor on this specific list, but I might be open to flagging their posts with [VENDOR] in the subject line.

When I make decisions, I need good advice, and I rely on ideas and suggestions from my peers. Like many people, I evaluate products, read specifications, and read ratings.  But the advice I get from my peers, who have similar support systems, similar budgets, and similar headaches is truly invaluable. We recently had an interesting discussion about evaluating the educational effectiveness of smartboard; I wonder how a smartboard vendor would of contributed to that discussion?  We also regularly share the reputation of certain vendors, and our experience with different technology solutions.