“Whenever people are moving to one-to-one, they should be doing the professional development whether they are one, two, or five years away from implementation,” Larkin said. “You don’t need to wait to get teachers comfortable with using technology.”
Be flexible
The second most-common question Smith said he receives, after inquiries about funding, concerns how Mooresville chose its device.
“The device doesn’t matter,” he said. “It goes back to what you want to do. We look at technology as an operational expense–we’re going to pay for technology every year.”
Marrying an initiative to one device is one mistake that could hinder a tech initiative’s success.
“Whatever decision you make, it’s a short-term decision,” Larkin said. “Technology’s changing so fast and devices are changing so quickly.”
“You have to answer the ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions very early on, and that informs the decision of the device. When people get married to a device…they get in trouble,” Schad said.
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