Issue link: http://osercommunicationsgroup.uberflip.com/i/446933
O s e r C o m m u n i c a t i o n s G r o u p O r l a n d o F r i d a y, J a n u a r y 2 3 , 2 0 1 5 AN INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION NOT AFFILIATED WITH FETC Perry Roach, CEO of Netsweeper, discusses Netweeper's web content filtering software and how it helps you ensure acceptable Internet usage in your schools. ESD: Tell us what you'll be talking about at this year's FETC. PR: We're going to be speaking about the Netsweeper content web filtering platform that provides premium web filtering services to the education and library market. We have a new release, 4.1, that provides education-related features and benefits sur- rounding reporting, advanced scalability and speed and more. It's more granular on a per-user basis, and it has a new graphical user interface, so it's visually beneficial to the user. It's user-friendly, and the user experience has been test- ed to be much better. Ease of use has been improved. ESD: Tell us more about the advantages of the Netsweeper software. PR: Let's start with the fact that it is software. Netsweeper is a software product. We're not out to sell schools and libraries a big piece of equipment and make money on that. It reduces their total cost of ownership. Integration is flexible and at a lower cost. In addition, while Netsweeper has always been flexible enough to set different Internet access policies for different user groups and by time of day, per site, it also now allows the IT administrator managing the school's network to delegate tasks to the building's network administrator or even right down to the teacher. If a site that is NETSWEEPER CONTENT FILTRATION: SAFE, SCALABLE AND COST-EFFECTIVE An interview with Ken Leonard, CEO, LearnPad Group. ESD: Tell us a little about your background. KL: Over the past 20 years, I have worked with the country's foremost teaching, learning and digital media experts to partner with school cus- tomers to design solutions for the 21st century classroom. Here, I'd like to share my experience of partnering with school districts to achieve successful 1:1 tablet implementations. In many schools, tablet technology fosters an enriched learning environment full of wonderful interactions between teachers and stu- dents. Unfortunately, this otherwise promising picture is rare. Successful 1:1 technolo- gy implementations need a practical understanding of the local learning environment in order to avoid technology being a distraction and delivering on real instructional pri- orities in the classroom. ESD: Does the choice of hardware matter? KL: My first reaction to this question is to say "no." A tablet is a tablet regardless of manufacturer or brand name. Of course, schools must consider both the cost of owner- ship and the "return" on their investment. I would never recommend "cheap" but I would encourage schools to consider price and value in a broader mix of values they seek while designing their approaches to 1:1. ESD: What are the main considerations for a smooth and successful 1:1 implementation? An interview with Jeremy Bilsky, Director of Sales and Services, AG iRepair. ESD: Tell us about AG iRepair's offerings. JB: AG iRepair is one of the largest and most advanced repair facilities in the nation, specializing in Apple and Chromebook device repairs. We currently work with more than 700 school districts, providing them with repair solutions for iPad, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and various Chromebook models. We offer free inbound and outbound shipping with automatically generated ship- ping labels, one to two day turnaround times, and a one-year warranty on all repairs performed. Our website allows districts to track all current and prior repairs, and also provides a live look to see the state of where their current orders are at. With our time stamped order manager system, you can see when your order was received, if it is in production, when it was completed and shipped, along with a tracking number. Our site also provides a reporting system so you can track how many devices you had repaired throughout the course of a year, etc. It's a really cool system that we built in house and we haven't seen any other repair company offer something this advanced and diverse. ESD: What sets AG iRepair apart from other laptop and tablet repair companies? JB: AG iRepair has more than 15 years of experience in the LCD repair industry. Our technical knowledge, coupled with our advanced testing and repair equipment, allows us to perform highly specialized repair services successfully in a very time An interview with Spokespencil, Scantron Corporation. ESD: No. 2, people think of Scantron as "just that No. 2 pencil com- pany." What do you say to that? No. 2: Well, first â I'm flattered. It's nice to know that after more than 40 years in the business, my name and face are recognized around the world! We're still the best producer of reliable scanners and high-quality forms, and a lot of educators enjoy the ease of use and simplicity of paper tests. But we're much more than that, too. We provide complete assessment solutions (online and paper-based), from adaptive assessments to flexible assessment platforms to a wide variety of item banks to expert consulting. And we're really taking assessment and its outcomes to a new level with our analytics solutions. ESD: Tell our readers more about the assessments and assessment content you devel- op. No. 2: Valid, reliable assessment content is absolutely critical in the modern assess- ment environment. With increased emphasis on standards, educators need quality con- tent to measure student progress. We provide that in our assessment solutions like Achievement Series. But it's about much more than simply capturing their scores. It's also about providing a context for those scores â our expert consultants work directly with schools and districts to develop and enhance assessment approaches to provide content and context. Continued on Page 20 Continued on Page 25 Continued on Page 25 Continued on Page 20 GETTING IT RIGHT: EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF TABLET TECHNOLOGY IN SCHOOLS APPLE AND CHROMEBOOK DEVICE REPAIR AND REPLACEMENT PARTS FOR Kâ12 DIGITAL LEARNING INITIATIVES SCANTRON PROVIDES COMPLETE ASSESSMENT SOLUTIONS