Issue link: http://osercommunicationsgroup.uberflip.com/i/993074
EdTech Show Daily Monday, June 25, 2018 1 0 Out of the Classroom and Into the Shark Tank An interview with Shane Cox, Chief Executive Officer of PEEQ and creator of the Qball. ESD: Since we spoke last year, you were able to not only make an appearance on the hit show Shark Tank, but you made a deal with three of the Sharks. Tell our readers what that was like. SC: It was definitely one of the most exciting, challenging and frightening things I have ever done in my life! It is hard to describe the mix of emotions you feel standing behind those doors, waiting to make that walk down the hallway and enter The Tank. ESD: Getting a deal with three Sharks doesn't happen very often. Were you surprised? SC: I was honestly a little bit in shock. I knew going into it that I was going to get pushback from the fact that our main market is education. A lot of investors have this idea that education is just too hard, and takes too long, but I was a little bit surprised when one of the Sharks dropped out so early. I really started sweating it at that point, but I just stuck to my guns, because education is what I am passionate about. It is the area where I feel my product could make the biggest impact. I am always hearing from teach- ers about how much their students love the Qball and how much it helps to keep students engaged in classroom discus- sions. I think the Sharks saw that and I was pleasantly surprised to get an offer from not just one, but three Sharks. ESD: How did you come up with the idea for the Qball? SC: I worked for about six years doing technology integration in schools around the country. We installed a lot of classroom audio sys- tems where the teacher wears a micro- phone all day, and saw tremendous bene- fits to the system. But most of these sys- tems came with a handheld student microphone that rarely got used, because teachers were either worried about it get- ting dropped and broken, or it just wasn't conducive to a free-flow classroom dis- cussion. I saw a lot of teachers using some sort of object (the talking stick) to manage classroom discussions and thought, what would happen if we put the two together. I did some research and found a couple other similar systems on the market, but they weren't really designed with the classroom in mind so I set out to make a sys- tem that was meant for the classroom, at a price point that schools could actually afford. ESD: How can teachers here at the show learn more about the Qball, and about your Shark Tank experience? SC: Come stop by booth #680. I should be there for most of the show and am happy to talk about the Qball, the Shark Tank experience or just entrepreneurship in general! For more information, go to www.buyqball.com or stop by booth #680. Purchasing Made Personal with TIPS By Whitley Allen, Inside Business Development and Marketing, TIPS Purchasing Cooperative The Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS) is a national purchasing cooperative that offers access to competitively procured purchasing contracts to its membership. TIPS is available for use by all public and private schools, colleges, universities, cities, counties and other government entities in all 50 states. It is the intention of TIPS to establish vendor awarded contracts to satisfy the procurement needs of participating mem- ber entities. These awarded contracts will enable member entities to purchase on an as-needed basis from competitively awarded contracts with high performance vendors. This process saves our partici- pating member entities both time and money by not having to complete their own RFP process. Member entities can view all of our compliance documentation for each ven- dor and each contract they hold on our website. This information is located under the Due Diligence tab for every TIPS Awarded Vendor. EDGAR, DMWE and HUB Vendors are also available and searchable on our website for your convenience. Membership with TIPS is completely free with no purchasing obli- gation or liability. TIPS prides itself on our "Purchasing Made Personal" mantra while further ensuring compliant pur- chasing from high performance vendors. Join TIPS for free today at www.tips- usa.com/membership.cfm. TIPS also works diligently to meet the needs of our member entities. In doing so, our general counsel, previous- ly a purchasing director for many years, creates RFP categories specific to those needs. TIPS is continuously approving high quality ven- dors that provide their products and services to our members nation- wide. If you would like to view our open RFP categories and have the opportunity to join TIPS as an awarded vendor, enroll in our eBid system: https://tips.ionwave.net. Let us know how we can best serve you! Email TIPS your suggestions or inquiries to tips@tips-usa.com or call us at 866.839.8477. For more information, email tips@tips- usa.com, go to www.tips-usa.com or stop by booth #584. FileWave: A Tool for Busy IT Administrators FileWave is an international leader in multi-platform endpoint management, providing users with an easy-to-use soft- ware designed to ease the woes of IT teams. Its all-in-one, highly scalable soft- ware solves the many challenges of man- aging a diverse and growing population of users, devices and content by ensuring IT teams have a comprehensive solution that supports both client (desktop) and mobile devices across macOS, Windows, iOS, Chrome OS and Android. Whether an organization has 50 or 50,000-plus devices, FileWave's multi- platform, robust and scalable management suite delivers. Combined with FileWave's cross-platform imaging solution and its classroom management and collaboration tool, Engage, FileWave offers a complete toolkit of solutions to cover all current and future management needs. With FileWave, IT teams can effi- ciently secure and support their organiza- tion from one easy-to-use console, mak- ing even the most daunting projects, such as BYOD or large 1:1 initiatives, man- ageable and highly-effective. Key components include: enterprise level multi-platform endpoint manage- ment (macOS, Windows, iOS, Chrome OS and Android); integrated inventory and license management – complete asset management; patented deployment – fast, reliable and efficient deployments; self-service options to eliminate the guess work out of deployments; cross- platform imaging from a single interface, site-based/over- the-air; integrated patch management to ensure endpoints remain secure and up to date; remote management to ensure admins are maximizing their time; boost- er technology – maximum scalability with minimal network traffic; and, engage for EDU – modern classroom management and collaboration. Dr. Scott Smith, Chief Technology Officer of Mooresville Graded School District in North Carolina, USA, remarks, "Through FileWave, we're able to reach out and touch 4,000 machines at one time, so it's not the human infrastruc- ture that we're having to invest in. That's a huge cost-savings in terms of IT and total cost of ownership in terms of what's going on technically in our department." Additionally, Christina Devitt, Head of Technology at Jakarta International School in Jakarta, Indonesia, stated in an interview, "We find FileWave to be a crit- ical tool to the success of our 1:1 laptop and iPad implementations. The product is full-featured, always improving and cus- tomer support is excellent." For a full breakdown of FileWave features and benefits, visit www.filewave.com. To learn more, stop by booth #2036 or call 888.FILEWAVE. ASHA Raises Concern about the Potential Impact of Popular Tech Overuse on Speech and Language Development The American Speech-Language- Hearing Association's (ASHA) Healthy Communication and Popular Technology Initiative focuses upon the potential dangers of popular technolo- gy overuse. What is the concern in regard to speech and language development? The ages 0 to 3 is a prime period for the development of speech and language skills. It has been proven that human con- versation is the most effective way for a person in that age group to develop strong speech and language skills. However with the advent of digital tech- nology, younger and younger children are given more and more personal digital devices to use at a point in their lives when it is important for them to engage in conversation. What are the consequences for people with impaired speech and language skills? Poor academic performance, poor social skills and a poor-self-image could result. Speech delays have even been linked to mental health issues much later in life, as well as lower employment, according to a recent study in Pediatrics. What are some tips for healthy usage of popular technology? Parents are encouraged to model healthy usage and set usage parameters. A house- hold set of guidelines for popular tech- nology usage is a good start. Families can even go a step further and have everyone sign a pledge to help hold each other accountable. Parents of very young children, especially ages 0 to 3, need to engage in conversation with their children to develop their speech and lan- guage skills. They can also designate tech-free zones at home, and sponsor tech-free nights and events to keep tech- nology usage reasonable. For more information, go to www.asha.org.