1. It's OK to be rude. If you're at an educational technology show, and the presentation you're sitting in isn't suitable, walk out. Sitting out a session that you've discovered to be not what you expected is not an option when there is so much else to see.
2. Don't buy from any company whose sales people don't listen . I tried an experiment today. I told salespeople I had only 5 minutes, and so would like to hear about their product and its unique selling point in Twitter-speak. One person insisted on giving me the entire history of the company.
As if that wasn't bad enough, he had a conversation with a colleague part of the way through -- the only reason I stayed was because I still hadn't had the answer to my question. And as if that wasn't bad enough, after finally giving me the answer to my original question, he then went on to tell me about something I had expressed no interest in whatsoever.
I will not be buying, recommending or even mentioning that product at all.
3. Use a breath freshener. One salesperson had clearly had a cigarette before talking to me, and then kept breathing over me for the next twenty minutes. I nearly collapsed from carbon monoxide poisoning.
4. It's not about the device. Devices come and go. What our schools crave, and what many of our kids already have, is connectivity.
5. It's not about the technology -- it's what you do with it.
But I've cheated, because I knew that already!
