Most vendors approach Compton Unified assuming three things: that the money is there, that David Platt controls it, and that he's already interested. Usually none of the three is true. As EdTech Coordinator at the Southern California district, Platt sits between Ed Services, IT, CTE, and curriculum, and he's the one deciding whether a STEAM tool earns a place in classrooms or quietly dies on a shelf.

This episode digs into what that decision actually hinges on. Platt makes the case against "one and done" products: the windmill kit that gets built once and forgotten. The tools he keeps are the ones students can build, modify, and rebuild into something new, the ones that interface with Lego, Arduinos, and micro:bits, and that keep getting upgraded. He also gets candid about the vendor video that showed a student population that doesn't match ...