Oh... this is college... that's a whole different issue. Sorry Dustin I forgot where you are at. In that case you really should push for the touch
screen. College students: a) are already experienced with basic programming and ready to explore the deeper functions of a
console b) need the opportunity to develop advanced skills for their future career c) should hopefully have access to enough intelligent toys to make it really worth while.
Also do you have much intelligent gear? I think you could honestly argue that
console is designed to use the touch
screen for operation of intelligent equipment.
Try arguing for it from an educational
point of view that you need it for students to develop their real world skills. Perhaps you can get one out of a different educational equipment budget.
Another option is to make sure you get a good
DVI monitor right now then try to snag the touch
screen later in the year by spending someone's use it or loose it money. Every college has use it or loose it issues in June.
In the end I still say you have to get two monitors somehow. As I've said, I am not an
Ion user so I don't know it intimately. However, on my
Strand Palette (which is similar to
Ion in many ways) I passed on the touch
screen in favor of spending that money on other gear (
gafftaper's method at work). I can fly through programming with one
hand on the keypad and the other on the
mouse. But I agree with SB that you should talk with some
ETC experts about the best strategy here.