Educabana
Follow us on Twitter
or email me directly.
  • Home
  • Products
  • Services
  • Blog
  • Events

Classroom of the Future or a Big Expense

8/13/2013

2 Comments

 
Over the past few years, I have asked if Smartboards are really the tool high school teachers need for their classroom. I often told people I did not think I was using the Smartboard to its fullest potential and I was considered one of the best users in the district. The Smartboard is an interactive whiteboard, or the way most teachers use it, an expensive movie screen. 

Because I used the Smartboard daily, I also became too familiar with the popping sound an LCD projector bulb makes when it blows. This became another $100-$200 replacement bulb expense that we never seem to include in our budget. This led me to ask if there is something we can do that would be utilized more and cost less to operate?

This year will be the beginning of my grand experiment. We are outfitting each classroom with a 55" LED television, an iPad and an Apple TV (possibly Chromeshare in the future) to enable mirroring of the iPad. At a price of roughly $1,000 per room to be fully outfitted. At our high school, only a handful of rooms were equipped with an LCD projector and several others donned teacher's personal projectors. A couple of rooms have a moveable Smartboard. So this year, all rooms without a projector are receiving 55" LED televisions. These televisions are HDMI and VGA compatible and should last ten years or more. The cost, $580 per television, or roughly the same cost as an inexpensive LCD projector. Should this experiment work, we should see an immediate savings each year with replacement bulbs; more interaction between students and teachers and overall an increase in student achievement.

Why was this necessary? We are currently implementing a 1:1 Chromebook environment and utilizing Google Apps for Education (GAFE). Teachers have spent the last year going through training on GAFE. We offered online courses; have demonstrated ways to set up 1:1 classrooms; and have ongoing training throughout the year.


Now that teachers have the basic training, they now need the ability to move around their room and not be center stage, as is typically the case. Teachers can couple apps, like Doceri, with GAFE to annotate documents. Teachers can open up files and presentations anywhere in the room. Teachers can have students demonstrate their understanding from their desk, not in that "embarrassing" front part of the room.


Will this work? I hope so. We cannot afford $4000+ in replacement bulbs each year. I guess what needs to be said is, I cannot afford not to try this grand experiment. One thing is for certain, those teachers who have seen or heard about this are excited about the potential our new classrooms will bring to education.





2 Comments

    RSS Feed

    Mickey Chavannes

    I am the Director of Technology for the Shorewood School District and one time AP Economics teacher for Menomonee Falls High School.

    Categories

    All
    1:1
    Apps
    Assessment
    Flipped Class
    Staff Development

    Archives

    November 2019
    December 2016
    October 2016
    March 2016
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    September 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.