Title: Desk Jockeys: AV Control Systems Give Teachers the Reins to Multiple Classroom Computing Devices, without Their Having to Leave the Lectern
Abstract: THERE'S AN INTERESTING photo illustration on the website maintained by Crestron (www.crestron.com), the New Jersey-based maker of multimedia control and automation systems. It's at the bottom of the company information page, and it shows some audiovisual and computer gear-amplifiers, monitors, a CPU cabinet, a remote control--all assembled before a sunset like a dense cityscape. The illustration is an apt metaphor for the veritable urban sprawl of audiovisual and computing equipment accumulating today in school districts around the country, often clogging up instead of augmenting instruction. There comes a point where all the devices we're putting into the classrooms to enhance education begin to detract from it, says Bruce Haase, director of for the Orchard View School District in Muskegon, MI. To expect a teacher to stand up in front of a class and deliver curriculum while juggling all these blinking boxes is just too much to ask. So for us, reducing the complexity of these disparate components--marrying the various pieces of with a single, easy-to-use interface--was a real priority. In spring 2003, local voters passed a bond proposal that allowed the district to build a new high school and to renovate and expand several existing buildings. Part of the overall renovation was a upgrade; included in that upgrade was the unifying AV control system that Haase desired. Orchard View serves about 2,700 students. The small but tech-savvy district maintains about 1,000 computer workstations connected on a local area network (LAN). All 163 full-time classroom teachers have laptops for lesson planning, student recordkeeping, and e-mail. In its two elementary schools, where teachers remain in assigned classrooms throughout the day, the district installed technology desks, which look more like credenzas, next to the main working desks. These tech desks house Dell (www.dell.com) computers that are connected to the LAN, as well as DVD and VCR players. The computers and media players are linked to fixed, ceiling-mounted projectors and enhanced sound systems in each classroom. In the high school, however, where the teachers move from classroom to classroom, the district found it more practical to install so-called podium-based control stations. The podia (which are actually lecterns, but carry the now industry-standard misnomer) house, the same equipment found in the desks. At the center of these equipment clusters, in both the desks and the lecterns, is a Crestron Controller. Today, the district maintains more than 100 of these AV control stations, either desk- or podia-based. AV control systems are combinations of hardware and software through which groups of computers, projectors, media players, document cameras, and monitors are integrated and managed. There's usually a main appliance--a box--that contains a computer processor, memory, networking technologies, and some software. The devices are connected to the box, and the box is connected to the LAN. Users control the functions of the connected devices via a simple graphical user interface (GUI) displayed on touchscreens. …
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-03-01
Language: en
Type: article
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