District Administration - June 2006 - (Page 78)

PRESENTATION SYSTEMS, A/V some want an hour off so they'll the Center for Digital Education. If you're going to put forth the show the movie Babe instead. Well, if Equ ipment quickly becomes inef- money for the hardware and soft- you watch an hour of Hollywood vid- fec t ive if the teachers don't take wa re, you have to show teachers how eos a week, for 36 weeks a year, over advantage of it. The problem can be it can impact their classroom and you the course of a school year you've just as simple as a setup that doesn't oper- have to provide support, or it usu- lost a week of instructional time. ate easily or often doesn't work see a lly doesn't make a difference. That It's the Little Things sidebar below . whiteboard just becomes a screen Developing Good Habits Even more troublesome are educa- to show videos on, says Amy Gates, tors who use the A/V equipment to supervisor for instructional technol- Even when teachers aren't interested entertain the class or make their og y at the Lees' Summit School Dis- in using their fancy A/V equipment l ives easier. t r ic t in Missouri, which spends more just as a way to reward students Libra r ia ns distribute the videos, than a quarter of its tech budget on with entertaining videos, they still so I know that there are teachers who professional development. can have trouble knowing how to just show anything, says Simpson. Gates says her team always strives get the most out of the investment. Schools have materials for fi rst grad- to make any training directly con- Experts agree: The most important ers to learn from five-minute-long nec ted to what the teachers will be way to ensure A/V equipment truly clips created by National Geographic doing in their own classrooms, using has an impact on learning is to invest on how farms work, for example but examples and case studies that are in professional development. relevant to the curriculum. There are teachers who may be uncomfort- able with the equipment, but they'll IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS change their pedagogy if they know Install an A/V system the right way, and teachers are likely to use the technology it will help their students, she says. from Day One which proponents say will naturally lead to more creative and stu- The change may come slow, in dent-centered activities as classroom excitement takes hold. But ignore a few simple small steps, but once they can see guidelines, and all those expensive machines can end up gathering dust. the impact it has on their kids, they'll SIZE MATTERS When every student can see well, a teacher is more likely 1. keep learning how to better use it. to use A/V equipment and more likely to use detailed or complex images. In a study of the Wellesley Mass. Public Schools, the Technology Assessment What's Next Study Collaborative at Boston College found that teachers with an LCD projector W hat's going on in the classroom is used the equipment more often and with a wider variety of applications than teach- mirroring what's going on in the real ers outfitted with a television set for a monitor. world, with a variety of ways to access KEEP IT SIMPLE Take the time to integrate all your A/V technology into 2. content. The distinction between one easy-to-use system. It needs to be simple for the teacher to use it, technologies is becoming wonder- says Bill Benoit. It can't be intimidating. When a teacher can move almost fully fuzzy. It used to be that A/V effortlessly between a video, a Web site, a PowerPoint presentation and editable was inherently a group experience, software, he or she is much more likely to use all those capabilities. but now it can also be personal, says Mora. I think the next shift is going SAY NO TO SHARING Better to have a dedicated system installed in half 3. to be a way for teachers to work with your classrooms than mobile carts that roam the halls for all of the rooms. small collaborative workgroups. When teachers can't depend on access at any given time, they're much Add in the ways that students can less likely to prepare lesson plans around the A/V capabilities. When you've got a create content from increasingly school with 30 teachers and two or three LCD projectors, that model doesn't work inexpensive digital video cameras to well. Can you imagine sharing a blackboard? The message is: This is not an important group-edit whiteboard activities and resource, says Michael Russell, associate professor at Boston College and the direc- the opportunities become dizzying. tor of technology and assessment at the college's study collaborative. There's something about A/V that MAKE SURE PRODUCTS WORK A teacher who has had to scrap an 4. provides a kind of visceral, immedi- entire activity for the day more than once because the interactive white- ate response, says Mora. The class- board is acting up is a teacher who isn't likely to write more lesson plans room without this is becoming a par- built around the A/V system. The teacher has the right to expect the technology to t ic u la rly out-of-step place to be. DA work, so we try to respond very quickly when there's a problem, says Mark Gura. His department has even installed a centralized system to shut off all the building's Carl Vogel is a freelance writer based in projectors at the end of the day to preserve bulb life. Chicago. 78 June 2006 District Administration av.w.indd 78 5/15/06 3:55:19 PM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - June 2006

Contents
Editor's Letter
Update
Inside the Law
Curriculum Update
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Graduation Woes
The Hidden Downside of Wireless Networking
Cover Story: John Q. Porter: Leader/Pioneer/Secret Shopper
8th Grade Algebra: Finding a Formula for Success
Building a Strong Community Partnership
Join the A/V Club
Big Brother Gets Bolder
Security Trends
The Online Edge
Speaking Out
Problem/Solution
Research Corner
Research Corner
Computer Literature
New Products
By the Numbers

District Administration - June 2006