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IMAGE
CONSCIOUS!
Presentation Technology Top Priority at Troy
Schools
“How is this technology going to affect the
teaching, learning and growing of students within our
district?” According to Steve Shotwell, Director of
Technology for the Troy School District, Michigan,
this question is asked at every presentation that he
makes before members of the Troy School Board. At one
meeting last year, Shotwell was prepared to answer
the question before it was asked. While he usually
addresses the board about computers, servers, wide
area networks and the like, the focus of this particular
presentation was classroom tools…instruments that
represent the most advanced visual presentation technology
available today.
The
Troy School District, which supports 12,000 students
among 12 elementary schools, four middle schools,
two high schools, and one alternative high school,
was to vote on a $1 million proposal to replace and
upgrade existing technologies in each of these schools.
Due to the importance of this issue, a 10-member
committee had scrutinized various options for months
and conducted numerous meetings to review products,
meet with vendors, formulate bid specifications,
and conduct a bid to the business community in order
to select products that best suited the needs of
schools within the district.
Leading-edge visual presentation technology
The
Troy School District, recognized as a leader in instructional
technologies, is committed to providing their students
with the best resources available to prepare them
for the future. Therefore, from its inception, the
committee was looking for cutting-edge technology
that would provide maximum image quality, color accuracy,
trouble-free operation and ease of use.
The Troy district already owned Epson and some Mitsubishi
projectors as well as visual presenters by ELMO and
another manufacturer. In 2004, when teachers were surveyed
as to what technologies they most needed and wanted
for their classrooms, color printers, ink jet printers,
computers and network upgrades were high on a list
of 22 specific areas. However, the #1 priority of all
teachers surveyed was obtaining the latest ELMO visual
presenters for elementary classrooms, followed by new
projectors
After discussing
these needs with Kevin Gibson of City Animation,
an audio-video dealer based in Troy, the committee
recommended replacing the existing document cameras
and overhead projectors that had been used for years
with ELMO P30 XGA visual presenters and Mitsubishi
XD450U high-resolution digital video projectors. The
P30 is an 850,000 pixel progressive scan CCD camera
that allows live image capture at a smooth 20 frames
per second. Shotwell said, “The DVI output of
the presenter matches the DVI input of the projector
to give us an ideal combination for the high quality
images we were looking for.”
Shotwell
was so impressed by the Mitsubishi projectors that
he elected to retire all of the projectors being
used throughout the district and replace them with
XD460U’s. Due to the overall lower cost of the
projectors, the Troy district purchased additional
units, raising the number of projectors they own to
185, approximately double the previous number.
Shotwell
was particularly impressed with the XD460U’s
image quality, along with its filter-free design, low
fan noise and DVI connector, which is perfect for use
with the ELMO P30 presenter. “Our teachers are
very pleased with the overall quality and performance
of both of these units,” he said.
The XD460U
projectors are powered by Texas Instrument’s
DLP TM chip technology and have been designed with
sealed optic engines. This advanced filter-free construction
makes Mitsubishi projectors resistant to dust, dirt
and other micro particles within the light path, making
them a good overall value.
Shotwell
demonstrated the equipment to the Troy School Board
last year. First of all, he noted that the advanced
technology allowed the images to be easily viewed without
having to dim the room lights, saying, “The brightness
and clarity is far superior to other products we reviewed.” He
proceeded to show how easy it is to present documents
and pages from books to large groups of students; freeze
images while flipping pages; zoom in for close-ups
of everything from pictures to peg boards; and create
snapshots of images that can be captured on SD memory
cards and called up at will. Shotwell also explained
how the presenter’s S-Video feature enables teachers
to display images on monitors and switch from computer
to presenter with the touch of a button. He described
how other features, such as auto focus and white balance,
make it easy for teachers to display images without
having to deal with focus or iris controls.
Displaying pictures to transparencies to moving images
The ELMO presenter is especially useful for displaying
objects such as blocks, geoboards, geometric shapes,
and the like for science or math instruction and is
a powerful tool when combined with a Mitsubishi XD460U
projector. Science specimens such as owl pellets and
items in a beaker or petri dish can also be shown,
as well as book pages, photos and other documents used
in social studies, language arts, foreign language,
and other instruction. Transparencies can also be easily
displayed. In addition to
still images, teachers can create “movies” for
their presentations by storing moving images that can
be played back using Windows R Media Player.
The third
component of the proposed package was the portable
carts on which the presenters and projectors could
be rolled into the classroom or from one room to
another. Shotwell said, “They had to be large
enough to hold the units yet small enough to fit down
the narrow aisles that we have in many of our classrooms.” The
carts, presenters and projectors were assembled, put
on trucks, and delivered to 23 locations in the district
by City Animation. Gibson explained that all of the
equipment was tested and that of approximately 360
presenters, 185 projectors and 410 sets of carts and
accessories, the only problem found was one defective
cable, which was easily replaced.
To help
teachers get started with the new equipment, the
Troy School District Technology Resource Center prepared
a hand-out describing basic operating procedures.
Shotwell said that the operation is so intuitive that
teachers started using the presenters as soon as they
were delivered. “The teacher rolls the cart into
the presentation area, plugs in the power cord, points
the projector at the screen and turns on the presenter.”
Gibson described
the excitement shown by teachers and students alike
when their trucks pulled up to the various schools. “We heard teachers yelling ‘The
ELMOs are here’ and one kindergarten student
actually walked up to the presenter and said, ‘Welcome
to our school, ELMO’.” He then began singing
an Elmo song from Sesame Street.
Hundreds of ELMO P30 XGA visual presenters, Mitsubishi
XD450U digital projectors and portable carts were delivered
to schools within the Troy school district.
ELMO P30 visual presenter and Mitsubishi XD450U digital
projector display images of documents, photographs,
books, 3D objects, and transparencies. Schools within
the Troy School District have the instruments mounted
on rolling carts.
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