While it may seem like interactive white boards are all the rage in classrooms these days, some districts are finding that touch-screen monitor systems are a better fit for their needs, and budgets. One example of this is the Deer Lakes School District, a small K-12 public school district in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area that recently installed seven 65-inch Qomo HiteVision Quest LED multi-touch touch-screen monitors at its Curtisville Primary and East Union Intermediate Center elementary schools.

“We were looking for a large-instruction solution similar to the interactive whiteboards, and when we examined the pricing, we just realized the touch-screen monitors were cost-effective for our application,” says Angelo Furiga, director of curriculum and technology for the Deer Lakes School District, noting that the Curtisville Primary and East Union Intermediate Center buildings are of an older construction, with solid walls and a solid ceiling, making it easier to retrofit monitors into the classrooms than whiteboards.

As the monitor is an LED screen, there was also no need for a projector, offering further cost-savings. Along with the monitor, the Deer Lakes systems include a Windows-based PC and a document camera. The camera comes with a microscope attachment for projecting small items onto the screen for the class. The setup also features a voice amplification system. This ensures that even pupils in the back of the class can hear everything the teacher is saying.

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At the heart of the monitor is Qomo’s Flow!Works annotation software, which allows teachers to design eye-catching, engaging presentations. The presentations can incorporate audio and video elements, Flash files and animated objects, and can be set against a wide array of colorful backgrounds. Teachers and students alike can also make on-screen notes to the presentation using their fingers, a wand, a digital pen and also a paint brush tool that is part of the software.

Shelly Znosko, a third-grade teacher at East Union Intermediate, says the monitors and annotation software allow her students to engage more thoroughly with lessons and units. She can pull up a study guide or similar instructional material on the monitor, and have students follow along on worksheets she has printed out as she reviews key points.

“We can highlight different things using the program, and the kids know how to use the pens and change the colors on the monitor, so they know exactly what they need to highlight or underline in their study guides,” she says. “It’s very interactive for them, so they are fully engaged with the learning process.”

As the monitor can display video, it also gives Znosko’s students the ability to visualize certain aspects of a lesson. One especially popular example of this is the class’s regular viewing of Pittsburgh’s “Eagle Cam,” live streaming video shot from the nest of a family of Bald Eagles living along Pennsylvania’s Monongohela River near the city. “Being able to see the eagles live has really broadened the science discussion, and has helped the students grasp certain scientific concepts,” she says.

Znosko’s class conducts most of its activities through the monitor system these days. “It’s very seamless,” she notes. “We can transition from one subject into another very quickly, going, for example, between the document camera I use to project a worksheet we’re working on to a video back to taking notes on a Word document on the board, and it just flows so easily. Within seconds, we can go to the next function we need.”

This flexibility extends to teacher and staff use of the system as well. The monitor, via the PC, is connected to the Deer Lakes district online network, so a teacher can call up any files she needs for instruction directly onto the monitor from her home directory. Along similar lines, when students are working on their computers (Deer Lakes gives all students access to laptops), the teacher can call up their desktops up on the monitor. She can monitor all student desktops from her monitor as well.

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Furiga oversaw the process of installing the Qomo equipment at the Curtisville Primary and East Union Intermediate Center sites. The Deer Lakes School District purchased the gear in the fall, testing it in one classroom to work out any kinks, then proceeded with the full installation, in a total of six classrooms, over winter break.

“If you can do a projector and an interactive whiteboard, you can do this,” says Furiga. “It requires the same bandwidth, which isn’t much. We have our main units hardwired, but the students and teachers can access it through our wireless link.”

It took about eight hours to set up each classroom with the Qomo system, and a day to train staff and teachers how to use it. “Overall, it’s very easy to learn,” notes Znosko.

Currently, the district is in the process of putting response units into all the classrooms that have the Qomo system. These will allow students to input answers to multiple-choice questions so that teachers can track their progress on specific areas of instruction. They can also be used to demonstrate the percentage of the class that chooses a specific answer on an assessment or practice activity.

Furiga says the district plans to add more of the Qomo systems, and is currently looking for grants to fund that. “We’re looking at it over a three-year process. We’ve done seven; if we do 12 the next couple of years—they’re small buildings—we’ll have those filled in.” As the district middle school and high school are of newer construction, the district will determine at a later date if a similar solution will work for those buildings.