Interactive technology has transformed learning in numerous K-12 classrooms, and many school districts are taking advantage of the many interactive tools available on the market to create more active learning environments for their students.
Dublin Independent School District, located in Texas, understands the value of interactive technology and wasted no time implementing a few different interactive solutions into its classrooms to help students become more active in their learning experiences. However, after their initial solutions proved to be quite costly to manage, the district decided to look into other interactive technologies available to K-12 schools.
“Our projectors were going out really fast and so we had to move pretty quickly on purchasing something,” says Craig Parks, technology director for the Dublin Independent School District.
After much research, the district decided to purchase 90 InFocus JTouch interactive displays to implement in its three schools.
“What I liked about the InFocus interactive displays was the brightness of the screen. You could see everything from anywhere in the classroom with the lights on. Not having to turn the lights off was a huge benefit in my opinion,” says Parks.
Furthermore, the 65-inch JTouch interactive displays do not require multiple pieces of hardware or software, making the installation process faster and easier than some other interactive technology solutions.
“You don’t have multiple pieces of technology to worry about. [With JTouch], you have one display that takes care of two pieces of equipment prior,” says Robert Detwiler, senior product director for InFocus. “You are able to have the display, the touch and the interactivity all built into one piece of hardware.”
Parks and his management team took on the task of installing all 90 of the JTouch interactive displays, and in fact spent less time installing this technology than prior interactive solutions.
“It was really quick to install. If you have power nearby, it makes it even easier. Our first board install probably took about 45 minutes, just to figure out what we were doing and how we were going to mount it. As we went we got to where it took probably 10-15 minutes to have it unboxed, mounted on the wall and read to go,” says Parks.
In addition to saving time, installing the interactive displays in-house also saved the district money. The only cost of the installation involved purchasing a mounting bracket for each display.
Rachel Quetti is the editor of K-12 TechDecisions, aimed at helping K-12 professionals make better decisions about technology purchases for their classrooms, schools and school districts. Rachel joined the TechDecisions team in 2015 and covers the latest technology trends in the K-12 market.Get in Touch: [email protected] More by Rachel Quetti
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