This Interactive Tech Changed Learning at Blossom Montessori School for the Deaf

Visual learning is an important aspect of a student’s education, especially for students who are hard-of-hearing.

In order to provide its students with more visual and interactive learning experiences, Blossom Montessori School for the Deaf, located in Clearwater, Fla., needed to upgrade its classroom technologies.

In addition to accommodating hard-of-hearing and deaf students, Montessori School also accommodates students with sight and mobility impairment. The school’s laptops and small desktop computers were limited in numbers, causing students to have to huddle around to view videos and images, creating concern for all students’ safety. The school’s equipment was also outdated.

“Our equipment only worked on a good day, and it had to be located in the right area of the room to get internet connectivity. It was very unpredictable,” says Julie Rutenberg, school director for Blossom Montessori School for the Deaf in a press release. “Deaf students are truly visual learners and technology is one of the best ways that we can facilitate enhanced learning and motivate students in our classrooms.”

Blossom Montessori looked to implement a solution that would best meet the needs of all 30 students, and partnered with Sharp Business Systems Florida (SBS) to install a 70” Class (69.5” diagonal) PN-L603B AQUOS BOARD interactive display in each of the schools six classrooms. In addition to the classroom installations, a 60” Class (60.1” diagonal) PN-L603B AQUOS BOARD interactive display was installed in the school’s speech pathology room, along with two new 55” (54.6” diagonal) Class PN-Y555 LED professional displays in the front entrance and cafeteria.

A MX-2640N color series document system was networked to the AQUOS BOARD interactive displays in the classrooms and the speech pathology room.

Since the installation, Blossom Montessori students have benefited from large visuals and equally large captions displayed by the boards, which were installed at the appropriate height for each age level.

“The captions on the screen are huge and can be seen from anywhere in the classroom. They’re very easy to learn how to use, even for four-year-olds,” says Rutenberg in the press release.

Montessori School’s speech therapist uses a program on the AQUOS BOARD that shows students pictures they can associate with real life situations, helping them to learn sentence structure. Furthermore, the AQUOS BOARD has apps to help engage students in learning subjects such as math, science and penmanship.

“Coupled with interactive capabilities, our students can collaborate and learn via the new devices in a much more dynamic way,” says Rutenberg in the news release.

The AQUOS BOARD interactive displays allow all students to easily interact with the images and content displayed on the screen. The interactive displays are sturdy, enabling students with cerebral palsy to brace themselves while interacting with the devices, while volume adjustments and large images allow visually impaired and hard-of-hearing students to benefit from the AQUOS BOARDS no matter where they are seated in the classroom.

“Our students now have visual learning accessibility wherever they are in the school,” says Rutenberg in the press announcement. “Everyone loves the new Sharp equipment and this technology has exposed our students to a whole new method of learning that reaches far beyond the classroom.”