Saturday, June 23, 2007
SMART Board Installs Continue
Just a quick post to say that by then of today (Friday) all SMART Boards will be hanging on the wall, all speakers will be in the ceiling, and all cabling will be done. Next week, the installers hang projectors and test each system. They think they'll be done by Wednesday. Neat-o!
Monday, June 18, 2007
SMART Boards Installations Begin
Well, last week all the products were delivered, I got all the sketches of each room done, and the electricians got most of the outlets installed in the ceilings. (Actually, just ran into that crew and they said they were doing final tests today.)
The SMART Board installers showed up this morning and we took a little tour so they know where they're working. They're distributing all the parts to the various rooms today, then starting actual installations tomorrow. As an aside, they're also installing a new projector in the Dining Hall. We've been carting portable projectors down there for years and our tech support folks are very happy to have something permanent! The installers plan to get that one done today, so here's hoping!
The SMART Board installers showed up this morning and we took a little tour so they know where they're working. They're distributing all the parts to the various rooms today, then starting actual installations tomorrow. As an aside, they're also installing a new projector in the Dining Hall. We've been carting portable projectors down there for years and our tech support folks are very happy to have something permanent! The installers plan to get that one done today, so here's hoping!
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Preparations for new SMART Boards
Next week, my SMART Board installation crew arrives early on Monday morning. So this week is mostly dedicated to preparing for them. We're having about 38 new SMART Boards installed and moving 4 more. It's very exciting, but also requires a lot of pre-planning.
Since the SMART Boards and all the related installation stuff is so big, my local vendor/installer just has them shipped to us. I was a little concerned when nothing but speakers had arrived at the end of last week, but it's been trickling in all week. I think everything is here, but I've got to go and do a count to be certain.
I've been working on making a VERY rough sketch of each room and indicating where the SMART Board should be placed. This, of course, means that white boards have to be moved over, replaced with a shorter board, or removed completely. I started this process before school was out so that I could talk to each teacher about the placement. Now I'm just making a clean sketch for the installers. I've found that the very best thing is to have the SMART Board mounted on the wall and the projector hung permanently from the ceiling. I tried a portable SMART Board and projector, but it's really a pain for the teachers to set up. Also, hanging the projector from the ceiling means that the teacher's body doesn't cast as much of a shadow on the SMART Board.
The electricians are here this week putting electricity in the ceiling of each room for the projector. Thank God for our building manager. He's been extremely helpful in making sure the technical prep work gets done.
Another item that the school is buying as a part of this project is a DVD/VCR combo for each room that is getting a SMART Board. Doing this means that we don't have to keep buying TVs and we can start getting rid of the old media carts. Hooray! Our head librarian is also excited. So I've been shopping and ultimately found the quantity of units I need at eCost.com. I had to call and talk to a real person (very 20th century), but they came through a terrific price.
Well, that's this week's happenings. Hopefully next week the installations will begin and move quickly!
Since the SMART Boards and all the related installation stuff is so big, my local vendor/installer just has them shipped to us. I was a little concerned when nothing but speakers had arrived at the end of last week, but it's been trickling in all week. I think everything is here, but I've got to go and do a count to be certain.
I've been working on making a VERY rough sketch of each room and indicating where the SMART Board should be placed. This, of course, means that white boards have to be moved over, replaced with a shorter board, or removed completely. I started this process before school was out so that I could talk to each teacher about the placement. Now I'm just making a clean sketch for the installers. I've found that the very best thing is to have the SMART Board mounted on the wall and the projector hung permanently from the ceiling. I tried a portable SMART Board and projector, but it's really a pain for the teachers to set up. Also, hanging the projector from the ceiling means that the teacher's body doesn't cast as much of a shadow on the SMART Board.
The electricians are here this week putting electricity in the ceiling of each room for the projector. Thank God for our building manager. He's been extremely helpful in making sure the technical prep work gets done.
Another item that the school is buying as a part of this project is a DVD/VCR combo for each room that is getting a SMART Board. Doing this means that we don't have to keep buying TVs and we can start getting rid of the old media carts. Hooray! Our head librarian is also excited. So I've been shopping and ultimately found the quantity of units I need at eCost.com. I had to call and talk to a real person (very 20th century), but they came through a terrific price.
Well, that's this week's happenings. Hopefully next week the installations will begin and move quickly!
Monday, June 11, 2007
Getting Started
Well, I'm finally taking the leap and starting a blog! I've been meaning to do this for some time, but just haven't been in the mood to take the initial steps. So here I am with my own little space on the web. So what's am I going to talk about. Well...
I'm an educational technologist at a medium-sized private school in Texas. We work with children who have learning differences (primarily language disorders). Two years ago we started a One-to-one laptop program with our Middle and High School student. Basically, the school provides a laptop with a variety of software to those students. For the younger students, we have several mobile computer labs (laptops in carts) as well as fixed computer labs and computers in our libraries. We've also been progressively adding SMART Boards around the campus.
My responsibility is to coordinate and provide technology training during in-service and any other chance I can get and to provide curricular support to teachers integrating technology into their classrooms. I suppose my purpose in publishing this blog is really to share what goes on in this exciting environment and perhaps get some feedback from others who are doing the same things or are considering any of the technologies we're using.
So stay tuned. I've got a lot of exciting things going on this summer and it should be interesting!
I'm an educational technologist at a medium-sized private school in Texas. We work with children who have learning differences (primarily language disorders). Two years ago we started a One-to-one laptop program with our Middle and High School student. Basically, the school provides a laptop with a variety of software to those students. For the younger students, we have several mobile computer labs (laptops in carts) as well as fixed computer labs and computers in our libraries. We've also been progressively adding SMART Boards around the campus.
My responsibility is to coordinate and provide technology training during in-service and any other chance I can get and to provide curricular support to teachers integrating technology into their classrooms. I suppose my purpose in publishing this blog is really to share what goes on in this exciting environment and perhaps get some feedback from others who are doing the same things or are considering any of the technologies we're using.
So stay tuned. I've got a lot of exciting things going on this summer and it should be interesting!
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