The Little Rock School District (LRSD) in Arkansas is the largest K-12 school district in the state. It serves 24,714 students and boasts 48 elementary, middle, high school, non-traditional and alternative high schools. As such, it considers itself a leader in technology integration. Every classroom is equipped with a projector and an interactive whiteboard so when it came time to replace those technologies, district administrators moved quickly to get the job done.
The Challenge
The classroom technology functioned wonderfully for teachers, but after seven years, the projectors were past their supported life and no longer produced bright images.Teachers relied heavily on the technology to share interactive lessons, videos and student work. LRSD had also recently implemented a 1:1 ipad and laptop initiative so teachers wanted a way to present content from the devices wirelessly. Administrators were tasked with finding a new solution that could could meet the needs of its educators—and, according to the Barbara Williams, director of Instructional technology, they had to do it fast.
“The message was they couldn’t teach without projectors,” she says.
LRSD considered a number of options for the new classroom technology. The district had success with projectors in the past, however, as they began to near the end of their supported life teachers experienced a number of problems. Some of the projectors stopped working at all while others began to exhibit blurry images and lines across projected images. Dust also got into the projectors interiors causing images to flicker.
“That’s the death of a projector,” Williams says.
Because of its size, the district needed more than 2,200 projectors to be able to serve every classroom, which represented a huge investment for LRSD. As a result, administrators needed to choose a solution that had longevity. The district also needed to update the digital signage in its hallways, cafeteria gyms so that administrators could quickly disseminate information including changes in the bell schedule, special events and morning announcements.
The Solution
The district had worked with Piraino Consulting the last time it installed projectors, so it approached James Piraino once again for this project. Piraino recommended NEC Display Solutions.
Piraino and the district committee selected NEC M332XS and NEC M352WS projectors for the classrooms, as well as NEC 55-inch V552 and NEC 55-inch E554 displays for the cafeterias, gyms and hallways.
The projectors provide a bright, clear picture and easy-to-use interface. The images are vibrant enough to stand out in classrooms where teachers might not be able to turn off the lights. Sealed chassis prevent dust from getting into the optics and causing projected images to flicker.
The projectors also offer dual-HDMI hookup and wireless capabilities that make it easy for teachers to connect interactive whiteboards, Apple TV’s and Chromecast to the boards to make classroom lessons more interactive. Now that the district has implemented the 1:1 iPad initiative, the projectors also make it easy for students to connect their tablets via Wi-Fi.
Piraino installed the projectors using a custom retrofit kit designed by his firm. The kit makes it possible for Piraino’s team to install the projectors in 10 minutes or less. That speed has proved critical considering the number of projectors being installed in the district. Since May, Piraino’s team has installed about 100 projectors a month, tackling the massive installation on a rolling basis.
As for the displays, officials have added 25 screens throughout the district to share upcoming events, cafeteria menus, reminders, photos and more. The displays provide a lively, vivid image that helps catch students’ attention and quickly spreads information. A third-party software lets the district create content and push it out to all of the screens at the same time.
“It’s pretty exciting to bring all of this high-quality technology into the schools,” Piraino says
While the projectors are still being installed on an ongoing basis, Williams said that she’s gotten the best feedback she could ask for from teachers: They’re silent because the projectors work flawlessly.
“To date we have had such a great experience, with none of the problems we had with the aging projectors,” Williams says. “On top of that, people think their sleek design is cute—and that’s always a plus.”
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