Minnetonka School District - Minnetonka, MN
Minnetonka school district in Minnetonka, Minnesota is a relatively small district with six elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school. In all, the district serves approximately 7,700 students in grades K-12, and more than 20,000 students of all ages take advantage of educational opportunities offered through community education and recreation programs.
Classrooms of the future
Recently, the district set a goal to implement presentation classroom systems that would include robust audio and visual solutions. The goal sounded easy enough: devise a plan that would bring updated audiovisual technologies into the district's classrooms while ensuring the simplicity of integration of newer technologies in the future.
“Although I knew what I wanted, I was struggling with the solutions being presented,” said Sue Hine, the district's Executive Director of Technology.
“They did not contain a vision for the future. The solutions minimized the potential of the technologies to what was current, and I wanted the solution to be one step closer to even more possibilities. We knew we needed the ease and flexibility to upgrade in the future, and the plans we were seeing were not reflecting this.”
Streamlined solutions
In the past, the district had installed their own LCD projectors and several interactive whiteboards in its classrooms. The installations varied from room to room and lacked consistency. “We didn't like the cluttered look of the rooms,” Hine said. “Our objective was to implement a cleaner, more streamlined look with enhanced visual, sound and remote management.
And all of this had to enable us to support our next steps without major disruption to classes.” Hine challenged Cliff Dodge, Alpha Video Education Consultant, to come up with a presentation classroom design that would not only meet their current needs, but also require just minor changes if the school decided to upgrade to videoconferencing or distance learning in the future. “After a thorough meeting, Cliff understood exactly what I was going after,” said Hine.
Along with Matt Rasmussen, Design Engineer at Alpha Video, Cliff began working with Crestron to create a classroom system that could be easily and securely controlled from a Web interface. The Crestron QM-RMCRX Quick Media Controller would be the integral component of each classroom system. Selecting a visual image to display, adjusting classroom sound and requesting service could now all be done from a convenient button-panel on the wall or an ActiveX Web page utilizing Crestron RoomView software.
The design included a PhonicEar Sound Field system for maximum effectiveness in voice enhancement for the instructor as well as audio from the DVD player and desktop PC. The result is a presentation room that all the teachers at Minnetonka schools are extremely pleased with. “They love the button panel (Crestron control system) on the wall,” said Hine. “It's simpler and the system can be remotely controlled securely from anywhere. Alpha Video even created a training tutorial for us,” she added, “which made it much more convenient for us to learn and share information about the technology in our classrooms.”
Students gain ability to learn on an equal level
In addition to easing stress on teachers, Hine said all students are learning on an equal level. “Now, even students in the rear of the room are no longer having trouble seeing and hearing lessons thanks to the enhanced visual and sound technologies designed by Alpha Video.”
Added Dodge, “Alpha Video really enjoys working on projects with innovative school districts such as Minnetonka. Sue is very technology savvy, and working with her was a very positive experience. We feel it was a win-win situation.”
Integrated Equipment List:
• Interactive Smart Boards
• NEC ceiling mounted LCD projectors
• PhonicEar Sound Field systems
• Crestron QM Systems
• Crestron Control Systems
• Integrated VCR and DVD players
