“One of the biggest challenges facing teachers is keeping students engaged during class presentations,” notes Barnesville Head of School John Huber. “If teachers turn their backs for a few seconds, they may lose a handful of those students who were following closely only moments before."
The Barnesville School, a small private pre-K-8 school in the rolling hills of Montgomery County’s beautiful Agricultural Reserve, works daily to meet such challenges. That's why it recently purchased five Hitachi CP-X3011N networkable projectors to help teachers better connect with their students. Using the projectors together with portable tablet PCs, teachers at the Maryland school now offer students more intriguing lesson plans, with freedom to move around the room, maximizing face-to-face contact.
Barnesville School Technology Director Jim Snider says his smaller school is now on par with larger schools in the Washington D.C. area using similar technologies. “It was becoming difficult to play in the same sandbox as the larger independent schools in our area who can afford to put a $1,500 projector system in every room. Using Hitachi’s latest technology, Barnesville School was able to put together a smart investment in multiple Hitachi LCD projectors for our students and teachers.”
With approximately 200 students ranging from early childhood development programs through eighth grade, Barnesville can now stream educational video or television programming to any of the five projectors throughout the school’s integrated LAN network. Using a central computer, Barnesville teachers can also upload their lesson plans and material to any available projector system throughout the school.
As is the case in any school, education focuses greatly on engaging the students. At Barnesville, the new Hitachi interactive technology requires both the teachers and students to utilize the equipment to get the most out of the curriculum.
“With the Hitachi projectors and our ability to sync them with our tablet PCs, teachers can move freely around the classroom maintaining eye contact with students, while at the same time engaging in meaningful dialog without turning their backs to write on a board," adds Huber. "In fact, the combination of the Hitachi CP-X3011N and the HP Touchsmart tmt2 tablet PC allows us to skip the implementation of smart boards altogether in our middle school. Our new LCD projectors and tablets have completely changed the way we teach."
