by: Carol Emmens
We at Zeo Systems pride ourselves on being at the forefront of changes in the AV world. At the start of the 2014-2015 academic year, new educational standards known as Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were launched nationwide. Because of the wide discrepancies in educational standards from state to state, educators across the country established Common Core as a national set of standards and testing for math, science, and English for grades K-12. Pennsylvania is one of 44 states to voluntarily adopt the standards.
Common Core’s main objectives for students set the bar high:
- To Be Prepared for College or Work
- To Succeed in a Global Economy
- To Develop Critical Thinking
- To Solve Problems
To achieve those goals, schools everywhere are instituting new methods of teaching or “blended learning”, which involves using technology including the Internet effectively. Technology, at its best, enables students to use information to compare, contrast, and analyze data to help develop lifelong skills.
As early as 4th grade, schools are expected to supplement their face-to-face instruction with online delivery of information which will be incorporated into student projects whether they are research papers, audio and/or video presentations or demonstrations.
Besides robust IT networks, classrooms, conference rooms, and libraries need the audiovisual technology equipment to support the new teaching techniques. Common Core encourages students to not only do research but to share digital and print information through presentations displayed on a large screen. Both students and teachers are encouraged to display information from online courses, to participate in video conferences with students across the country or across the world, or to demonstrate student projects – preferably all interactively.
As the curriculum changes, projectors or flat screens are becoming more and more necessary; they allow content sharing and collaboration by teachers and students both within in the classroom and the classroom and outside the classroom with students or experts in libraries, museums, and colleges. IT/AV systems are growing in sophistication every day, frequently including multiple displays, audio and recording systems. In addition, control systems are often necessary to ensure the technologies work together seamlessly and to make them easier to use.
Increasingly, students will collaborate or brainstorm in small groups in “huddle” rooms equipped with multiple data inputs and a large flat screen. Students often bring their own tablets or laptops into schools and that trend will only continue to grow. Schools will need to be prepared for the onslaught of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) by purchasing a wide assortment of connectors as there is no “standard” connection. The need to connect multiple devices to save time and inconvenience when changing sources will increase. Like corporations and universities, schools will need to automate the schedules of huddle rooms through a combination of software and digital signage (displays) outside the rooms.
Hands-on learning, building and modeling are encouraged by Common Core and will require capture or recording devices ranging from cell phones and tablets to video cameras. Small TV studios will be necessary for more than would-be film producers or directors. Students will not only utilize technology to write research papers and book reports but to present this information through well researched, written and edited audio and/or video presentations.
Common Core essentially requires schools to have all types of rooms and technology. Zeo Systems designs and installs AV systems to fit each environment whether it is a classroom, auditorium, huddle room or studio. The physical space, however, is only one challenge. There are difficult challenges ahead for teachers, parents and community leaders alike. The transition to Common Core will require teachers to alter their styles of instruction to incorporate diverse types of media, websites, and online courses into their lesson plans. This will require a commitment by the schools and school districts themselves to fund the expansion of AV technology in the schools. Through this commitment, and the assistance of the AV experts like those at Zeo Systems, the goals of Common Core can be achieved.