TVs in Classrooms

Placing TVs in classrooms isn't as easy as we thought....

In Rio, we have, basically, a projector in every classroom.  Many, but not all, are ceiling mounted.  Most are old, and they need, at the least, new bulbs.  Even with new bulbs, they're old, they're dim, and they basically suck.  But teachers use them.  And they deserve something better.

With our new bond initiative, part of the conversation is to upgrade how we display in the classrooms.  When we started talking about it, conversation revolved around either replacing the projectors with newer, brighter models or with installing flat screen TVs.  We piloted the TV idea last year by installing 70" displays in some new portables across the district.  By and large, they work much better than projectors.  Looking at the total cost of ownership, they are at best no more than new projectors, and probably eek out an advantage.  As the cost for LED TVs goes down, the advantages over projectors will only get better.  So our plan is to install a flat panel TV in every classroom.

But no plan, as they say, survives the first moments of execution.  In the case of our TVs, this proved to be the case. We visited every classroom to identify where we would place the TVs, and issues cropped up in virtually every classroom configuration.  It's not just a matter of slapping a TV on the wall in the same place the projector screen is hanging.  Generally, behind that screen is a white board, and that whiteboard is used as, well, a whiteboard. Teachers expressed concerns about losing whiteboard space.  Placing the TV above the whiteboard brings another set of problems.  Most of our classrooms have dropped ceilings, and the distance from the ceiling to the top of the whiteboard is less than the height of the display, so again, installing a TV will wind up stealing some whiteboard space.  And, teachers expressed concerns about kids in the front row having to crane their necks to look up to see the display.  In kinder and first grade classes, kids spend a good deal of time sitting on the carpet.  In fact, that's generally where they watch videos and view things that are projected, so there, too, putting a TV where kids would have to crane their necks up to see a screen becomes problematic. In many of our rooms, which are at the edge of the minimum allowable square footage for a classroom (960 sq. feet), this is a legitimate concern regardless of whether kids are sitting at desks or sitting on the floor.  There's not a lot of room after you jam 32 kids and an adult or two into 960 sq. feet!

We looked at putting the TV on the wall next to the white board.  Teachers complained about losing wall space.  Again, this is a legitimate concern, especially in the lower grades.  Walls aren't just walls - they're golden real estate for posting student work, hanging the interactive calendar and math tables that kinders use every day, and tacking up posters and decorations that change with the time of year or the theme of the day.  Woe is the lot of any CTO who categorically slaps a TV over that space!  And woe be to any CTO who rips a projector out a room where the teacher is actually using the old Promethean boards (yes, some of our teachers are still using the things - I've got my own pedogical stance about that.... but that's another blog post).

Our vision in Rio is to create student-centered, inquiry based learning environments.  We've been all-in with 4Cs, Common Core, and Project Based Learning for the past few years.  These displays are now used as much by students as teachers, for presentations and sharing work and learning as well as instruction and large group viewing.  We've struggled to find, in that world, the ideal place to put a display in many of our classrooms. Oh - and we want to connect wirelessly to iOS, OSX, Android, Linux (long live Ubermix!), and Windows devices.

Fast forward to the past CUE conference in Palm Springs, where we say several vendors, including ViewSonic, displaying interactive TVs.

An interactive TV can, in theory, solve most (if not all) of our placement dilemmas.  It is a flat panel display, but because it's touch capable and has the right software installed (free, from ViewSonic - others have it free or charge for it), it can replace a white board.  And, in the case of the ViewSonic model we saw (with a small Windows 8 computer embedded into the device) it will run Promethean (or Smart or any other) software, as well as display a Chrome web browser without the need for wireless connectivity.

We think this might be a solution.  We're getting one in to test.  Assuming the testing by others in the district concurs with our playing around with it at CUE, we may have found the solution.  If, that is, we can afford it!