Hottest Trends In School AV

Every educator can agree that getting students engaged in learning is essential, but doing so can often present quite the challenge. Implementing interactive technology and utilizing the newest audio-visual tools can boost student engagement inside and outside of the classroom, but can sometimes seem overwhelming for the IT department. Check out these three game-changing trends that should be a part of every academic institution’s AV set-up and won’t be burdensome for your IT department.

Lecture Capture

Not every teacher is technologically savvy. Many of them don’t truly understand how to navigate through the software to record, edit, title and post videos. That truth makes the following two solutions worth considering for lecture capture.

FrontRow Juno may be the perfect lecture capture solution to help ease the workload of your IT staff and make teaching more interactive, especially if your institution serves students in K-12.  Juno essentially does all of the work for teachers in regards to capturing a lecture.  When they are about to begin a lecture, they can easily prompt Juno to begin recording and Juno will capture all of the information on the computer and/or interactive whiteboard, as well as audio.  Additionally, Juno will title the lecture and save it as a universal mp4 file to the appropriate area in order to allow ease of access for students.

Extron Electronics’ Streaming Media Processor (SMP) can also be a great solution as it captures and distributes live AV sources and presentations.  This system has the ability to record up to 2 high-resolution AV signals with metadata and a background image in blended source layouts giving you the highest quality viewing and learning experience.  The SMP not only allows for lectures to be recorded, but also allows for simultaneous live streaming as well, making this a great solution for higher education.  The SMP has up to 5 inputs and an operating system that can be easily managed when system requirements change and applications need to be added.  While there is great flexibility in managing the system, it is important to have a trained specialist, like those at AVG, on-hand to advise you on changes and updates as you move forward.

Both are great solutions for teachers and students but they can be even better with the right hardware installed.  To fully optimize the lecture capture experience, it is important to have other hardware in place.  For instance, Juno can’t record what is occurring on the interactive whiteboard if there isn’t one in the classroom and the SMP can’t record what is on the computer along with audio if there is no system integration.  Therefore, you would want to reach out to a company, such as AVG, to satisfy your hardware and integration needs.  Companies who specialize in designing, building and maintaining your AV systems, such as AVG, will work side by side with your IT staff to assure that your teachers and students truly have the best experience possible.  They will assure that you currently have the proper system requirements such as computer processing speed, install all of your hardware and train your staff on how to maintain it.

The Flipped Classroom

Flipped classrooms utilize advanced technology to free up class time for hands-on work. Students learn content online from video lectures at home so that instructors and students can do homework together in class with opportunities for questions and discussion.  Adoption of this style of learning is climbing and for many educators the new model is an obvious solution to providing a personalized learning experience.  According to recent statistics presented by LearnDash, in 2014 78% of teachers flipped at least one lesson and 9 out of 10 teachers noticed a positive improvement in student learning.

Modern technology has made it possible to flip classrooms inexpensively and bring students to their highest potential.  We understand that when you hear modern technology you automatically think that there is going to be increased responsibilities for the IT staff.  In the case of the flipped classroom, this is not true. Juno and the Streaming Media Processor, mentioned previously, require little effort from your teachers as well as the IT department making the flipped classroom much easier to achieve.

Huddle Spaces

Huddle spaces are designed for group learning and typically include a central table with 4-6 chairs, a flat panel display, microphone, video recorder and a conferencing phone. As we discussed in a previous article, collaboration is a hot topic and has two main solutions, wireless and hardwired. The huddle space is typically hardwired with 4 HDMI cables, accommodating many different devices, and it requires no software.

Extron TeamWork is a straightforward and insightful collaboration system that can be utilized to supply and house the hardwire components for connecting to user devices.  Additionally, Crestron offers many solutions to help create seamless huddle spaces such as AirMedia, which allows for HD presentations on a laptop, iOS or Android device.  With this solution, up to 32 people can meet at once and 4 people can share their display at once using Quad View.  With many online students being nationwide, this is a great way to connect everyone with simplicity.

Again, it is important to have the proper hardware installed correctly for full functionality.  As an audio-visual integrator, AVG understands the importance of having all components working seamlessly and will design, plan, install and test your system to maximize sound and video quality.  AVG has installed systems in multiple huddle spaces and understands the purpose of these systems for enhanced learning.

Want to know more about how to improve your educational environment with one of these hot trends? Ask an Audio-Video Group specialist about their specific recommendations for software and other products. If you’ d like to speak to a team member about a potential project, please feel free to contact Audio-Video Group at 301-668-4448 today.