22
Feb, 2015
Classroom of the 21st Century Debuts at Uni
[Posted February 22, 2015] It’s true that classroom technology and the L.A. Unified School District are not always synonymous. But Uni has started to change that, per Principal Eric Davidson:
Pictured above: Uni principal Eric Davidson demonstrating new in-classroom technologies (Photo courtesy Richard Satnick/UHEF).
“The point is this: for $10,000 we can modernize a classroom to give teachers and students access to innovative practices to increase achievement and truly use technology as a learning tool.
“The transformation is amazing and demonstrates how a 20th century building can be brought into the 21st century with a little money, a little elbow grease, and a ton of dedication.”
He was speaking about the renovation of the school’s old Mac Lab, with re-finished student tables and walls, a ceiling-mounted LCD projector, 42-inch LCD television, a wireless microphone for the teacher, new speaker system and a magnetized fabric to turn a whiteboard into an interactive presentation tool.
UHEF board member Richard Satnick, a member of Uni’s School-Based Management team noted that with the new equipment, “Anything that a computer can do is now interactively available on the whiteboard – Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, videos, the Internet, etc. – and the teacher can write on the board at the same time and have the notations transferred to and saved on a laptop computer.”
And those lessons can, of course, be made available to students online the same day. More concentration, more focus, more learning . . . and at a reasonable cost.
Uni’s showcase new classroom, using a 42-inch digital projector.
The concept came from Abe Kino, owner of Inglewood-based Digital Archiving Systems (known as ARC Designs). He offered to install a trial classroom to show the potential of the system, fully installed for just $9,375, including labor and sales tax. The room chosen is used by Mandy Lenham for Algebra 1 and 2, but Davidson is already looking ahead to enhancing classrooms to support Alyson Randick’s Health and Science courses and Linda Yaron’s English classes, depending on funding.
The modest per-classroom cost means that new rooms can be outfitted by individuals or firms, or by classes wishing to raise money during reunions. New school district policies make such donations possible, along with recognition of the donor, and the UHEF can be the vehicle to ensure the project is completed correctly.
If you are interested, please contact us at Connect@UHEF.org and we’ll start the process with you.