Categories: Teaching Resources

Epson technology proving successful

&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" alignright size-full wp-image-756" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;schoolnewsnz&period;fastrackdev&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;04&sol;SND01-5-TECHG&lowbar;RES-Case&lowbar;Study&lowbar;1&lowbar;300x225&period;jpg" alt&equals;"SND01-5-TECHG RES-Case Study 1 300x225" style&equals;"margin&colon; 5px&semi; float&colon; right&semi;" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"225" &sol;>New Zealand schools have generally been quick to adopt the advantages of digital learning&comma; among them Queen Margaret College&period; The College is Wellington&&num;8217&semi;s largest independent girls&&num;8217&semi; school and the only one that offers the IB Diploma as part of a dual pathway qualification&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p> <&excl;--more--> <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The college has a proven record in providing a world-class education from pre-school to year 13&period;&nbsp&semi;This can&comma; in part&comma; be attributed to the way it has increasingly embraced new technologies to enhance teaching and learning&period; An example of this is the school&&num;8217&semi;s 1&colon;1 Laptop Programme from years 6 to 13&comma; and more recently&comma; the Epson interactive projectors that were adopted last year&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We&&num;8217&semi;ve used other interactive devices in the past but they weren&&num;8217&semi;t as easy to use or as cost effective as these ones&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Queen Margaret College&&num;8217&semi;s head of e-Learning&comma; Richard Knuckey&period;&nbsp&semi;&&num;8220&semi;We were initially just after some new&comma; high-quality short-throw projectors and found that the Epson EB485Wi offered exactly what we wanted&comma; but with the added bonus of interactivity&period; With the interactivity built into the projector&comma; set-up and installation was straightforward and they were better value than other interactive systems we&&num;8217&semi;d seen&period; Plus the software seemed intuitive and easy to use&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The school had a brand-new&comma; state-of-the-art gymnasium and classroom block built last year&comma; called the Hobson Complex&comma; and we fitted all of its six classrooms with the Epson projectors&period;&nbsp&semi;&&num;8220&semi;They are being used primarily by our languages department&comma; although we are increasingly looking to put them throughout the rest of the school as the existing brands reach the end of their lives&period; They&&num;8217&semi;ve added a lot more scope to our teaching and learning practices&comma; such as adding variety to lessons and allowing teachers to use drag functions to make key association between words&comma; illustrations and concepts&period; Plus&comma; they provide students with <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;schoolnews&period;co&period;nz&sol;2015&sol;10&sol;developing-opportunities-at-school-with-a-view&sol;" title&equals;"opportunities" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">opportunities<&sol;a> to complete quiz tasks in front of the class&comma; which is always popular&period; Overall&comma; the interactive technology has resulted in a notable increase in student engagement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" alignleft size-full wp-image-757" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;schoolnewsnz&period;fastrackdev&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;04&sol;SND01-5-TECHG&lowbar;RES&lowbar;-Case&lowbar;Study&lowbar;2&lowbar;300x225&period;jpg" alt&equals;"SND01-5-TECHG RES -Case Study 2 300x225" style&equals;"margin&colon; 5px&semi; float&colon; left&semi;" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"225" &sol;>As with all new technology&comma; Mr Knuckey says&comma; there are still challenges in mastering some of the features&comma; such as harnessing the benefits of the text recognition tools and use of the Wi-Fi functionality&period; He and other teachers that use the boards will explore these and other features over the course of this year&comma; then share the knowledge learned with other teachers at the school&period; But he has already pronounced the Epson technology a success&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;As well as providing lessons with more variety&comma; they add to collaborative learning as well as allowing a student a bigger stage on which to share her digital learning with classmates&period;&nbsp&semi;&&num;8220&semi;Overall&comma; we are very happy with our Epson projectors&period; They&&num;8217&semi;ve been a good investment&period; We&&num;8217&semi;re still a work in progress with them&comma; but so far&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s all good&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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