Case Studies
Finding the right audio-visual tools to match your existing capabilities and to support your future goals is one of the most difficult parts about purchasing and implementing technology in the classroom. As Califone International, Inc., has over 60 years of experience in providing the best tools to educators, we have put together some of our favorite stories to share with you. Take these case studies as an example of how your school or district can find the potential in offering students a chance to use technology on a daily basis across the curriculum.
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Computer Peripherals
Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School (PAVCS) offers a unique educational setting - teachers who instruct from home teach students also at home. Although most correspondence is conducted via chat rooms, educators also rely on connecting with students through the use of webcams and drawing spaces to aid instruction....[more] |
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Located in rural upstate New York, Norwich City School District serves a community of more than 2,500 students, with its modern elementary school program serving more than 500 PreK-2 students. The district recently received a large grant for technology purchases, and with this money administrators wanted to ensure their students have access to the best technology available in order that they learn to "successfully collaborate and compete in a global society."...[more] |
U.S. elementary students are primarily digital natives - born into an era of the Internet, video games, and portable, fast computers and cell phones. According to a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, today’s students are “media multi-taskers.” However, it is important that students are taught how to use technology correctly. Therefore, it is critical that teachers utilize technology in the classroom throughout the curriculum....[more] |
Headphones & Headsets
Located in Boise, the Idaho Digital Learning Academy (IDLA) serves a state-wide role similar to an educational service agency, consolidating online learning opportunities for Idaho's 120 school districts. While individual districts administer final grades, IDLA provides them with high-quality teachers, proprietary curriculum, and the materials necessary to deliver instruction....[more] |
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With job duties spanning across four schools, high-quality technology is essential for librarian Margaret Fink and her students at the Metropolitan School District (MSD) of Warren County....[more] |
Today's media-savvy students are growing up in an ever-increasing global environment; one where success before and after graduation is largely dependent on their ability to communicate cross-culturally with peers and colleagues around the world....[more] |
Flintridge Preparatory School in La Canada, CA, is a non-profit, independent
college preparatory school for grades 7-12. Nestled at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, the secondary school aims to prepare its nearly 500 students to have successful careers and lives after graduation....[more] |
Located in Boiling Springs, S.C., James Hendrix Elementary School serves a student body in which more than 27 ethnicities are represented and 13 different languages are spoken. To accommodate such a diverse population, school staff members choose to use Rosetta Stone®, a language-learning software program, to help the approximately 800 students who attend the school learn and master the English language....[more] |
As Manager of the College of Health and Human Services Learning Resource Center at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan., Margie Springer is always looking for durable technology....[more] |
As the driver of curriculum, Stacey Love, the principal of Chancellor Avenue School South (CASS) in Irvington, N.J., is passionate about managing the educational progress of every K-5 student that passes through the school's doors. CASS is a newly created school in Irvington Township where there is a genuine commitment to the achievement of high academic standards for the student body....[more] |
Mary Beth White, an English teacher for Alexander Central High School in Taylorsville, N.C., also is one of many teachers nationwide expanding their classrooms virtually. As a teacher for the North Carolina Virtual Public School (NCVPS), White teaches Spanish - another subject she is passionate about - to a large group of students with varying skill sets and interests....[more] |
It is estimated that K-12 instructional software sales reached around $1.8 billion last year, illustrating the growing interest in using software in the classroom as a teaching and learning tool. Many of the original educational applications have undergone a metamorphosis, requiring student participation and interaction, not that they just watch and learn....[more] |
English language learners (ELL) represent the fastest growing segment of the school-age population and now account for nearly 19 percent of school-age children, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). As projections suggest that the ELL population will continue to increase (approximately 20 percent of the workforce and half of the population under 18 in the next 20 years), school districts are examining how this increase will affect the educational environment in the future....[more] |
The United States Distance Learning Association defines distance learning as the acquisition of knowledge and skills through mediated information and instruction. Encompassing the use of technology to support learning, distance learning is used in all areas of education PreK-12, higher education, home schooling, continuing education, and more. And research comparing distance learning to traditional instruction shows that teaching from a distance can be as effective as traditional methods, when the techniques and technology used are appropriate to the lessons, collaborations and practice of assessment....[more] |
Learning Centers
In rural Granby, Conn., F.M. Kearns Primary School is the only primary school within its district for students in kindergarten through second grade. With one-fourth of the district's students enrolled at F.M. Kearns, integrating technology for enhanced instruction is essential for building students' readiness and achievement. In addition, the school's overall curriculum is very literacy-based, with its main focus on students' reading and language arts skills....[more] |
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Located in New York City's Chinatown, Public School 42 registers newly immigrated children frequently throughout the school year. With students brand new to the United States enrolling regularly, the school's student population is more than 95 percent English Language Learners (ELL)....[more] |
Unified School District 376 serves a community of 2,600 residents in Sterling, Kansas. Though the area is small - only 1.4 square miles - USD 367 is committed to providing its students access to technology in the classroom, even before kindergarten....[more] |
Located in rural upstate New York, Afton Central School (ACS) serves a growing community of 1,800 village residents. More than 800 K-12 students attend ACS within a single building that has grown over the years as a result of the community's educational priorities....[more] |
U.S. elementary students are primarily digital natives - born in the era of the Internet, cell phones, video games, and portable, fast computers. According to a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, today's students are "media multi-taskers."...[more] |
Throughout the past 40 years, research has shown that there is a strong correlation between oral reading fluency and comprehension. According to Carol Chomsky, well-known researcher and former professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education Reading and Language Department, students’ fluency improved while reading along with audio tapes. Her study on assisted, repeated oral readings, was also expanded upon later, indicating that repeated oral readings gave non-fluent readers methods for capturing the essence of the text, therefore improving comprehension....[more] |
Media Players
Harrington Elementary School is one of five K-12 schools within the Albion school district, a suburban district in Michigan that serves approximately 1,500 students. With its adoption of a new English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum and set of standards, the school is required to have a listening center in every classroom....[more] |
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Offering a rich arts curriculum, the Vonder Haar Center for the Performing Arts welcomes students of all ages, ranging from three years to adult. Located in La Canada, CA., the Vonder Haar Center is home to nine resident companies, allowing students in different disciplines to develop their talents and to hone their performing skills. With professional and pre-professional classes in ballet, jazz, tap, hip-hop, acting, voice, musical theatre and Pilates, there are many opportunities for personal and artistic growth, as well as multiple student performances throughout the year....[more] |
Though the mission at Herndon-Barstow Elementary School (Fresno, CA) is simple — "Creating Success Together!" — it envelops a sense of efficacy that is showcased by the staff's passion for incorporating technology across the curriculum. Led by Principal Melody Burriss, Herndon-Barstow purchased multiple core textbooks that were supported by audio features, available mostly as MP3 files....[more] |
Opening its doors in 2005, Ruby Major Elementary School serves the expanding area of Donelson and Hermitage in Davidson County, Tenn. Educating nearly 500 kindergarten through fifth grade students, staff members continue to add new technology and audio-visual equipment....[more] |
Not all students are the same, therefore, it is important that educators provide students with information in multiple ways. In other words, teachers should try their best to differentiate instruction - to be flexible in their lesson plans and weave whole-class, group and individual activities into their curriculum. As a form of differentiated instruction, intervention can help accelerate student learning. Northview High School in Covina, California, has recently implemented a successful intervention program that has helped more than 789 students in one school year....[more] |
PA Systems
Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS), the fourth largest district in the country, has approximately 370,000 students, and many schools qualify for Title 1 funding. With 90 percent of its students coming from a culturally diverse background, comprehensive instruction and technology integration is essential to overcome learning barriers and provide students with a well-rounded, robust education....[more] |
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As a fine arts teacher, vocal amplification is necessary for successful direction and instruction during class time and performance rehearsals. In addition, clearly communicating messages during school assemblies, athletic events and other large group activities is essential to gain students' full attention....[more] |
Delaware Valley Regional High School (DVRHS) was unable to provide adequate services for its students with hearing impairments. As a result, the New Jersey school was spending up to $40,000 a year in outplacement costs to send these students to other districts in the state. To reduce this expenditure, & address technological limits in their classrooms, administrators decided to implement a high-quality audio system school-wide to provide equal learning opportunities to all students. Located in a rural area of Hunterdon County, DVRHS is one of five high schools that serves about 1,000 students. With its small size, staff is limited and class sizes can run as high as 25 students. With less time for individualized instruction, DVRHS staff has made enhancing the delivery of education a top priority....[more] |
As the full-time Director of Instructional Technology at Glenbard West High School in Illinois, Matt Stacey manages the overall implementation, operation, and instruction of technology. Stacey is responsible for the testing & installation of classroom technology, ranging from computers to audio/visual (A/V) equipment. He also is in charge of the documentation and set-up of technology used at various school events, including assemblies, choir and band concerts, drama performances and sporting events. In addition, he makes himself available to instruct students in the use of the school's various classroom technologies....[more] |
Located in Marietta, Georgia, outside of Atlanta, Daniell Middle School has projector systems and laptop computers installed in multiple classrooms for teachers to use during whole class instruction. Serving nearly 1,000 middle school students in grades 6-8, educators and staff understand the role technology can play in engaging today's media-savvy students....[more] |
Studies about classroom acoustics illustrate that excessive noise and reverberation can interfere with speech intelligibility, resulting in reduced understanding and therefore reduced learning. In many classrooms in the United States, the speech intelligibility rating is 75 percent or less, meaning that listeners with normal hearing can understand only 75 percent of the words read or spoken....[more] |
About 12 percent of all preK-12 students in the United States are considered English language learners. And projections indicate that by 2015, more than 50 percent of all students in K-12 public schools across America will not speak English as their first language. Fully understanding this prediction, educators at George Washington Carver Elementary School, located in Yuma, Ariz., serve a growing population of students where more than half are in a transitional language environment at home and among peers....[more] |
The staff at Weber School District (WSD), located north of Salt Lake City in Ogden, Utah, takes pride in making technology and digital resources available to its students across the curriculum. Administrators are committed to providing educational experiences that prepare each student to enter the workforce with the skills they need and the motivation to become life-long learners....[more] |
As digital natives comprise the majority of today’s U.S. students, it is important that the curriculum incorporates technology as a tool for learning. According to the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), multimedia tools can provide a rich environment for conducting project-based learning, which can help students to: increase knowledge and skills in the particular discipline being addressed; master research and higher order thinking skills; increase knowledge and skills in making use of information technology; and become further engaged in the subject....[more] |
The United States Access Board, an independent federal agency whose primary mission is accessibility for people with disabilities, stated that acoustical performance is an important consideration in the design of classrooms. As many classrooms were built during a time when acoustics was not a significant concern, it is critical for administrators to consider the affects poor acoustics may have on student learning. Research shows that ambient noise and reverberation normally not noticed by adults can have a negative affect on learning environments for young children, as they require optimal conditions for listening and comprehension....[more] |
Five years ago, Lake Washington School District (LWSD), located east of Seattle, was looking to install new technologies that would better serve its increasingly more digital-savvy student population. Approximately 2,000 educators and more than 23,500 students, including a growing number of English-language learners, were asking for new ways to utilize technology within the walls of their 49 high-performing schools....[more] |
The annual National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently found that approximately one-third of U.S. children are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight. This means that about 25 million U.S. children and adolescents are vulnerable to diseases associated with obesity, such as diabetes and heart disease....[more] |
While a classroom amplification system is not a matter of technology integration or technology literacy, it clearly represents a technology solution that provides an optimal learning condition in the classroom. There is an abundance of independent research that shows the need for amplification in the K-12 classroom, both for hearing-impaired students and students with normal hearing. That research is clear, consistent, and conclusive....[more] |
Providing a well-rounded education isn't the only mission at Saint Mark's School, a private pre-k to grade 6 school in Altadena, Calif. The school staff believes it's equally important "to make learning a joy rather than an assignment" and to prepare students to be self-confident, self-motivated and ready for the future....[more] |
Reading & Writing
Carla Kliever, Reading Specialist and CELDT Coordinator at Hort Elementary School in Bakersfield, Calif., is passionate about teaching English Language Learners. With more than 250 English language learners under her direction, Kliever works hard to maintain each child's record, monitor CELDT testing, train each test proctor, gather scores for the district, and to take care of the classification of each student, determining their proficiency levels....[more] |
Visual Presentation
Supporting seven schools within Elk Lake School District, a rural K-12 district with approximately 1,500 students, the Susquehanna County Career & Technology Center (CTC) serves close to 400 students in two semester-long sessions. The CTC provides exposure to a variety of career fields, including business education, cosmetology, culinary arts, automotive technology, carpentry/cabinet making, and building and property management (i.e., plumbing, electrical & heating). Through these six different departments or "shops," students learn essential career-oriented skills to achieve success in the workforce....[more] |
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At Park Middle School in West Virginia, educators realize the importance of integrating technology into the classroom. Properly applied, education technology enhances lessons, engages students, and fosters teacher professional development. Given these considerations, principal Marsha Smith welcomes suggestions from her staff on new additions to the school's technology offerings....[more] |
General
Outfitting a classroom with shiny new technology is great, but if educators can't keep the equipment up to date, much of the luster can be lost, and then students can become disheartened and teachers discouraged. Now the technology director of a regional service agency in Washington state has devised a low-cost strategy intended to beat the predictable obsolescence that often afflicts classroom technology....[more] |
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