A 2004 class action lawsuit taken against Microsoft is having a huge payoff for the school districts of Minnesota. The lawsuit was ended in a settlement when Microsoft allegedly violated Minnesota (and many other states) antitrust laws by overcharging customers for their products. Refunds for these customers were sent to the state government where customers were able to collect their money, but in most cases people did not collect their claims. After a set amount of time, the leftover money was designated to be sent to school districts throughout the state. From this deal, Park Center received $11,000 that can be used to purchase items from a list of software and hardware products to help further technology in education.

This $11,000 coupled with a grant for technology integration provides a total of $26,000. It was decided that this money should be spent on projectors to put in the classrooms of some teachers permanently. The goal is to get a projection system in every mainstream classroom at Park Center. Currently some rooms have projection systems as a part of a teacher's involvement in a district technology program called TICT. See our 2005 feature on the TICT program. In total, the new money was used to buy 22 new projectors and 22 new speakers to go with each projector. A portion of the media center budget was also used to buy connection cables and locks for the projectors.

Smartboard

The projection systems will be sent to teachers of various departments that have been chosen to receive one. The Technology Committee decided on what criteria a teacher would have to fulfill, and then voted on the process for allocating the new equipment. After a short training session, these teachers should be receiving their projectors by the end of January.

In addition to the 22 projectors and 22 speakers that were purchased, the school also received one Smartboard that will be available for teachers to check out for use from the library. A Smartboard is a special type of whiteboard that is connected to a computer. Users of the board are able to write on it and save images of what they write on the board to re-use after it has been erased from the board. If the demand for the Smartboard is high, the school may be looking into investing in more at a later time.

The teachers already using projections systems rave about what it can do for a classroom. With today's visual learners, having images and video of lesson concepts is a key component of a good lesson plan. Biology/Computer Science teacher Jeff Rholl has been using visual aids for all of his 30 years in the district. But the quality of visual aids continues to get better. As a "drawing-challenged" teacher, he did the best he could with a blackboard and chalk, but the computer allows him to have professional looking images for his classes and the projection system he has used for the past few years allows him to integrate technology every hour, every day. Mr. Rholl says one of the biggest changes in the last few years is the ability to use short video clips rather than full movies: "To be able to download 1-3 minute video clips of a taught concept is an amazing improvement. We incorporate them into a Powerpoint presentation so that when we are discussing a concept in class, a short visual demonstration of the concept is just a click away".

The teachers that are receiving the new projectors are very excited for this opportunity because it will allow them to expand their teaching in a multitude of ways. For example, English teacher Kathleen Kinney looks forward to using it to assist in grammar lessons, play Jeopardy-style review games, and show streaming video to assist the teaching of literature history. Math teacher Sally Wojahn will be using it for PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheet projects, and as a way to better involve students in the class. Social Studies teacher Cory Williams(right) says that the projector will be an integral part of his class because it will let him show the class the history and geography that he teaches, instead of just telling them about it. In addition to image and video viewing, Mr. Williams also plans on using the projector to give his students the chance to utilize it by presenting projects. The new technology that these teachers are receiving is sure to improve their classrooms and reshape the way their students learn. Thank you, Bill Gates and the state of Minnesota!

-Brad Erickson (PCSH Web Team)