District 91 upgrades technology in classrooms during summer vacation

While teachers and students in District 91 are enjoying a summer off, technicians have been hard at work making some major technical upgrades at the two middle schools.

Justin Hurley is the Network Administrator in District 91 and has been working on planning these improvements for the better part of a year. They’re getting rid of the decades old phone system, adding high tech digital clocks everywhere, and most importantly, putting in wiring for interactive white boards.

To do that they are installing miles of new cable. This week they were putting in cable trays in the attic of Taylorview.

“This cable tray makes it so we can have a new cable drop into a classroom for a teacher a lot faster.” Hurley said. “Our main focus was dealing with audio video for the classroom.”

Each classroom gets a sophisticated audio system.

“We know that hearing is the primary channel for learning, and so when a teacher is able to wear a microphone, a teacher is able to change her tone a little bit — not always have that presentation tone and so it’s a little calmer environment,” director of secondary education Sarah Sanders said.

While Taylorview is still being worked on, the project is mostly completed at Eagle Rock. The interactive white boards with the projectors connect right to laptops and phones. Teachers can bring up material from the internet or downloads. They can even highlight and circle text on the white board.

“A teacher’s able to bring things to life so much more, downloading videos and incorporate them into lessons,” Sanders said.

These projects are paid for by state technology grants and supplemental levies.

The interactive white boards were put in all the elementary schools over the past couple years. Next on the list is upgrading the technology in the high schools.