Elkhorn Public Schools are on the western edge of Omaha, Nebraska, and is home to one of the fastest-growing districts in the state, as well as the highest performing. With new buildings popping up each year, they reached a point where they had to decide between interactive displays and coupling wireless display technology with 75-inch TV screens.
They decided on the latter because why stand at the front of the class drawing on a $5000 machine when you can do it from any device, anywhere in the room for less than a quarter of the price?
Once they committed to wireless display technology, the district narrowed their selection to a couple of technology options (Vivi and another option) and evaluated both for 10 weeks before capturing extensive feedback from their teachers.
Led by Director of Technology, Kevin Gross, Elkhorn Public Schools communicated the following to their teachers:
During the 2019-2020 school year the EPS Technology Team will be working with 10 selected teachers to pilot two different solutions that wirelessly display content from teacher laptops. Following thorough research and initial discovery with six vendors last school year, the technology team selected two solutions to be piloted during the first semester of 2019-20. The table below shows the breakdown of the six different vendors researched/tested last school year. Two wireless display options will be compared with each other and with the existing display solution.
General Information:
- 10 teachers have been selected at various grade levels.
- Consideration was given to the following: building representation, subject representation, and variety of experience levels.
- All pilot teachers will work with both wireless display options.
Variables for which we need to control:
- Time of year of pilot (equal number receiving each solution first or second quarter)
- Teacher experience (classrooms need to include newer teachers and teachers with experience)
- Technology experience (classrooms need to include technologically confident teachers and those with limited confidence)
Core Evaluation Instruments:
- District technology feedback (ease of deployment, management, etc.)
- Teacher feedback (ease of use, reliability, features, etc.)
- Cost of solution
Feedback from teachers about Vivi included:
- It was great not being ‘stuck’ at your smartboard and/or doc camera.
- Vivi is very easy to use and I would love to use it on a consistent basis…I know it also has additional features for administrators that would be helpful.
- Vivi worked in the classroom and the students were able to interact, but I liked them being able to get up more frequently.
- I really liked using this product.
- My suggestion is to go with Vivi, as it was easier to use and its connections was better. I believe Vivi also has administrator capabilities, where important announcements can be sent to the classrooms (e.g. lockdowns, fire drills, etc.). I know of some classes where this visual warning would be very helpful (i.e. band).
- Vivi was very user friendly.
- If I had to choose between the two displays I would pick the Vivi. It was more user friendly and I felt it offered more options.
- Some of my early battles with Vivi were probably user error. Overall, I liked it.
- Vivi is user friendly and has better features between the two. It’s better for the elementary level due to being able to sign in quickly. With elementary kids, time is crucial, especially the younger grades.
- It was very helpful to wander the room instead of being tied to the SMARTboard.
- I used it in the specials area and the students loved it. They were able to quickly share their compositions with the class using Vivi. I also used links to share with students to quickly click on instead of typing it in. This was very helpful for my lower elementary students.
- I really enjoyed using Vivi in my classroom. It was easy to use and navigate through. My students also used it by using the Microsoft whiteboard and they were able to complete math problems on it by using the interactive pen.
- I loved using Vivi and I hope I get to use it more in the future.
- My favorite part of these systems was the ease in having students project on Vivi from their Chromebooks without having to physically move.
- I really liked the flexibility of the Vivi. I liked being able to walk around the classroom while still projecting. It was also nice to be able to stream a video while still using my computer. I used this during whole-group and small-group instruction.
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