The CP-A100+FXDUO package combines the ultra-short-throw CPA100 3LCD projector, the Hitachi FXDUO-77 Starboard, and CPA100 wall arm. The CP-A100 is a short-throw projector that eliminates the problem of presenters obstructing the board, removes distracting shadows, and adjusts to your teaching style rather than the other way around. The FXDUO offers control using multi-touch hand gestures for a natural interface with no special pens required, and allows two users to operate the board simultaneously.

THE PROS
At the Moses Lakes School District in Moses Lake WA, we have standardized on the Hitachi bundle solution because we wanted one vendor and manufacturer to deal with. This strategy has allowed us to streamline our tech support for the products and provided us with a single point of contact.

The tech support for our Hitachi Starboards and peripherals has been outstanding and they have been very receptive to our input on their products and are listening to their end users.

In the event of any electronic issues, the design of the Starboard eliminates the need to physically remove the entire board. It would allow our IT department to replace just the electronics and minimize downtime for our endusers.

We have installed over 200 Hitachi Starboards and they have been very dependable, easy to use, and compatible with curriculum packages designed for other intelligent boards.

THE CONS
We have a dual-PC platform district (60 percent Windows and 40 percent Mac) and we needed software for our intelligent boards that was available for both platforms. Our issue has been the software availability for the Apple/Mac side, and the timelines in the past because of Hitachi’s focus on the Windows environment. They have released version 9.0 for the Mac, although the interfaces are different from the Windows version 8.0, which has caused some training issues.

Occasional issues with the Starboards show an error that the Starboard is not connected resulting from dust accumulating on the tray of the unit.

THE APPLICATION
The IT department is in the middle of our Phase II ITIP (Instructional Technology Integration Project) and when completed in April, we will have over 200 Starboards district wide. We are using district trainers to create additional Starboard lessons at the elementary level for our district math curriculum and plan to create reading lessons next summer. We also plan to purchase tablets in the future to provide additional resources to those with the Starboards and for secondary classrooms that only want to use the software. The model at the elementary level will be to have a Starboard instructional unit in every classroom. We just occupied our first new elementary school that has over 25 classrooms with the Starboards, and we’re starting to build our second new school this spring, which will be also equipped with Starboards. We expect to have around 300-plus Starboards at the elementary and secondary levels district wide by the end of the 2011 school year.

The elementary buildings are using the Starboards and instructional units to focus on their math curriculum. Their staff development program is emphasizing the simplicity of use and encouraging them to integrate the Starboards into every aspect of their day. The use of the Starboards in classrooms districtwide for taking attendance has excited students and provided a simple hands-on approach. Teachers are creating lesson plans that can be used daily with their math curricula (which are posted to a curriculum server), and this has proven to be a successful way to engage both staff and students. The bottom line is to improve student achievement, and by utilizing technology such as a Hitachi Starboard we’ll be able to increase our teacher’s technology skills as well.

THE RESULT
Our district requirements focused on the future sustainability of our standard products and their maintenance. The ITIP project implementation plan identified the requirement to have one manufacturer for both the LCD projectors and interactive whiteboards as a necessity to limit hardware and software troubleshooting/ support issues. Using a single vendor for the purchasing solution would provide the advantage of having a single contact for warranty issues, etc. The interactive whiteboard software needed to provide the option for multiple students to use the board at the same time. The electronics were not built into the board to eliminate issues with faulty zones and easy camera replacements. The software platform needed to be in both Windows and Mac OS format because our district has dual platform instructional computers.

Our district is located in the central part of Washington State, which makes it a challenge to have competitive professional installation by vendors. We piloted several classrooms that were installed by professionals and were given estimates to implement our districtwide ITIP plans. However, our district maintenance staff was able to inspect the installations and replicate their work, with a cost savings of over 50 percent of the initial estimates. Templates were provided for the Starboard installations from Hitachi and those funds that would have been spent for labor are now being used to acquire more technology for our classrooms.

There are many outstanding products in the marketplace, and we needed to take a snapshot in time to identify those multimedia products that would simplify our teacher’s technology integration plans. The Hitachi product line has been outstanding, and they continue to meet our needs and as long as we can partner with our vendors in the future, we are very satisfied with our “snapshot in time” approach.

Rick Rose is director of technology for the Moses Lake School District #161, Moses Lake, WA.