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Education
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Class is back in session
Sep 27, 2005
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by James Careless
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The years 1971-2000 were tough times for the Los Angeles Unified School District. Chronically short of capital funds, the LAUSD was unable to build a single new school during this time period despite soaring enrollment. The results were predictable: LAUSD schools ended up housing double the number of students they were designed for, while classroom AV technology remained at a 1960s level of standalone TV monitors and slide projectors.
“Some schools became so overcrowded that we've had to convert them to a year-round staggered calendar,” noted LAUSD spokeswoman Hilda Ramirez. In the staggered system, different sets of students share the facilities; while one set is in class, the next set is on break.
Of course, the staggered system results in students only attending school for 163 calendar days annually, compared to the standard average of 180 days. “Our school days were lengthened to compensate for this change,” Ramirez added, “but the interruption in instruction doesn't help students. Neither does the fact that some neighborhood schools are so overcrowded that students have to bussed out of district to other schools.”
Better Fortunes
Fortunately, five years ago, events started to change in the LAUSD's favor. A publicly-approved bond issue in 2000 brought in cash to start repairing existing schools, while subsequent local and state bond issues raised $9.2 billion for new facilities - the first in 30 years. The funding's goal was to build the equivalent of 181,000 classroom seats for a school board that currently teaches 740,000 students, Ramirez explained. “This translates into about 160 new schools overall.”
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| New high school classrooms in Los Angeles are being equipped with LCD projectors. |
To date, 17 new schools were opened during the 2004-2005 school year, and another 32 are scheduled to open during 2005-2006. Not surprisingly, advanced classroom AV is a big part of the LAUSD's new schools, particularly in its high schools.
The blueprint for the LAUSD's $9.2 billion construction effort is the 288-page “School Design Guide,” which provides a high level overview of what the school board is looking for, from general classroom facilities to security, landscaping, and in-school technology.
Not surprisingly, the guide's major AV emphasis is on computer technology, and includes equipping each school with a hybrid fiber optic/CAT 5 LAN for both internal communications and broadband Internet connectivity. Eventually, the LAUSD hopes to add WiFi to the mix, so that teachers will be able to walk in, boot up, and teach.
“With fiber optic connectivity, everything is possible,” said Lucy Padilla, director of the LAUSD's Design Requirements Section. “For instance, each teacher will be able to control the data, video, and television elements of their classrooms using a laptop computer, which they'll keep with them at all times. Every time they start work in a new classroom, they'll just plug their laptop into a fiber optic LAN connection to achieve full systems control.”
Internet access - provided on multiple desktop PCs located in various classrooms - will be controlled by each school's LAN Equipment Room. All of these rooms will control the school's servers, be temperature-controlled using 24/7 dedicated air conditioning, and have 50 percent extra space available for future expansions.
As for distribution, the number of LAN drops per classroom will depend on the category of classrooms. For example, science, shop, and general classrooms will have five CAT 5 drops for students, plus one CAT 5 and one four-strand fiber optic connection at the teacher's desk. Meanwhile, computer labs, technology centers, multimedia centers, and accounting classrooms will have 40 CAT 5 drops and one six-strand fiber optic drop. Libraries will have at least one four-strand fiber optic and 12 CAT 5 drops.
Video Emphasis
Besides being used to provide widespread CCTV surveillance at LAUSD facilities, video will play an important role for showing educational programming and displaying multimedia content. This is why high school classrooms are being equipped with LCD overhead projectors and front wall screens.
“We have moved away from using standalone TV monitors because the kids at the back of the class have trouble seeing them,” Padilla explained. “Using overhead projectors saves us floor space, and they can be used to display a variety of data.”
Content will accessed from in-room computers, the school LAN, or a television signal distribution system. In most cases, outside feeds will come from local cable TV distributors or off-air master antenna systems. Where neither option is possible, the schools will be fitted with satellite antennas to pick up DirecTV or EchoStar.
The LAUSD is equipping its classrooms with sound enforcement systems. Using ceiling-mounted speakers and infrared wireless-linked teacher microphones, the board hopes to ensure that everyone in the class can hear what is being said.
In large schools, video will be distributed over the school's fiber optic network. In sites where 10 outlets or less are needed, conventional coaxial cable will be used instead.
The LAUSD is also intending to boost TV training for its students, with the help of local TV channels. “We are working with KCLS, the board's owned-and-operated PBS station, to develop programs for students and to produce TV programs from various LAUSD locations,” Padilla said. By equipping its new schools with TV production facilities and computer-based editing systems, the LAUSD hopes to graduate students “capable of being hired into TV production straight out of high school.”
Another goal is to conduct videoconferences and distance learning using the schools' AV equipment and LAN connections. “To date, a teacher at San Fernando High School has successfully conducted video hookups to schools in other countries,” Padilla noted. The LAUSD also hopes to import feeds from other institutions; so far, a hookup has been successfully established between the New Valley High School #1 adjacent to the California State University Campus at Northridge and CSUN's video-equipped classrooms.
The Long Term
The massive LAUSD construction project currently underway signals a change in the region's attitudes to public education. Long starved for cash, residents and politicians alike have recognized the need to provide K-12 students with properly-equipped modern schools. The result has been an influx of billions of bond dollars to make these schools a reality, and to equip them with the kind of multimedia technology required in the 21st Century.
That said, it will take years for the LAUSD to build all the new schools it needs, plus refurbish the existing ones it owns. Given that the LAUSD uses a public bidding process -- and is not committed to any one vendor of any kind -- long-term opportunities exist for video, computer, and networking vendors.
"There is no larger public works project [currently underway] in the nation," offered LAUSD superintendent Roy Romer. "But the primary focus should be on the instructional advantages that will enable students to achieve at higher levels as they attend less crowded campuses and are exposed to better learning environments."
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