EduComm show highlights AV quality and cost.

The rapid rise in AV and IT integration coupled with the equally fast decline in per-unit pricing has resulted in a value proposition for educators that even a year ago would have been unimaginable. Here, in an edited transcript, District Administration Publisher Dan Kinnaman, a 25-year veteran of the education field, takes a look at the current--and future--AV/IT landscape.)

District Administration magazine is launching the EduComm Conference as an in-conjunction event with InfoComm 2004, the world's biggest AV communications and presentation technologies trade show. What makes this an important event for education leaders?

School districts have invested lots of time, energy, and money over the past 10 to 15 years to acquire computers and data networks. Yet, most classrooms still have no way to display digital information to a whole class. The primary reason for this is that high quality display technologies have been too expensive to put in every classroom. But, that's all changed over the past few years as AV technologies have reached a very attractive quality/cost point. District leaders should now be looking at a range of AV equipment--from multimedia projectors to interactive white boards, document cameras, and even large flat-screen displays (LCD, DLP, or Plasma)--as affordable and practical additions to every classroom.

The present and rapid convergence of audio-visual and information technologies presents wonderful opportunities for both teaching and learning.

There's a new level of sophistication in the use of presentation systems in the K-12 sector that seems to be driven by educational and administrative vision as much as by the hot new display technologies themselves. Do you agree?

Absolutely. Visionary district leaders see the convergence of AV and IT as an extremely cost-effective and powerful way to bring educational benefits to their students. Good technology will never replace good teachers, but good teachers equipped with good multimedia resources will be able to individualize and extend learning opportunities for more students. Our enthusiasm for the EduComm Conference at InfoComm comes not from the technology itself, but from the benefits for students.

How do you imagine the classroom experience will change over the next few years as a result of the convergence of AV and IT?

The biggest impact should be on the types of interactions students have with their teachers and on the times and places in which these transactions take place. However, getting the greatest benefit from ongoing technical advances is as much a matter of our willingness to restructure the ways in which schooling occurs as it does with the acquisition of the technology.

For example, if you believe that the situations in which learning occurs and activities through which it occurs are important to students mastering content, then AV and IT advances hold wonderful promise because they have the power to help students and teachers go far beyond the static environment of the typical classroom. It's all about the utility or usability of learning. Getting the greatest benefit from the convergence of AV and IT requires a willingness to rethink the ways in which schooling takes place. It may start with creating a multimedia classroom, but that's just the beginning of where it may lead.

Is it hard to justify the expense of presentation equipment for school districts?

Not when you consider the potential benefits for students and teachers. The more pertinent question for school district leaders is not "Can we afford this?" but "Can we afford to not do this?"

The Web has changed everything, including AV tools and teaching practices. How has the addition of Web-based presentation systems helped with such initiatives as distance learning?

We're just seeing tip of the iceberg in current practice, but the potential of IP-based AV communications is to completely break down the barriers of geographical distance, time, and danger in letting students explore the world in graphically stimulating and academically rich ways. In the connected world of the near future there is no reason that classroom should be limited to a set time and place.

The immediacy to teaching that has resulted from the marriage of the Web to in-class presentations is also a persuasive component, isn't it?

Nat only will teachers have access to far richer and up-to-date resources, IP-based AV resources have the potential to greatly increase teacher collaboration and information sharing. There's nothing to prevent a range of master/apprentice teacher combinations that can greatly benefit large numbers of students. The key challenge for district leaders is not to be limited by current structures and practices in implementing new technologies.