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The days when a school’s AV system consisted of a squeaky-wheeled cart bearing an old TV, VCR, and scratchy amp with microphone are long gone. Today’s tech brings the world of audiovisual enhancements in education to new heights. These innovations engage struggling students and kids with special needs and immerse entire classes in an environment that not only promotes interactive learning but demands it.

“WOMPWOMP, WOMPWOMP, WOMPWOMPWOMP.”

Many teachers express frustration over students not listening, but for Meg Visconti, speech language pathologist at Robert Richardson Elementary School in the Flowing Wells School District, Tucson, AZ, the issue was bigger than combating daydreams or kids texting under their desks.

“We have an older cinder-block-constructed school, and frankly the acoustics are terrible. In our classrooms we find there is bleedover ambient noise, and often children in the back of the room have trouble hearing the teacher in the front of the room,” says Visconti.

In an integrated school system with students with IEPs in every class, often for more than one reason, this posed a major problem.

Visconti notes that learners, whether they are children who are learning English as their second language or who have learning disabilities, attention deficit issues, language impairment, or even emotional issues, “often have trouble distinguishing or identifying that which is most salient or important in what they are supposed to be attending to. In one particular classroom, we had a significant number of kids that fell into that category and we thought it would be a good test classroom to install an audio system.”

For both financial and customer service reasons, Flowing Wells chose a Redcat audio system (https://store.lightspeed-tek.com). The teacher wears a wireless mike that feeds into a portable amplifier that can be set up anywhere in the classroom. The school also added an additional pass-around microphone, ideal for oral reports and class discussion. In addition to acting as a “talking stick” device, this microphone has proven invaluable for shy students and for those whose voices don’t project.

“It’s really amazing when you walk into the classroom,” says Visconti. “It is so quiet because the kids are so enamored with listening to the clarity and the emphasis of the teacher’s message. It’s been incredible for our students.”

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