Snowballs from T+L

Posted by David Parish, Ph.D., CEO Calypso Systems
Thursday October 29th, 2009 | 0 Comments

I flew into Denver this morning, just ahead of a slow-moving snow storm, and made it over to NSBA's T+L conference by mid-morning.  I'll admit to being a trade show junkie; I was looking forward to browsing the show floor, seeing what's new, eying the competition and running across some familiar faces. I was especially keen since T+L is one of the first ed tech shows of the "season", coming on the heals of the start of the new school year and the beginning of what we regard as our "marketing" season, which runs through March or so.  Also, I had never been to T+L before and wanted to get a feel for how or if it differs from the TCEA's and FETC's of the world.

The fact is, my view of this and nearly all ed tech trade shows is 90% shaped by what happens in the exhibit hall, though I'm well aware that for most attendees, the primary focus is on the presentations, round tables and break-out sessions.  The show floor is, for the most part, what they do "in between".  Still, for me, the floor is where the action and energy is, and where all the gadgets reside.  So off I went, taking voice notes as I snaked through the exhibits.  My main impressions?

Classroom voice amplification, sound reinforcement, classroom audio, sound enhancement or whatever you want to call it is everywhere.  On what was really a very small show floor, I counted four manufacturers (including Calypso Systems) promoting classroom audio and wireless microphone products.  This matches our experience in the marketplace, where more and more districts nationwide are beginning to recognize the impact of this technology on educational outcomes.  Did you know it's mandated in OH?  The fact is that classroom amplification is relatively inexpensive and, when done right, requires absolutely no training.  All that's required is a bit of enthusiasm from teachers who are willing to try something new, hang a lightweight wireless microphone around their necks, and continue doing what they were doing.  The simple act of BEING HEARD delivers the results we all want to see.  So how do the vendors differ?  Though some want to point to specs and features, the fact is that all of the systems look good, work well, sound fine and deliver results.  This is no spec race and wireless classroom microphones are quickly becoming commodities, which means prices are dropping.   The differences between manufacturers mostly have to with price and our differing approaches to classroom audio as an integrated solution (Calypso) or as a stand-alone solution (everyone else).  And don't forget about battery life!.

Off the show floor, I was fascinated and impressed to see that T+L was partnering with TED (www.ted.com) to produce a "independent TED event".  If you're not aware of TED, stop reading this, go to www.ted.com and click on any presentation that looks interesting.  For the most part, they are all (a) about 20 minutes long and (b) absolutely fascinating.   As they put it, TED is about "Ideas Worth Spreading" and consists of "Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world".  Really, if you've never listened to a TED presentation, you're in for a treat.  Still, I've never heard of a TED collaboration with any other organization, so was thrilled to see the connection to T+L and made my way to the session, not knowing what to expect.  Unfortunately I was able to stay for only about 45 minutes of the 2.5 hour session, so I don't know if the effort worked as hoped and planned.  A crowded room of about 150 people viewed a TED presentation by personal computing visionary Alan Kay that focused on better teaching techniques using computers (http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/alan_kay_shares_a_powerful_idea_about_ideas.html).  We were then asked to write down responses to several questions about what we just saw.  I had time to write only one response, this to the question of whether the presentation was relevant to the future of education (I'm paraphrasing).  Though the video is well worth your while, and entertaining to boot, my answer was "yes, of course".  I continued that the problem in education has nothing to do with a shortage of ideas about where we ought to go.  As far as I can tell, there's broad consensus, or at least arguments among a number of worthy choices.  The challenge, of course, is how to get there.