Kevin Ryan, Director of Educational Technology and 21st Century Learning

The schools in Kildeer Countryside School District 96 had already been recognized for their academic excellence by the US DOE and the Illinois State Board of Education. Still, district administrators recognized that significant changes needed to be made to our classrooms, and better technology needed to be acquired, in order to help our students acquire the new skills mandated by today’s educational standards: effective communication and collaboration. So, we focused our attention to revamping classrooms to fit the learning needs of 21st century students, and we turned to our most trusted partners to get the job done. Working closely with these partners made all the difference in our successful implementation. Following are the lessons we learned along the way in terms of products and partnerships, which are inextricably connected.

You’ve examined all the requirements: room size, HD vs UHD, the size of the interactive area you need for the number of students you want to have working together, and the display with the best classroom software. Then you come to the final factor: budget! Budget is often not a small factor, especially when you need to outfit 10, 20, or even 100 classrooms. Sometimes the answer to your display requirements and needs is an interactive projector.

The Bulb Problem

As almost every teacher knows, nothing is more irritating than having a projector bulb blow right in the middle of a lesson. Before you can get back to teaching, you have to find someone to get a replacement bulb (and hope there is one in the storeroom), and perhaps unmount the projector in order to replace the bulb. At that point, it often becomes clear that the students don’t remember what you were teaching, let alone what they were supposed to learn.

It’s almost time for FETC 2016! As always, the four-day event is a fantastic opportunity to greet past colleagues, meet prospective collaborators, and learn from the pros. At FETC you can get hands-on explorations of the latest hardware and software, and learn successful strategies for integrating technology across the K-20 curriculum. As always, the conference will be held in “The City Beautiful” – Orlando, Florida. From city attractions to workshops and the booths (don’t miss Mimio’s booth #835), here’s just a sampling of what you can expect:

So you're planning to bring touch-enabled collaborative learning to your classrooms with a touch projector. You're expecting to use the touch projector to turn your current conventional dry erase board into a touch board. But not so fast! Touch projectors have special requirements that need to be accommodated to ensure proper operation – and the whiteboard is an often unrecognized but critical system component. Choosing the right whiteboard and properly installing it are key. Consider the following points before you buy.

An Interview with Christopher Leonardo, Director of R&D

It's been an exciting year for Mimio. We released several new interactive devices (the MimioProjector™ interactive and touch projectors) and made major updates to our classroom software and educational app, which really expanded the capabilities of classroom collaboration. In this interview with Director of R&D Christopher Leonardo, you’ll learn what he thinks about the newest products and get some hints about what’s to come. You’ll also find out what has him excited about education technology.

NEW MimioProjector Superhero Joins Forces with the League

Our team of Mimio interactive displays has super powers that can rescue a classroom from any educational archenemy! No matter what your foe may be – a budget that’s too small, bored students, or students who are reluctant to collaborate – the League of Interactivity will send the best superhero to the rescue. Now we are introducing our newest member!

Reflecting on a year just ended is always an interesting activity. This is true whether you’re looking back on your accomplishments at work, in your personal life, or in an entire business. First there’s that moment of disbelief that another year has passed, and the recognition of how quickly it has gone. Then, as you begin to write down the events of the year, you realize just how much was achieved. Perhaps the year did not pass so quickly after all. In fact, it only seemed to pass quickly, because you were so busy doing great things. 

To summarize this past year at Mimio in a single word, I would say that it was definitely “interesting.” 

We went through some pretty significant changes at Mimio. The most notable change was Skyview Capital’s acquisition of Mimio from Newell Rubbermaid. The upshot of this exciting transition is that we are now even more nimble and flexible in responding to the needs of our customers. I would like to thank both of these outstanding companies for their support during the transition.

We also added some very significant and innovative new products to our portfolio. Three that I will highlight for this post are the MimioProjector™ interactive projector, the MimioMobile™ application, and the MimioCapture™ ink recorder.