Classroom

Amplifying Possibilities With New K–12 Classroom Audio Technologies

Improve outreach and accessibility when you modernize learning and gathering spaces in schools with advanced audio tech.

Ted Bartnik

Ted Bartnik is a classroom modernization specialist for CDW•G with prior experience in multiple roles in education.

Classroom audio technology can enable a student in the back of the room to hear their teacher, but new tools go far beyond voice projection features.

Today’s K–12 classroom audio is IP-based, allowing it to integrate seamlessly with other systems and technologies. For example, teachers may have a panic button on their microphone for easy access in a school emergency. Often, new audio tools merge with school bell and paging systems.

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Further advancements increase accessibility for listeners. One such innovation, live language translation, supports improved learning for students and the larger school community.

Language Translation in Real Time

Although some platforms have had translation features within closed captions, updates to translation technology can bridge understanding more immediately. Audio Enhancements, an audiovisual technology vendor, has introduced the option for live language translation that feeds directly to student devices.

By logging in to the website with a classroom code from their teacher, students can choose their preferred language and have their teacher’s spoken words appear in that language on the screen. Outside of providing the code — and ensuring students don’t have any trouble accessing the site — all the teacher needs to do is speak into the specialized microphone to broadcast the translated audio to the devices. Artificial intelligence does the rest.

This feature is largely being used in ESL classrooms, but it has applications for parent-teacher conferences and larger assemblies of community members, such as school board meetings.

Dual-language positions are often difficult to fill in a K–12 district. While there is no data on the nationwide number of bilingual educators or unfilled roles, the Office of English Language Acquisition found that the national high school graduation rate for English learners was 15% lower than the rate for all students. Bringing more effective communication tools to the classroom could be one way for schools to offset that gap.

While these tools can’t replace one-to-one teacher’s aids in classrooms, they do give schools the ability to scale accessibility in larger forums.

Thoughtful Plans for New School Audio Systems

Adding these new audio technologies isn’t a simple rip-and-replace of the cabling and infrastructure in a school building. Because of the integration with schools’ other systems, audio tech may require more complicated configuration and setup.

IT professionals planning these upgrades should be sure to work with other stakeholders, including maintenance and facilities staff; superintendents, principals and other administrators; school resource officers; curriculum leadership; and representatives from any other departments that may be affected.

The installation of these audio systems is more complex than it used to be, and the projects themselves can be difficult to navigate, depending on a school’s existing infrastructure. CDW has configuration and installation experts who can help schools with every step of the process, from planning to flipping the on switch.

This article is part of the ConnectIT: Bridging the Gap Between Education and Technology series.