casestudy | education

Facilitating StudentCentered Learning
Juniata Valley School District, a rural public school districtin central Pennsylvania, has always been at the forefrontof technology, offering Career and Technical Education
Programs to prepare students for life after high school. Theschool district refreshed its classroom technology to foster
new teaching strategies. The refresh included new teacher
laptops and the ScreenBeam wireless display receiver,designed for enterprise environments.
After rolling out ScreenBeam in each K-12 classroom, teachers at Juniata
Valley now have the flexibility to create a student-centered learning
environment. With ScreenBeam, teachers can interact with the entire classwhile assessing student progress in real-time and providing individualized
attention to students anywhere in classroom.
“ScreenBeam is secure, very cost-effective, and easy to deploy. These were all

SchoolJuniata Valley School District(K-12 public schools)

Population
800 students and 60 faculty

Number of classrooms
50

Installed60 ScreenBeam Education Edition 2
receivers in classrooms, libraries,
conference rooms, and auditoriums

Teacher Devices
Dell Latitude E7440 Ultrabook withWindows 7 and Intel WiDi

very important for us at Juniata Valley.”—David E. Christopher, Superintendent, Juniata Valley School District

Challenge: Teachers Tethered to a Projector
Traditionally, when teachers at Juniata Valley wanted to share lessons orvideos from their computer to the classroom display, they had to connect
their laptop to the projector via HDMI or VGA cables. This meant thatteachers needed to deliver their lessons from a fixed location, typically infront of the classroom, in order to control the content.
“Over the last couple of years, we realized that with any technology weprovided our teachers, whether it was digital content, smart boards, orlearning management systems, fundamentally, our teachers continued to
be chained to a projector,” said Josh Wakefield, Director of Technology at
Juniata Valley School District.

www.screenbeam.com

Furthermore, when teachers are fixed to the front of the classroom, it fosters
a more traditional, lecture method of instruction. This didn’t align with thedistrict’s vision for collaborative, student-centered classrooms. “Tetheringteachers to cables and the classroom projector restricts teachers from
gauging student reactions, assessing student progress in real-time, andinteracting with students on a deeper level,” said David E. Christopher,Superintendent of Juniata Valley School District.

Juniata Valley
School District

As a result, the leadership team sought to find a solution that gave teachers
the mobility to wirelessly share their lessons from anywhere in the classroom.

Selecting the Teacher Laptop and WirelessDisplay Receiver
Juniata Valley’s IT staff searched for a teacher laptop that would bring a
new level of interactivity into their classrooms. With hundreds of devices
to choose from, the team narrowed down the options with two importantcriteria. The laptop needed to 1) include Intel WiDi and 2) work with
Actiontec ScreenBeam, a wireless display receiver that attaches to theclassroom projector.
Wakefield had discovered Intel WiDi and ScreenBeam through a technology
director whom he met at Pete & C, an education technology conferencein Pennsylvania. With Intel WiDi in the teacher laptops, teachers can sharelessons on the projector screen wirelessly, with quick, reliable connections
and low latency. “Everyday, teachers have a lot of content to cover in a shortamount of time. Intel WiDi and ScreenBeam not only help eliminate cableclutter in our classrooms, but more importantly the two technologies enable
our teachers
to freely movearound theclassroom,”
said Wakefield.
From a financial perspective, “ScreenBeam was the least expensive
solution that included all the features we were looking for.” Christopher
remarked. Unlike other streaming media players, ScreenBeam provides
advanced security options to prevent students and outsiders from sharing
inappropriate content on the classroom display.
During the selection process, Actiontec provided a free sample ofScreenBeam. As Intel’s lead wireless display receiver partner, Actiontec
wanted Juniata Valley teachers to have the best Intel WiDi experience fromtheir new laptop. “The free ScreenBeam sample was a true time-saver. Iwas able to keep ScreenBeam to test a variety of laptops, and that wasextremely helpful. Actiontec was so supportive throughout our process
of updating classroom technologies,” said Wakefield. Ultimately, thedistrict selected the Dell Latitude E7440 for teachers—an enterprise-class
Ultrabook that supports Intel WiDi and works well with ScreenBeam.

2 | www.screenbeam.com“ScreenBeam was the least
expensive solution thatincluded all the features
we were looking for.”—David E. Christopher, Superintendent
Juniata Valley School DistrictDeploying ScreenBeam
The process of deploying ScreenBeam was straightforward since IT
strategically selected teacher laptops that natively support Intel WiDi. With
over 60 receivers in Juniata Valley’s classrooms, auditoriums, libraries, andconference rooms, IT staff set up the receivers to be easy for teachers andfaculty to use. For instance, the name of each receiver included three parts:
1) school name 2) building name 3) room number. This naming convention
allows any teacher to walk into a classroom and quickly pair their laptop
with the correct receiver. Moreover, inserting a PIN is required only during
the initial connection between the teacher laptop and ScreenBeam. The
district also customized the background image of the ScreenBeam receiver;a picture of the classroom appears on the projector screen when teachers
turn on ScreenBeam.

Training the Teachers
Professional development is an integral part of teaching at Juniata Valley.
With the rising demand for wireless display in Juniata Valley classrooms,
Josh Wakefield organized a full day of professional development forteachers about Intel WiDi and ScreenBeam. In the school library, Wakefieldcreated three wireless display training classes—beginner, intermediate,and advanced. This gave teachers an opportunity to ask any questions
about wireless display and practice connecting their laptop to ScreenBeam
through Intel WiDi. Teachers learned how to mirror or extend content to theprojector screen.
“ScreenBeam and Intel WiDi are very easyto use. Teachers in my advanced classpicked up the technology in less than half
an hour, and the majority of teachers in
my beginner class were comfortable withthe technology after the training session,”
Wakefield remarked.

ScreenBeam Fosters
Student Interactions and Beyond
ScreenBeam has transformed classroom dynamics at Juniata Valley, asteachers now have the flexibility to securely project content anywherein the room. “ScreenBeam is the cornerstone of content delivery in ourclassrooms. We’re seeing many teachers share lessons from the back of theroom instead of the front, and this new level of mobility has been increasing
student interactions and collaboration,” Wakefield commented. Moreover,“Teachers enjoy the fact that they can work closely with individual studentsas they keep the entire class engaged in the lesson. Pedagogy has shiftedfrom traditional lectures to student-centered-learning,” said Christopher.
For example, special education teacher Sara Leighty uses ScreenBeam toshare worksheets, curriculum materials, videos, online manipulatives and3 | www.screenbeam.com

Juniata Valley
School District“ScreenBeam allows me
to more effectively use
my time and resources
within the classroom.
Being able to manipulate
what is on the projector
from any area of theroom saves time and lets
me assist individual orgroups of students at thesame time.”
Sara Leighty
Special Education Teacher
Juniata Valley School Districtlearning-based games with the class. “ScreenBeam allows me to more
effectively use my time and resources within the classroom. Being able tomanipulate what is on the projector from any area of the room saves timeand lets me assist individual or groups of students at the same time.” Highschool teacher Bill Musser echoed this sentiment. “ScreenBeam gives me
the freedom to monitor students while continuing with the lesson,” he said.
ScreenBeam has also been helping teachers multi-task. Using Intel WiDi’s
Extend Desktop mode, teachers can show videos on the projector screen
while grading student work, checking e-mails, or reaching out to parents on
their laptop. Shane Cowher, English teacher and football coach, uses theextended desktop mode to take attendance on his computer while showing
slideshows, interactive worksheets or other content on the classroom
display. “The combination of ScreenBeam and Intel WiDi gives teachers awhole new workspace and twice the productivity,” Wakefield commented.
Furthermore, the administrators appreciate having ScreenBeam in theirschool’s conference rooms. Faculty presentations are more efficient, andScreenBeam enhances collaboration during staff meetings.
Currently, the IT staff at Juniata Valley School District is evaluating Intel WiDi
and ScreenBeam on Windows 10 devices. By Summer 2016, the districtplans to upgrade teachers’ laptops to Windows 10.
“ScreenBeam is an essential teaching tool that has transformed the way ourteachers interact with students. I’ve already referred dozens of schools who areinterested in ScreenBeam.”— Josh Wakefield, Director of Technology, Juniata Valley School District

IndustryLeader
ScreenBeam wireless displayis the only solution that truly
enables commercial deployment
of secured and IT manageable
wireless display. ScreenBeam
wireless display is the industry
standard for benchmarking anddevice interoperability, making
it the most broadly compatible
solution available. ScreenBeam
solutions are used as the validation
platform for wireless display
functionality by companies like
Microsoft, Intel, and leading PC
OEM and device companies.
Actiontec is Microsoft’s coengineering partner for wirelessdisplay technologies in Windows.
Because of Actiontec’s status as theindustry leader, and our ongoinginvestment in supporting industry
device manufacturers, you can beassured that you’re deploying themost broadly compatible, featurerich wireless display platform.

© 2017 All rights reserved. Actiontec and the Actiontec logo are registered trademarks, andScreenBeam is a trademark of Actiontec Electronics, Inc. All other names are properties of theirrespective owners. Specifications subject to change without notice. 020917

4 | www.screenbeam.com