Portable Technology: Media a la Cart

There was a time when being a teacher at Lenawee Intermediate School District (MI) meant getting in line--a long line--if a teacher wished to get hold of audiovisual equipment for the class. Teachers had to reserve the equipment weeks in advance. Next, once the time came to use it, representatives from the district's A/V department had to quite literally schlep it all to the classroom themselves. However, in 2005, the arrival of media carts changed the whole routine. Clustering certain equipment and placing it as a unit on a refrigerator-sized wheeled cart revolutionized Lenawee's A/V delivery system. With laptops, projectors, document cameras, televisions, and VCRs affixed to movable carts, technicians simply wheel the equipment into a classroom, and everything a teacher needs is right there. Carts do not merely help organize heavy and hard-to-transport equipment, but they also provide a tidy solution for storing equipment, not to mention a manageable way to distribute limited resources around a particular school or wing. The best part, of course, is that the carts themselves are relatively inexpensive and frequently come at a discount for those willing to buy enough media to qualify.