According to the Texas Education Agency, Texas is one of the top five states with the highest number of public school enrollments. Manor Independent School District in Manor, Texas, is one such district where student enrollment continues to grow and thrive. In fact, the district has built two new schools to accommodate a projected 5,000 more students in the next four to five years. With nearly 10,000 students currently, the district will double its enrollment in that time. Manor needed future-ready edtech that would align with the excellence and culture of continuous improvement the district has dedicated itself to during this growth. The district chose BenQ Boards as its standard for classrooms going forward.
Manor ISD was using a mix of lamp-based projectors for its classrooms managed by a control system. The control system was complicated to learn and difficult to keep updated while the projectors required keeping a running stock of bulbs, both of which were expensive. For the district’s small tech team, maintaining and monitoring lots of disparate systems and components across 24 buildings, which includes 17 instructional locations in the district, was a time-consuming hassle. For its new schools Manor Early College High School, Manor Rise Academy, Wildhorse Elementary School, Manor New Tech High School, and Manor Elementary Early Learning Center David Gonzalez, Manor ISD Director of Technology, wanted to put in a much simpler device agnostic and innovative classroom solution. His mission was to find the latest and greatest tech that was proven and would last a long time. That solution was BenQ Boards.
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“Technology should be all about how to get back to teaching and instruction in the most innovative way possible that our staff and students can relate to,” said Gonzalez. “BenQ continuously demonstrates the way they support today’s teachers and staff while enhancing learning in exciting ways for students.”
In their selection process, there were many things Manor ISD looked for and found in the BenQ Boards:
Flexibility
Manor ISD is 96 percent Mac iOS driven, so whatever they chose needed to be compatible. BenQ Boards are platform, software, and device agnostic. What’s more, the Google EDLA-certified BenQ Boards empower teachers to teach their way, whether they choose to use the whiteboard, share their screen wirelessly, or load lessons from the web. Making the transition to the BenQ smart boards easy and exciting for teachers and students is the award-winning EZWrite 6 software. Teachers can do it all with this license-free annotation and collaboration software designed to fit any teaching style. It allows teachers to use any interactive course and existing IWB file to make lesson-building a snap. Users have the freedom to annotate and work directly from the interactive display or a wirelessly connected device. When teachers are creating or presenting lessons, EZWrite’s Floating Tool empowers them to add text to any app, video, website, document, or image. They can also choose the pen color, erase, open files, or take screenshots. In addition, BenQ Boards feature InstaShare 2, the award-winning wireless casting system that allows multiple users to share to the screen simultaneously as well as create split-screen lessons with a single tap and enable cloud whiteboarding for students to contribute and write on the screen from wherever they're located — whether in the class or joining remotely. From the smart board, teachers can quickly log into their cloud platforms and apps, including Google Classroom, ClassLink, and others.
“We try not to tether our teachers and staff to the wall,” said Gonzalez. “Being able to walk around the classroom and give instruction as opposed to just staying by the board was really important to keep our teachers in the power zone and engaged with our students.”
Ease of Management
In addition, the smart boards supported Manor ISD’s infrastructure with the ability to easily setup, monitor, and update the smart boards. BenQ features Device Management Solution (DMS) and Account Management System (AMS), which allow the district’s tech team to remotely configure settings, push updates, monitor device analytics, and manage user permissions. These solutions are not only free, eliminating the district’s former control and management solution that was costly and complicated, but also provided simplified, centralized management, reducing the burden on Manor ISD’s tech team responsible for managing 24 sites. This streamlined approach enables educators to focus more on teaching and instruction, rather than troubleshooting technical issues. Gonzalez said, “BenQ’s AMS and DMS system was a big selling point.”
Content Management System
Another need for the Manor ISD tech team was the ability to push out different kinds of content using not only the BenQ Boards but also BenQ digital signage displays. In the past, the school had used an expensive system that didn’t fully address their content or security needs. The BenQ Board and smart displays benefit from BenQ’s X-Sign broadcast software, which turns any BenQ smart board or display in the school into signage and allows schools to keep everyone informed and up to date on events, safety protocols, and emergencies.
“Safety is always top of mind,” Gonzalez explained. “We want to make sure we can leverage these displays to push out a wide range of information, from security alerts and campus notifications. To our district board meetings and content from our YouTube channel. X-Sign as part of the BenQ system provides that flexibility.”
Demonstrating Success
BenQ provides an innovative ecosystem that solves numerous challenges for teachers and tech staff alike while aligning with future-ready skills that will empower forward-looking students who are innovative and proficient.
“I use the BenQ Board every day in the classroom,” said Aylie Moya, ninth grade English 1 teacher at Manor ISD. “I show PowerPoints, text, and clips to promote comprehension and discussion in class. The BenQ Board is a really nice tool, especially when I need to get students involved. We use the writing tools on the board when students and I are breaking down writing prompts or finding evidence in text. I’ll have students go up to the board and highlight or underline different parts of the text that support the claims they make and build connections.”
The impact of the BenQ Boards at Manor Early College High School, Manor Rise Academy, Wildhorse Elementary School, Manor New Tech High School and Manor Early Learning Center has been felt districtwide.
“BenQ’s comprehensive suite of solutions provides us with the best of the best and aligns perfectly with our vision of simplifying and standardizing technology districtwide,” Gonzalez added. “Now our teachers can focus on what matters most—delivering high-quality instruction to our students. Other teachers from other campuses want to know when they’re getting BenQ Boards. That kind of excitement and confidence bodes well for adoption of a new standard.”
