Background
Sheldon College is a private school located in the beautiful Brisbane Bayside area in Queensland, Australia. It caters to a wide-ranging student body starting from 15-month-olds up to grade 12. A state-of-the-art school, it boasts the latest technology infrastructure, business entrepreneurial suites, a modern library, resource centers, and more.
Over the years, Sheldon College has integrated industry facilities and training opportunities across the campus as part of its strategic vision and curricular priorities. One major curriculum-building project has been the construction of a truly collaborative learning precinct. Known as The Learning and Innovation for a New Queensland (LINQ) Precinct, it is designed to provide opportunities for collaboration across the curricular areas of Business and Enterprise, Computer Aided Design (3D Printing, Robotics, and Engineering), Film & Television, and Online Media Production.
Goals
Sheldon College was looking for a way to encourage collaborative thinking and enhance its students’ learning experiences in the new LINQ interdisciplinary facility. The goal was to make presenting and sharing content in the classroom easier and more efficient.
One of the principal challenges was compatibility with the school’s Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy for students, which has replaced traditional pen and paper. This means ideas are hashed out and classwork is now completed with multimedia.
“We needed a solution for the wireless connectivity of the students’ portable media devices,” says Julian Stirling, Design Manager for Integration Partners Australia, the Brisbane-based pro AV integrator that handled the project. The students’ devices include iOS and Android tablets, Windows and Mac notebooks, and laptops. With a variety of operating platforms and release versions, the system designers had a complex hurdle to overcome — until VIA Collage entered the picture.