Launceston Church Grammar School, set against the picturesque backdrop of the Tamar Valley, caters for 981 students from pre-school to year 12 on two campuses.

The innovative, co-educational school, which tailors its curriculum to students’ different learning styles, sought to create a flexible learning space to provide students with limitless opportunities and choices when learning.

A room was set aside at the Mowbray senior campus to establish a state of the art multi media lab, one of the first of its kind in Australia.

To make the ground breaking lab a reality, the Director if ICT Barbara Davies called on Computelec to advise on the appropriate hardware that would support the school’s individualised learning philosophy.

The school aimed to give students the flexibility to complete projects and present assignments in ways that fit their individual learning styles – whether a photo essay, short film, comic strip or more traditional written or essay form.

The goal was to create an environment that promotes student engagement, encourages collaboration and helps students develop their project management, problem solving and social skills. Computer literacy and curriculum based learning consistently underpin learning experiences.

Teachers identified the suite of software and applications they felt were best suited to this new environment.

The challenge for Computelec was in selecting and customising hardware to support a myriad of highly interactive software and accessories.

The lab is equipped with a video and flip cameras, web cams, speakers, headphones and microphones, a dataprojector, a green screen and whisper (recording) booth.
Programs include; Audacity, Adobe Master Series, Premier Illustrator, Photostory, Kahootz, Comic Life and Dolby 5.1 sound.

As specialists in the ICT and education sector, Computelec was able to assess the school’s requirements and source and custom design desktops and laptops that fit the challenging criteria.

Computelec recommended HP Dc7900 Business Desktop, but customised the standard Video and Audio Capabilities to include a Sound Blaster and ATI cards to support enhanced sound and video functionality.

With 20 years’ experience in the sector, and a network of customers in schools around Australia, Com putelec was able to put Barbara in touch with a college in NSW. Already using these devices on its own campus, Barbara was able to talk through the decision process with those who had previous experience.
This provided confidence that the right choices were made for the school.