Ector County ISD Delivering Effective PD Via SAFARI Montage Live-5!

District utilizing SAFARI Montage for live and on-demand teacher training

Wynnewood, PA (July 15, 2013) - Two years ago, Ector County Independent School District (ISD) set out to find a more affordable way to deliver professional development to staff throughout their large rural district in western Texas. With over 40 campuses spread across 906 square miles of Ector County, the district was looking for a solution that would cut down on travel costs related to teacher training. The district ultimately found a technology solution that fit their budget and worked on their existing network with SAFARI Montage Live-5! (SML5), an interactive videoconferencing tool that has allowed the district to continue to offer live PD without sacrificing the interaction of face-to-face training.

“Ector County ISD campuses are geographically spread out, and we really needed a way to save people’s time and cut back on travel-related costs for PD,” said Damon Jackson, Chief Technology Officer, Ector County ISD. “After reviewing other products, SML5 stood out as the most cost-effective solution for our PD needs, with the added benefits of the Learning Object Repository and video content.”

SAFARI Montage Live-5! (SML5) quickly proved to be a valuable PD tool for Ector County ISD teachers and administrators. Using SML5, Instructional Services is now able to provide all teachers with a full week of technology professional development every summer. The annual Back to School Technology Training via SML5 offers teachers the opportunity to easily attend sessions from home or from school at a time that fits their schedule. The district is also utilizing the SAFARI Montage Learning Object Repository (LOR) to store recorded training sessions and documents for on-demand PD anytime, anywhere.

Following the success of SAFARI Montage for PD, the district added SAFARI Montage Core Content to their system in September 2012, providing Ector County ISD teachers and students with on-demand access to over 10,000 educational programs from premier publishers, all correlated to academic standards. Teachers and administrators can also easily upload their own digital content to the Learning Object Repository, then assign metadata such as grades and descriptions, add correlations and share with others throughout Ector Count ISD.

Mr. Jackson adds, “We are very pleased with our investment in SAFARI Montage. They have been great to work with and very supportive of our needs.”

About SAFARI Montage
SAFARI Montage provides school districts with an integrated Learning Object Repository, Video Streaming Library, Media Delivery System and Digital Learning Platform all wrapped into one. In addition, the solution is interoperable with virtually all classroom technology and most enterprise district systems, such as LMSs. The full suite of integrated modules provides a single interface for users to access and manage all digital video and other visual resources from within the school district network or from home. And now, with the introduction of the Digital Curriculum Presenter™ (DCP) module, curriculum departments can elegantly deliver a full digital curriculum. The award-winning SAFARI Montage solution is also designed to cut costs for school districts by utilizing bandwidth intelligently and thereby ensuring functionality. SAFARI Montage servers come preloaded with educational video titles tied to the curriculum from the industry’s leading video publishers, which include Schlessinger Media, PBS, The History Channel, National Geographic, Scholastic, Disney Education, BBC and more. SAFARI Montage is now the only commercial digital distributor of PBS’ library of full-length programs to K-12 schools nationwide. In addition, school districts can easily upload and manage their own digital content, and disseminate it to all users throughout the school or district.

About Ector County Independent School District
Ector County Independent School District is a public school district based in Odessa, Texas with two early education centers, 25 elementary schools, six junior high, two comprehensive high schools, a New Tech high school, two locations for Career and Technical Education courses, and an alternative education center. The District educates approximately 28,500 students with about 1,800 teachers and 3,400 full time employees. Ector County ISD operates with one central goal—equity and excellence for every child. Their mission statement promises ECISD will develop world ready, life-long learners, who discover their unique gifts, achieve personal success, and fuel their community by building unified, comprehensive community support and participation that fosters a standard of excellence.