Barton Community College Selects Sony’s Vision Exchange to Facilitate Active Learning Classrooms

Barton Community College in Great Bend, Kansas, a leading education institution recognized for its innovation, recently selected Sony’s flagship active learning solution, Vision Exchange, for two of their classrooms. Vision Exchange is a flexible, intuitive and easy to configure interactive tool that creates an immersive setting for lecturers, students and groups to work together, learn and brainstorm ideas.

Barton Community College, which combines in-person and distance learning options, installed its first Vision Exchange system along with additional pods, enabling dynamic active learning workgroups for the exchange of ideas. After experiencing the benefits associated with the easy-to-use collaboration solution, including the ability for students and professors to share wirelessly in a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) atmosphere, the college purchased a second system for an additional classroom.

In both rooms, Barton Community College has implemented an active learning setup featuring an instructor podium, an interactive touch display, and a hovercam at the front of the classroom. This creates an environment for engaging presentations highlighted by two-way learning and the effortless sharing and monitoring of multimedia content in real time. Howard Technology Solutions served as the integrator on this project, providing and installing Sony’s Vision Exchange and complementary equipment at Barton Community College.

Additional marquee features that Vision Exchange offers to customers include distance learning through Skype for Business, as well as a smart Personal Note Taker and annotation capabilities.  Another benefit of Vision Exchange is updated software options that continue to evolve with the solution and activate powerful new capabilities while addressing and incorporating user feedback. The latest version of Vision Exchange —Version 1.3 — features improved operational workflow, such as the ability to power on and off both the main unit and each pod simultaneously, as well as the capacity to save snapshots automatically to a USB drive inserted into the main unit or pods.

“Enhancing presentation and collaboration in the classroom is what sets higher-ed institutions apart and contributes to long-term learning,” said Theresa Alesso, pro division president, Sony Electronics. “With two Vision Exchange enabled classrooms, Barton Community College is experiencing how this technology empowers users and transforms the educational experience now and into the future.”

“Fostering interactive, two-way learning in a manner that is cost-effective and easy to learn and use is a priority for Barton Community College,” said Michelle Kaiser, chief information officer, Barton Community College. “We found Vision Exchange to be the ideal solution for our needs.  It allows our faculty to enhance their engagement with students by involving them in collaborative discussions using their own mobile devices, which can wirelessly interact with the professor, classroom or their peer group.”

For more information about Sony’s latest professional A/V technologies for education, please visit pro.sony.