How Amplified Speaker Systems in Classrooms Benefit Everybody / Technology in Education

A little while back we posted a brief blog entry about how using PA audio systems in classrooms can greatly increase the effectiveness and efficiency of education and in turn improving productivity. We have since made a video describing benefits and how Amplivox can help.

The following groups of students have benefited greatly using amplified classrooms:

• English as Second Language and Bilingual Students (look under Darai Study)
  
• Students learning Phonics
• Students needing Special Education (look under Darai Study)
• Students with Minimal, Severe, Temporary, or Permanent Hearing Loss
• Students with an Auditory Processing Problem
• Students with Down Syndrome

The Institute for Enhanced Classroom Hearing says students with normal hearing can greatly benefit from Amplified Classrooms:

"Even a 'normal' hearing child can miss as much as 1/3 of what teachers say due to poor acoustics... children with 'normal' hearing experienced an increase in test scores across the board [when in amplified classroom]..."

The graphic on the left illustrates just one way how students benefit from amplified classrooms.

What do teachers say?
Teachers are proponents of amplified classrooms not only for their students but for themselves as well. Studies have shown that Amplified Classrooms:
Reduced vocal fatigue
Improved Classroom Management
Greater Mobility

Check out these statistics from teachers:

• 91% of teachers agreed that they needed to raise their voices less often using amplification
• 100% agreed that it is easier to get the attention of the whole class
• 100% agreed (64% strongly agreed) Teachers spend less time managing behavior and more time focusing on the curriculum (Above statistics found on page 7 of this study)
  

Here is a full list of all of the resources we used:

• Institute for Enhanced Classroom Hearing
  
• Effect of Sound Field Amplification on Grade 1 Reading Outcomes
• New York Times Article on Amplified Classrooms (March 2008)
  
• "Many Classrooms have Bad Acoustics that Inhibit Learning" --Ohio State Study (Dec 1999)
• CDC: Noise-Induced Hearing Loss

Click on the images below to learn more about our recommended products to amplify your voice and classroom:

Amplivox offers Sound Comparison Guides in 4 languages

Amplivox is proud to offer quality products to customers all over the world. To make it easier for our international customers to find the right equipment, Amplivox is offering our Sound Comparison Guides in 4 languages, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

These Guides will help you decided what equipment you need for your gathering, meeting, party, or school function. We are excited about these guides and how they can help our international customers.

This is just another way that Amplivox helps its customers. We also offer great customer service and have a fantastic 6 year warranty on nearly all of our products. We are also a company that cares about the environment. You can contact us through our website, ampli.com, or by calling (800) 267-5486

Looking for a Wireless PA Microphone Sound System?

What good is a PA system without a convenient way to use it? Wireless microphones are the simple solution for any PA system and are great because they are effortless to use and do not tangle.

We have many wireless PA microphones to choose from to make your PA system experience a smooth and easy one. Looking for a sound system with microphones? Amplivox offers quality PA audio systems that can serve a wide variety of purposes. The best kind of products are the ones that can be used for many different things, eliminating the need to buy several products. We talk about some of our "Utility Player" sound systems in this blog post.

Another product that could fit your needs is a sound lectern. Click on the link to see all of our lecterns with sound.

Questions about Amplivox or our products? Please visit Ampli.com or check out our Top 10 Reasons Amplivox Beats the Competition.

Tips to Improve Your Productivity and Get More Done at Work

"Most time is wasted, not in hours, but in minutes. A bucket with a small hole in the bottom gets just as empty as a bucket that is deliberately kicked over." -Paul J. Meyer

Productivity is such a big deal these days that companies spend millions researching how to optimize their employees’ time.

The following are tips to increase productivity and decrease wasted time.

Be smart with email. It can be easy to get distracted by checking email too often. Tip: Pick a couple of times a day (8am, 11am, and 3pm for instance) and only check your email then. Turn off the alert on your email program so you don’t get distracted by emails that can wait.

Organize your day. Set aside 5 minutes at the start of your day to map out what tasks you will do and how long you will work on them for. This is done best when you...

Prioritize. Start with the most important stuff first and then go down your list, leaving the unimportant stuff until you have already done the ‘heavy lifting’. A good way to prioritize is to put your...

Worst First. Start with your most annoying task and work on it until you’re done. It will be nice to have that monkey off your back, because its tough working with monkeys.

Learn what makes you productive. Some things that help me be productive: a clean desk, a good breakfast, instrumental music, exercise, and a good night's sleep.

Don't multitask. Pick one task and give it your all until you're done. Cut down wasted time switching tasks and shuffling papers by finishing what you started.

Reward yourself. When you get something done, celebrate. Whether it be 2 minutes on a website you enjoy or some food, have a prize in mind that is better than just crossing something off the to–do list.

Gimme a break. Be serious about breaks in order to clear your head and refocus. My best thinking comes when there is no pressure. Go for a walk or just stop doing what you're doing and rest a little. Sometimes just what I need for another blog idea is to take a break.

Turn off technology. How much time do you waste watching TV, deciding what station to listen to on the radio, or getting text messages? Turn off every potential distraction that can hurt “the flow” of your work. If you are a PDA user, consider the Hipster PDA.

Consolidate mini-meetings. Instead of asking questions to your higher-up each time you have one, write down a list of questions and schedule a mini-meeting with them later. You'll find that many "urgent issues" have either worked themselves out or are not as important as you had thought.

The last tip I will include is from Steve Pavlina’s blog which says,

“On the rare occasions you actually do manage to get something done, talk it up like a madman. Say “This is huge!” to everyone you meet. People will assume you’re 10x as productive as you are.”

For more effective time management and productivity tips, check out the resources I used to write this blog by clicking here, here, here, and here. We do our best to productively do our jobs here at Amplivox producing the best sound systems and lecterns money can buy.

Anything I'm missing? What helps you be productive? Leave a comment!

Too Much Technology? Your Technology Fillintheblank Answers

Technology and social media seem to be taking over the news and revolutionizing business and social life. There is so much talk about the newest smart phone and how Youtube, Twitter and Facebook are being used by marketers to target their customers.

Recently actor Richard Dreyfuss criticized technology for killing our time and our ability to think. What do you think? We offered the following on our Facebook, Twitter, and other media sites, asking users to fill it in:

"A world so driven by information and technology is:__________."

Here are a few of the answers we received:

• "a world that is losing sight of human interaction" - Jonathan Parker (through Facebook)
• "annoying! turn off technology for a minute and rest" - yoaaa (through Yahoo Meme)
• "Out of touch with reality. Just kidding... Dangerously informed, way over-hyped, but with the potential for being very helpful. Negative example: 'The Summer of Lebron' Positive Example: Simplifying and revolutionizing the way business is done" - Michael Bailey, Amplivox employee
• "Revolutionizing business and social interactions but also reall scary with all of the information available and lack of privacy." Kevin Halloran, Amplivox employee
• "The problem's plain to see // Too much technology" Mr. Roboto by Styx
  

Too much technology? What are your thoughts? Don't keep them a secret secret...leave a comment.