When I was in school in the 1960’s and 70’s, most of my K-12 teachers had their desk in the front corner of the room. These desks were made out of solid wood and had anchored many a school year.  When the teacher was not teaching at the front chalkboard, or at the overhead projector, she would most likely be navigating the class from her desk.

Speaking of the overhead projector, it was really the first “interactive” AV equipment in the classroom as it allowed teachers to present their own acetate transparencies of basically any lined drawing or text. As a visual learner, I just loved images used in class whether they were transparency illustrations to help me learn concepts, or educational filmstrips and movies. I always volunteered to thread and operate the filmstrips or 16mm film projectors and sit next to the projector to troubleshoot film jams. I had that job locked down in 4th grade.

Years later as an Educational Technology Resource Teacher for San Diego Unified School District, I participated with colleagues into developing a classroom digital presentation station. This system evolved in the 1990’s and early 2000’s including: a teacher desktop computer connected to a video projector on an AV cart (positioned in the middle of the room), and projected onto the old overhead projector screen from the 70’s and 80’s.

In the 21st century with mobile devices like laptops and tablets, teachers were able to take this a giant step further in that we could actually include students in “interactive activities” all using technology.

In the early 2000’s when Interactive Whiteboards entered the scene, I developed a complete multimedia digital presentation station for schools where we could mount the video projector on the whiteboard stand. This was a game changer because we could put all the wiring in the front of the class, close to the wall, and away from the middle of the action in the classroom.

From the wall, we then could connect the interactive whiteboard located in the front center of the room and the audio system to a media table most often located several feet away in the front corner of the room. The location of this media table became the “new” teacher desk as the majority of the “old” teacher desks eventually were removed from the classroom.

The shift had happened. Schools integrated the laptops, interactive whiteboard, and projection system to the teacher’s new desk. We called the desk, the “Presentation Station” because not only could the teacher present, but students could come up directly to use the interactive whiteboard, or use the presentation station with their student mobile device to also present to the class.

I took the two pictures above here around 2009, where we integrated the following items to make our district standard presentation station.

1. Custom Bretford Table 24″x48.”
2. The table legs were screwed to a fixed standing height so the teacher could stand or sit in a height-adjustable task stool.
3. A document camera was mounted on the white laminate table which served as a neutral color balance for the doc cam.
4. The table also had a wire management tray underneath to hold a power strip and connect all the tethered wires to the ceiling projector, interactive whiteboard, wall power, DVD player, and classroom audio and wireless microphone system.

The vendor who helped me design the custom presentation station teacher desk, even included a drilled hole to secure the doc cam with their lock-down kit, was none other than D&D.

As always, technology keeps moving forward as the Interactive Whiteboard (or IWB) has now evolved into a LED Promethean Interactive Display with up to an 86″ diagonal size eliminating the need for a video projector altogether and servicing replacement lamps.

At D&D Learning Spaces we are a K-12 furniture and AV vendor with system integration services. We would like to introduce our newest presentation station table that takes the next step in providing teachers with a pneumatic self-height adjustable table.

D&D’s Teacher presentation station – Tps

PmIntroducing D&D’s Teacher presentation station or simply Tps, designed for teaching and learning with a teacher laptop and LED interactive display.

Teaming with Wisconsin Bench, D&D has created the utimate 21st century teacher desk with pneumatic sit/stand adjustable-height with pop-up powered outlet and table top accessible wire management trough. Available with a task stool.

Conduct teaching and learning with a connected LED display, laptop computer, document camera, and instructional audio system from this workstation. This presentation station was designed by D&D Learning Spaces based on our experience with teachers in classrooms using the above technologies in daily teaching and learning activities.

Tps integrates the delivery of visual and audio technologies in the classroom as happy teachers will be singing The Beatles, P.S. I Love You!

Tps includes:

• Custom 28 x 48 Pneumatic Table – Desk Height with Casters ranges from 30.25″ – 49.75″
• Narce Power Module – 3 AC Outlets and 1 USB (A & C) 10ft. cord
• Legrand Access Box – Serves as a tabletop accessible cord management trough used to easily store and later retrieve the teacher’s laptop AC brick power cord
• Thin Pencil Drawer – Stores pencils, pens, dry-erase markers, and AV remotes
• Formica Writable Surface – Liquid Glass  
• Slate Grey  – Armor edge 
• Legs – Smooth Silver
• Appleton Metal Modesty Panel with Decorative perforated hole pattern and cable management trough
• 4 Locking Casters

The Essential Teacher Task Stool

The Office Master BC-47 SDU Teacher Task Stool is our go to height-adjustable chair used for sitting or standing at the Mobile Presentation Station. This product features:

Look to D&D Learning Spaces to help districts and schools design their own multimedia presentation system for students and staff and provide the integration services to put it all together!