Minkema College chooses the EB-485Wi

While the coffee trolleys on trains were withdrawn more than a decade ago, they could still be seen around Minkema College on the Minkemalaan in Woerden until recently. The trolleys didn't hold tea and coffee urns, but projectors and computers. Teachers wanting to use a projector during their lessons could reserve one of the ten coffee trolleys. At the new site on the Minkemalaan, the coffee trolleys have made way for Epson EB-485Wi interactive projectors. Combined with a new interpretation of the traditional whiteboard (YouFlex), a total of 57 rooms at Minkema College are equipped with this solution and teachers can both write and project onto the boards.

Minkema College is a state secondary school in Woerden municipality. The school offers a gymnasium, atheneum, HAVO and VMBO educational pathways. Minkema College has two locations, on Steinhagenseweg and Minkemalaan. The Minkemalaan site was recently replaced with a new building. It was time for Minkema College to update its audio visual solutions too.

"At the old building there were ten coffee trolleys, each holding a projector and computer," explains Rob Delissen, Head of IT at Minkema College.

"Teachers could reserve one of these trolleys and take it to the classroom they were teaching in. The projectors and computers were from different manufacturers, which meant that teachers had to operate different types of equipment every time. Teachers often forgot to make reservations too. The old equipment was also very fragile, so it wasn't very well suited to being moved around all the time." says Delissen.

A year before Minkema College entered the new building, they began a test phase during which teachers could test three different installations over the course of a year. Teachers put TFT screens, Epson's EB-485Wi projectors and smartboards to the test.

Delissen explains: "The most important thing for me is that teachers and students enjoy working with the chosen solution. Of course, with this at the back of my mind, I never lost sight of the quality-price ratio either. We eventually chose Epson's solution, in combination with the YouFlex. The TFT screens were great, but far too expensive. The disadvantage of a smartboard is the fact that you can't write on it. So it was important for teachers that the new solution could be combined with a whiteboard you can write on.”

Yield Projecten B.V.'s advice also contributed towards Minkema College choosing the interactive EB-485Wi projectors in combination with a YouFlex presentation system.

Delissen explains: "The good thing about Epson's interactive projector is that it projects onto a whiteboard you can simply write on with a pen too. We chose the YouFlex presentation system, a folding five-surface whiteboard. The EB-485Wi projector is used on the middle section. The wings can be written on using whiteboard pens, whilst the middle section can be written on using digital 'ink' through the Epson projector. This way the teacher doesn't have to write the homework assignments on the part of the board that's being projected onto.

Delissen believes that Minkema College is ready for the future with the combined use of Epson's EB-485Wi projectors and the YouFlex presentation systems: "I am convinced that interactive projection is necessary, in order to use learning resources to their best effect. Use of audio, video and educational software, for example, just makes lessons more interesting for both teachers and students.”