Introducing...Garland Independent School District

 Since first becoming a SAFARI Montage customer in 2007, Garland ISD has expanded its use of digital media and continued to implement additional SAFARI Montage modules along the way.

According to Stan Maige, GISD Director of Educational Technology, “GISD deployed a comprehensive digital video network based on five essential elements, each involving aspects of SAFARI Montage.” Those elements included:

• Providing on-demand educational video content to every PC in the district
• Using the SAFARI Montage Live! desktop videoconferencing system to connect GISD classrooms with other classrooms and locations anywhere in the world
• Streaming commercially produced TV channels like the History Channel, National Geographic, Disney Channel, CSPAN, The Weather Channel, etc., to all teachers’ and administrators’ workstations
• Producing and broadcasting events (morning announcements, guest lectures, arts events, athletic events or classroom activities) as they happen, via SAFARI Montage Selective Video Streaming, or store them for access or broadcast at a later time by utilizing SAFARI Montage CreationStation
• Deploying the SAFARI Montage video management and distribution system to control access to the district’s video resources and provide Digital Rights Management

Looking to the future, Mr. Maige believes integration will be the key as GISD prepares to launch an online initiative, Garland Education Online (GEO), which he describes as, “a conglomeration of tools, including Moodle, SAFARI Montage, SAFARI Montage Live!, an online grade book, the GISD online student system, and others.” GISD also looks forward to implementing the Digital Curriculum Presenter (DCP) module, which will give the teachers a graphical interface to aggregate lesson content for presentation to students.

 About Garland ISD: