February 2008 — News
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Set It and Forget It: Bedford County's In House Disc Duplication
Victor Gosnell remembers what it used to be like whenever a compact disc duplication project would come up. In the early days--when Bedford County Public Schools in Virginia began buying computers that included CD burners--a teacher or media specialist would purchase a stack of discs at an office store and duplicate them one at a time. Or Gosnell, the director of technology & media for the district, would handle the job himself. They'd produce perhaps a couple hundred discs a year for special projects.
Eventually, Gosnell, who was recently named the technology director of the year for the state of Virginia, decided to invest in a low-end duplication machine that could handle up to 50 discs at a time. "In theory you could set it and forget it," he said. "In actuality, I would set [the machine] up to copy discs. There was a rejection tray which would kind of drop things onto the floor. I'd come back and have a dozen or more discs lying on floor. The mechanism would be jammed. And the job wouldn't be done. I also had issues with the labels being printed by the inkjet printer."
The concept was good, he recalled, but the duplication work became more of a headache than it was worth.
So slightly more than three years ago, he began looking for another solution. After a thorough search online and poring over articles covering the technology, he eventually came upon the devices offered by Rimage. What he read online was impressive, he said, so he decided to try the Amigo II. The investment, which would come out of unused budget at the end of the year, would be hefty--about $10,000. But, recalled Gosnell, "It was so easy to use and it did such a good job, I began thinking outside the box about how it could be used instructionally. Once we got it, we tried to think of ways to leverage that purchase and use it for multiple things."
Selling Disc Duplication District-wide
That meant going out and educating staff and faculty at 15 elementary schools, three middle schools, three high schools, and one science-technology school about the availability of the service. "We have put out to schools, 'If you have disc duplication that you need done, send us the disc,'" said Gosnell. "'Tell us what you want and we'll gladly make copies for you.'"
School cafeteria managers receive nutrition information and programs on CD. The maintenance department uses CDs to get out forms and other resources to their staff members. A social studies department has used the service to create learning materials for students. A number of elementary schools have taped their end-of-year programs or graduations and created video or PowerPoint presentations--"like a page in a yearbook"--to provide to the students.
