GORILLAdigital is announcing a program to provide essential components to educational customers upgrading their computer networks.

The realities of the E-rate system have made it hard for schools to benefit from the advances in the network components industry, but GORILLAdigital has come up with a win-win approach that rewards schools for unbundling network switches to realize the value proposition of going with GORILLAdigital Optics.  Each EDU client that standardizes on GORILLAdigital Optics over a 2-year period will receive a commensurate level of business partnership development services for Career & Technical Education programs at no charge.  Details on the services are provided in the CTE Blog on this site.  Typical GORILLAdigital Optic projects will be up to 50% less costly than manufacturer optics, but with the same performance specifications, in fact, GORILLAdigital Optics offer a life-time warranty.

Also, K12 districts that work with GORILLAdigital can apply for free business partnership development services for Career & Technical Education Programs in the district. Many Career & Technical Education programs across the US require businesses to play a significant role.  In California there are more than 500 schools with career pathway programs focusing on automotive, digital media, healthcare, culinary arts, etc., and these programs are required by state law to enlist local businesses to participate to qualify for state funding.  Businesses can participate by providing (but are not limited to) job shadowing opportunities, internships, guest speakers, site visits, etc.  GORILLAdigital had several of these programs as clients and Chris became fascinated with the “school-within-a-school” model of education.  He came to appreciate how hard it was for educators to run these academies AND run a business recruitment operation at the same time. As a volunteer conducting exit interviews of academy high school students, Chris spoke with a student who taught himself CAD drawing, but struggled to find a summer internship. How could this be?

To garner more data, Chris undertook a survey of businesses in Northern Orange County, CA to gauge owners’ attitudes about workforce development.  Not only were owner’s worried about finding young, new workers, but many verbalized the possibility of closing their business as their baby boomer-aged workers retired.  These owners are willing to participate in any program that identifies and trains workers for their industry, and the owners are willing to provide input on curriculum for optimal training.

Hopefully, the GORILLAdigital proposal finds willing educational partners and each party does their part to bring resources to bare for faster computer networks and robust Career & Technical Education Programs.  Interested parties are asked to forward this to anyone in the network who might take advantage of this program.

GORILLAdigital was founded in 2000 as a company dedicated to advancing an appropriate use of edtech in classrooms while saving schools money. The company has assisted name brand leaders in the edtech field develop rugged products that incorporate physical security; GORILLAdigital has also partnered with school districts to design edtech products for classrooms and the company provides pro-bono and paid advisory services to schools as well.  GORILLAdigital is passionate about early childhood education and the education of at-risk youth.  Senior management in the company personally participate in several volunteer programs to help support these important aspects of our education system.

Apple

In 1998, while working in the edtech field, GORILLAdigital’s founder, Christopher Meyer, noticed that Los Angeles Unified School District was buying a large number of Apple G3 All-In-One computers.  This G3 was a school favorite because the software was intuitive and the monitor & CPU were integrated into one unit.  The only problem was the G3 had a handle on the top, so large school districts, that needed many computers, had to spend more than $180 per G3 to keep them from being stolen.  Chris heard that Steve Jobs monitored emails sent to ‘iceo@apple.com”, so he sent an email suggesting Apple build a security interface into chassis that would help schools lock down Apple computers for far less money.  Two weeks later, Chris found himself in the Jim & Tammy Fae Baker Conference Room at Apple with Jony Ive, the designer of the iMac. Jony showed Chris the lower third portion of the iMac which was about half the size of the G3 All-In-One and looked sleek.  Over a two week period, ideas were exchanged and the first fully integrated security feature was built into a computer chassis that brought the cost of securing an iMac from $180 down to $30.  Not an earth shattering accomplishment, but based on a conservative estimate of one million iMacs a year shipping into schools that needed physical security from 1999-2005, this little project saved schools more than $150 million a year or $900 million over the 6 year period.

Chris also played a small role in the early days of Dellware’s Lock & Loaded program which promoted physical security solutions for PCs, monitors and laptops.

Early Days of GORILLAdigital

After founding GORILLAdigital, named SecurityWorks at the outset, the company helped Bretford Manufacturing develop a line of laptop carts and a sales channel to bring them to market.  The Bretford line of laptop carts became the market leader.  In the 90s, schools spent plenty of money on computer labs.  With space in schools at such a premium, anything that could free up rooms for classes was a hot ticket.  As laptops became smaller, more reliable and more powerful, they became a viable alternative to desktop computers in schools.  So SecurityWorks consulted to Bretford on the design of a rugged line of laptop carts with top-of-the-line physical security to help bring laptop computers to the students and save schools the expense of building and maintaining computer labs.  According to the National Center for Education Statistics there are 98,000 public k12 schools and another 30,000 private K12 schools in the US.  If 70% of the schools obviated the need for computer labs, which cost $20,000 per lab, then schools that adopted laptop carts saved $1.5 billion:

• $1.78 billion – cost of computer labs ($20K x 89,000 schools)
• $267 million – cost of laptop carts in 89,000 schools @ 2 per school x $1500 per cart delivered
• $1.5 billion – Overall savings to schools

GORILLAdigital is the first company to patent an education multimedia cart.  The KONGcart features physical security for most any device along with ergonomic mounting designed to make teaching with technology a breeze.  Principals use KONGcarts with projectors, tablets or doc cameras, laptops and speakers to help set-up make shift classrooms/presentations anywhere on campus, for in-service days, movie nights, and open houses.  The open architecture and lock down features mean devices on the KONGcart can be moved anywhere and are always ready. In October, the company will introduce a new Sound Cart to help amplify teachers’ voices and enhance learning anywhere, anytime.  KONGcarts’ combination of security & ergonomics provides a realistic alternative to costly ceiling mounted AV equipment and this saves our K12 customers’ budgets in a big way.

When tablets made their way into schools, GORILLAdigital designed a steel & die cast MONKEYmount that helps leverage tablet’s camera so it can operate like a document camera.  Santa Barbara & Palm Springs school districts opted in favor of MONKEYmounts instead of document cameras in over 1200 classrooms, saving a good deal of budget resources.
GORILLAdigital helps schools seeking to protect valuable technology devices.  We are happy to serve as a sounding board and provide whatever advice we can via email, phone or social media.  We value your mission of educating our young and want to help schools plan for the deployment of valuable edtech equipment. So if you have a tricky device to secure, mount or protect, let us know about it, we’ll do our best to help.

Lecture Capture Cart

Lecture Capture is trending in educational institutions as the ability to record and play-back important instructional material benefits student and teacher alike.  As lecture capture proliferates, the ability to make the hardware devices mobile and secure becomes an integral part of the solution.  One set of Lecture Capture equipment can be moved from room to room, making a school’s investment stretch as far as possible and create a larger impact.

GORILLAdigital designed a multimedia cart that is particularly suited to Lecture Capture.  The patented KONGcart, first introduced in 2010, is the only multimedia cart on the market that was specifically designed to provide physical security and ergonomics for small form factor IT/AV devices.  In the case of Lecture Capture equipment, the KONGcart provides physical security for all devices:

• PTZ Camera
• Encoder
• Controller/Joy Stick
• Microphone
• Laptop
• Document Camera
• Tablet

While each device is locked down, it is surprising the level to which each piece of equipment is positioned at the user’s finger tips and remains very easy to use.  The brain trust behind GORILLAdigital got their start with AnchorPad, the pioneer of computer security for schools dating back to 1972. AnchorPad designed the first lock down device for the IBM Selectric, it was a 20” x 20” die cast hunk of steel that weighed 40 lbs. and grabbed the Selectric so a tractor couldn’t move it.  Very effective, however, GORILLAdigital set out in 2000 to design products with physical security that was hardly detectable, our goal was to protect valuable technology without making it look like Fort Knox.

GORILLAdigital’s KONGcart has been proven to protect school equipment, with over 5,000 in place protecting a mix of lcd projectors, document cameras, speakers and laptops, no instance of a school loosing equipment to theft or accidental damage has occurred.  In fact, one district customer had a series of summer smash and grabs in three schools, but the vandals were not able to remove the equipment installed on KONGcarts.