March 18, 2016
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ParkerChronicle.net A publication of
D O U G L A S C O U N T Y, C O L O R A D O
Town aims to see rise of condos
HEART OF LIONS
Council passed ordinance to reduce lawsuit risk By Chris Michlewicz cmichlewicz@coloradocommunitymedia.com
Lutheran players celebrate after winning the state Class 3A girls basketball championship. The Lions won the crown by defeating Manitou Springs 52-44 in the March 12 championship game at the Denver Coliseum. Find more coverage on Page 25. Photo by Tom Munds
Students find virtual venture very vivid Google Expeditions takes kids on ‘field trips’ around world
Condos continues on Page 4
A BREAKDOWN OF PARKER’S ORDINANCE Parker’s construction-defect ordinance has three primary components to protect condo owners and developers:
By Mike DiFerdinando mdiferdinando@coloradocommunitymedia.com The sharks and whales were so close the students could almost touch them. The children looked up and down and all around, seeing schools of fish and underwater caves. Kids reached out their hands to grab hold of objects. Looking up, they could see the surface of the water. “It’s really cool. You look down into the sea and see sharks and dolphins and whales, and it looks like you are going to fall,” said Frontier Valley Elementary second-grade student Griffin Hasche. Students at Frontier Valley in Parker were among children from 12 schools in the Douglas County School District to test the new Google Cardboard virtual-reality platform from Google Expeditions. Google is also testing the technology at other Colorado schools in the Cherry Creek, Denver, Fort Collins and Colorado Springs schools in March. The virtual reality technology allows students to travel to places that wouldn’t be possible in the physical world. “The teacher is guiding the virtual field trip they are all going on,” Douglas County School Technology & Innovation Partner Mark Blair said. “Right now, they have 165 different trips that the students can go on and they are adding more and more to their catalog.” Blair said museums and universities are constantly adding more scenes to
The Town of Parker has taken steps to bring back condominium development by reducing the risk of constructiondefect lawsuits against builders. A series of bills introduced in the Colorado General Assembly in the last three years failed to garner enough support to become law, so town council decided to adopt an ordinance in January that it says protects both residents and builders. Lawsuits brought by homeowners’ associations representing condominium owners have essentially led to dormancy in condo development statewide. Insurance companies, banks and builders became “gun-shy” due to the lawsuits, and it created an environment in which attainable housing disappeared, said Parker Mayor Mike Waid. In 2007, condos accounted for about 25 percent of all housing starts in Colorado. That number dropped to 3.4 percent in 2015, according to Metrostudy, a Greenwood Village-based research and analysis firm that tracks housing figures.
1. Homeowners’ associations must demonstrate an existing defect/damage. 2. Before entering the legal system, the dispute must first go through mediation with a panel of industry experts who will render a decision. 3. The majority of condo owners must agree to a class-action lawsuit before it’s filed.
TECHNOLOGY Students at 12 different Douglas County schools were chosen to test Google Expeditions. Photo by Mike DiFerdinando the library of possible trips. In the Google Cardboard glasses is an Android phone that displays two images in stereo format through lenses for students to look through. Students can look at 360-degree photos of different scenes. On a tablet, the teacher has viewpoints they can tap which will put arrows in the frame so students can look at something specific they are talking about. “It’s cool because you are discovering things that you can’t go in,” secondgrade student Riley Mankin said.
Google Cardboard is available for home use and costs about $10. It is able to work with different downloadable smartphone apps, such as one from Discovery. However, the classroom version, with the Expeditions software that is able to be controlled by a teacher, is not yet available for purchase. Google has not yet set a price point for the product, but Blair said it would be available to purchase beginning this summer. Google continues on Page 4
Tablets offer benefits, challenges for children learning in the 21st century. PAGE 12