Advances in interactive display technology expand the ability for teachers and students to collaborate in the classroom as evermore powerful mobile devices are used to share content.
“The best new solutions enable teachers and students to swipe across displays as easily as they might move between screens on one display,” says Jim Flanagan, chief learning services officer at ISTE. “It is less about just the display hardware or features, and more about how they support redesigned learning that enhances student engagement and personalization.”
Vendors now base their more “human-centered” designs on the latest teaching and learning models, aiming to accommodate the new ways in which teachers and students interact, Flanagan says. This is in contrast with the old way of thinking: displays that reinforce the traditional, teacher-centered model.
As touch-screen displays come down in price, they will gain market share until the next breakthroughs in augmented and virtual reality, he says.
With the cost of displays dropping, schools can fit classrooms with multiple mobile screens that connect with tablets and smartphones to support student-driven, project-based learning, Flanagan says.
Students can use mobile devices to interact with the teacher and others more readily than if they relied solely on a front-of-the-class display.
Interactive displays can have a major impact on teaching if they are used to their fullest potential, says Mike McGowan, the new technology director for Sunnybrook School District 171 in Illinois and former technology director at Morris School District 54 in Illinois.
“Teachers can now facilitate learning a little more,” McGowan says. “They can call students up to the display to interact with material. They can have a student move words into proper places, they can have the students complete interactive games and activities right at the board by just simply moving objects with their fingers.”
With interactive displays, teachers can build a series of activities in a file and have a small group work through them at the board. The teacher, meanwhile, can work with other students in the classroom—increasing potential for whole and small group instruction, McGowan says.
“Now, lessons are easily reusable, and reviewable,” he says.
Software takes center stage
Another vendor, Promethean, also sees the importance of software and the cloud. Cloud-based instructional platforms, digital curriculum and educational apps can link front-of-the-classroom interactive displays with students’ devices, says Matt Franz, vice president of product marketing at Promethean.
Hardware solutions are working with cloud platforms that allow teachers to present lessons, assess students on individual devices and tailor instruction to match each student’s comprehension level, Franz says. For example, Promethean’s laser curtain whiteboard technology—combined with wide-angle optics—increases touch sensitivity and provides a more natural writing experience, he says.
In the past, 78-inch to 88-inch surfaces were considered standard. Today’s technology makes 102-inch and 135-inch widescreen and ultra-widescreen surfaces possible in classrooms.
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