4 Ways Interactive Displays Boost Classroom Collaboration

Gone are the days when teachers wrote things on chalkboards as a means of displaying lessons to students. The overhead projector is even becoming extinct.

Instead, schools are making use of large, interactive displays like SMART Boards and innovative projectors like the Epson BrightLink, and with good reason. A study from Smart Technologies found that collaborative technology and group learning make student success 3.4 times more likely.

“The results shed light on great teachers as the unsung heroes behind improved student success when technology is used in collaborative learning environments,” says Smart Technologies CEO Neil Gaydon in the study.

From collaboration to more immersive learning, here are four ways that interactive technologies are reshaping class time.

1. Collaborative Teaching with Tech Boosts Social Learning

The study found that frequent group activity in classrooms, often supported with technology, can lead to 20 percent higher levels of social-emotional skill development. Students in these classes also indicate that they are 13 percent more likely to feel confident contributing to class discussions.

“Social and emotional skill development was chosen as a metric for the study because fostering collaboration and communications skills in students is a consistent theme from business and government leaders,” reads the study.

2. Interactive Displays Encourage Real-Time Collaboration

SMART Boards facilitate the collaboration necessary for students to develop these skills. Creating an audience response system on the interactive display makes it easier for students to use devices to participle in class surveys, quizzes and games, then analyze results in real time, a blog post on SafeStop reports.

Pairing a SMART Board with a webcam is also a great way to incorporate livestreams and video chats with faraway experts into class time.

3. Displays Are Good Long-Term Tech Investments

For Sarasota County Schools in Florida, Promethean ActivPanel displays are the best fit because they cost less to maintain than the school’s old whiteboards, and they use touch-screen technology that the students love, reports Channel Pro.

With 10 different points of touch, many students are able to work together to solve problems. The display also supports wireless keyboards.

“When the teacher calls on them, the interactive flat panel frees students to use the tools with which they are most comfortable, whether that is touch, a digital pen, or a wireless keyboard,” reads the article.

4. Innovative Projectors Bring the Interactive Display Anywhere

Though not quite a display, Epson’s BrightLink is an interactive projector that can fit in any space and turn any surface into a touch screen. According to EdScoop, schools that have adopted these projectors have eliminated the classroom walls.

“There’s no front or back of the classroom. No matter where you sit, you have the same experience,” says Tampa Preparatory School’s Director of Technology Chad Lewis in the EdScoop article.

Thanks to a new projector app, the BrightLink can connect not only to mobile devices but to the most popular classroom device: the Chromebook. Using the app, students and teachers can wirelessly display the screens of up to four Chromebooks, making it a perfect fit for a one-to-one classroom.