Before making a major technology purchase, it’s essential to evaluate both the advantages and disadvantages of each, especially in the context of education. The use of interactive classroom panels offers many benefits that range from reducing the time spent on lesson preparation for teachers, to aiding students to gain confidence at their job and taking a more interest in their own learning. The potential drawbacks are the price tag as well as the time and effort needed to adopt every new technological innovation.
Six Benefits of using Interactive Panels to enhance classroom learning
We believe that the most striking feature of interactive panels is not the technology, but the inventive ways teachers are using it in their classrooms to aid their learning and teaching objectives. Here are five benefits that teachers who utilize our panels have seen in their classrooms:
More Interaction and Collaboration. Multi-touch capabilities that interactive displays give students are more able to interact with the display and collaborate. Teachers have shared with us that students can collaborate in groups, share their work with their classmates and edit their writing together or design projects in real-time, and much more.
More Engaging Students. Teachers who utilize our panels say that the connectivity with BYOD and the easy screen sharing apps can help change the way they teach and get more students involved. Students can snap photos of their work using their tablet or phone and then upload the image to the screen to be discussed in class, and get coding experience inside the school, and utilize games-based learning to consolidate a notion. Teachers can use the panels as a teaching stations that can be used for both advanced learning for students who are not yet finished and for remediation. A bonus is that students are more active and teachers are able to save time and money because they don’t have to make numerous duplicates of their worksheets.
Improved Support for Different Learning Styles. Research has shown that, although students are able to learn in different ways but all students benefit from learning new concepts in a variety of ways. For a long time, teachers have questioned whether or not they’re engaging multiple types of learning in each lesson. This isn’t easy to accomplish when you’re the only teacher trying to serve more than 25 students. A lot of our teachers have shared with us that the integration of audio, visual and kinesthetic practices is much more natural when they utilize their interactive displays. Teachers can incorporate multiple media sources into one presentation, conduct surveys and provide students with hands-on training to avoid excessive direct instruction.
Classrooms with more inclusion. We frequently receive feedback from resource and administrator teachers who share they have found that interactive screens improved their special education classrooms. This is awe-inspiring for us. Teachers specifically, credit the feature to write as well as the adjustable, mobile stands that can be moved upwards and downwards to accommodate different heights or requirements for class structure and create a more classroom environment where students are able to express themselves , and have more access to the panel for them to express themselves.
More flexible learning environments. Teachers have shared with us that they are satisfied with their interactive panels as they feel that they can are more flexible within the class. Teachers are able to dig into the subject and investigate it the students would be interested about directly from the screen, walk through the classroom while managing the presentation via their smartphones, receive immediate feedback, quickly take formative tests and then securely hand the panels over to students to work in small groups or for student-led discussions.
Higher Efficiency for Teachers With Time. Our IQBoard software lets teachers design lessons on their own from any device (no need to carry the laptop of their school back and forth to design lessons from home!) and then show the lesson on the class’s screen. Teachers are also able to build and build up their own libraries of lesson plans and other resources such as recorded presentations which they can use when they need to leave for. It’s no longer a hassle to prepare a set of worksheets for class in the lunch hour or having to develop more lesson plans to use as a substitute.
Potential drawbacks to implementing Interactive displays in the Classroom
While there are many advantages for making use of interactive displays in classrooms which include increased collaboration as well as students’ involvement in their education There are some possible negatives, or at a minimum, concerns that schools will need to think about before purchasing a display.
Price. One of the primary aspect for school districts is the total cost of technology. Interactive displays generally cost more initially than projectors or interactive whiteboards. However, interactive whiteboards could cost more when you look at the all the costs involved in the ownership. Cords and bulbs that need replacement as well as IT time and maintenance on a regular basis all contribute to the initial cost and there are significant differences in the competitive landscape between interactive whiteboards and interactive multi-touch displays. In general interactive whiteboards are old technology and are difficult to use in classrooms.
The need for technical support. After the cost school district administrators and IT professionals are most concerned with how easy the solution can be implemented. Although it might seem that an advanced technology would require an intricate infrastructure that relies on the IT department’s time but the opposite is the case.
Education for teachers is a must. Because Interactive Whiteboards and projectors have been available for over a decade most teachers know how to utilize the technology and it could be the case that these devices need fewer training sessions. Teachers’ training is always useful as a result, which is why we provide professional development programs that can aid schools in getting the most value from their investment. We will also work with your team that makes the decision to secure the approval of IT and teachers as well as figure out the best way to incorporate the latest technology, without disrupting the classroom prior to when the purchase is finalized. We know that the decision to buy the latest technology in the classroom isn’t a one-time decision, it has an impact on every aspect of your learning environment each and every day.
Naturally, the main advantage of our product is that anyone can switch to our panel and start using them immediately, and then increase their experience and expertise when they are able to. Since our panels are easy to use and run all software, including rival programs, there’s not a requirement for teachers to build lessons plans or other resources by hand. Use what you’ve made in the past and participate on lessons that you’ve created using the educational suite of software whenever you are able to.