A few years from now, classrooms will be experiencing a vast, but great, change. That is if SynergyNet gets approved and applied.
SynergyNet is a multi-touch table designed specifically for education. The table has an interactive touchscreen that invites students to partake more in class discussions and encourages them to do board work. At Durham University, research is being conducted to see how interactive tables can help support IT concepts.
Posted at the SynergyNet Project website, the project has four goals. The first is to create a radically new, technology-rich learning environment that integrates traditional classroom layouts and collective activities. The second is to design and implement a new form of user interface for educational multi-touch systems. The third to formulate a new pedagogy that eases transition and movement between teacher-centric and pupil-centric interaction and the fourth, to analyze learning strategies to inform fundamental research by capturing data pupils use in the SynergyNet environment.
If classroom desks are as cool as this one, who would want to skip school?
Key Themes Behind This Trend
- Interactive Classroom Furniture
- Disruptive innovation opportunity: Design and implement new forms of user interface for educational multi-touch systems.
- Technology-integrated Learning Environments
- Disruptive innovation opportunity: Create radically new, technology-rich learning environments that integrate traditional classroom layouts and collective activities.
- Data-driven Pedagogy
- Disruptive innovation opportunity: Analyze learning strategies and capture data from student use of interactive tables to inform fundamental research and improve teaching methods.
Where This Applies
- Educational Technology
- Disruptive innovation opportunity: Develop and market interactive classroom furniture and multi-touch systems for educational purposes.
- Furniture Manufacturing
- Disruptive innovation opportunity: Incorporate interactive touchscreen technology into classroom furniture designs, creating a new market segment for technologically advanced desks.
- Education Research
- Disruptive innovation opportunity: Conduct research on the impact of interactive tables and multi-touch systems on teaching methods and student engagement, informing the development of future educational technologies.
