Students Learn Better With Star Trek-Style Touchscreen Desks
21 replies, posted
[quote]Observe the criticisms of nearly any major public education system in the world, and a few of the many complaints are more or less universal. Technology moves faster than the education system. Teachers must teach at the pace of the slowest student rather than the fastest. And--particularly in the United States--grade school children as a group don’t care much for, or excel at, mathematics. So it’s heartening to learn that a new kind of “classroom of the future” shows promise at mitigating some of these problems, starting with that fundamental piece of classroom furniture: the desk.
A UK study involving roughly 400 students, mostly aged 8-10 years, and a new generation of multi-touch, multi-user, computerized desktop surfaces is showing that over the last three years the technology has appreciably boosted students’ math skills compared to peers learning the same material via the conventional paper-and-pencil method. How? Through collaboration, mostly, as well as by giving teachers better tools by which to micromanage individual students who need some extra instruction while allowing the rest of the class to continue moving forward.
Traditional instruction still shows respectable efficacy at increasing students fluency in mathematics, essentially through memorization and practice--dull, repetitive practice. But the researchers have concluded that these new touchscreen desks boost both fluency and flexibility--the critical thinking skills that allow students to solve complex problems not simply through knowing formulas and devices, but by being able to figure out what the real problem is and the most effective means of stripping it down and solving it.
One reason for this, the researchers say, is the multi-touch aspect of the technology. Students working in the next-gen classroom can work together at the same tabletop, each of them contributing and engaging with the problem as part of a group. Known as SynergyNet, the software uses computer vision systems that see in the infrared spectrum to distinguish between different touches on different parts of the surface, allowing students to access and use tools on the screen, move objects and visual aids around on their desktops, and otherwise physically interact with the numbers and information on their screens. By using these screens collaboratively, the researchers say, the students are to some extent teaching themselves as those with a stronger grasp on difficult concepts pull other students forward along with them.
Moreover, the teacher can simultaneously monitor what’s happening on various desktops via a master screen, allowing he or she to intervene quickly if one student or group of students begins to derail over a particular concept or problem. From the master desktop, the instructor can beam different problem sets to different groups around the classroom, or move one group’s set of solutions over to another desk for a second group to check or build upon. This enhances the collaborative aspect and keeps the entire class moving forward together at a steady pace, without any one student or group of students getting way ahead or falling woefully behind.
At least, that’s what the study published in the most recent journal Learning and Instruction suggests. This kind of stuff can be really hard to quantify, though testing showed that 45 percent of the students who used the technology for instruction were able to increase the number of “unique mathematical expressions” they were able to produce, compared to just 16 percent of those students taught via traditional paper-based exercises. (Just a note here: neither of those numbers inspires an overflow of confidence.)
It’s going to take a lot more time, research, and money (especially money) to prove this out, though we’d venture to guess that even if the “classroom of the future” isn’t necessarily boosting student performance it’s likely not hurting it either. After all, the future is increasingly multi-screen and multi-touch, wireless and paperless. Shouldn’t elementary education reflect that?
[img]http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/FutureClass.jpg[/img][/quote]
Source: [url]http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-11/classroom-future-turns-desks-multi-user-touchscreen-tablets[/url]
Oh my god, why didn't we have these when I was in elementary school?!
I could definitely see how it would help, in a way it makes stuff more tangible, you can actually mess around with a simulation like if you're teaching people about la Chataliers Principle and you give them a touch screen simulation of it that thye can all individually mess around with then they get to see the effects of temperature and pressure on chemical equilibrium.
I would definitely prefer this sort of stuff to rote learning.
[QUOTE=Sir Whoopsalot;38637793]Oh my god, why didn't we have these when I was in elementary school?![/QUOTE]
Your school probably had them, they were just off in a closet somewhere instead of being useful
Would fucking love one of these for the home though!
I didn't get the memo that we are now in the future :v:
[QUOTE=rosthouse;38637848]I didn't get the memo that we are now in the future :v:[/QUOTE]
We're not there fully, but we're getting there.
Oh god
What's the cost
[QUOTE=SCRAMPAGE;38638023]Oh god
What's the cost[/QUOTE]
Probably not too much now, you can get cheap as shit tablets now, doesn;t have to be iPads or any high end tablets, just needs a touch screen and the ability to link up to a central system essentially and receive and display files like graphs and the like and run a few teaching games. Keep in mind they're reusable too between classes so you'd be cutting costs on stuff like paper, printer ink and photocopying supplies since you'd be able to use these instead of handouts.
It's an investment, and a damn good one at that.
[url]http://www.androidtabletbay.com/mid-7-inch-android-22-tablet-pc-epad-2gb-hhd-256mb-ram_p679.html?zenid=mmdmpf3b1ludqt8k1hk5lpapi1[/url]
Costs a fair bit but you after the initial cost you'll be saving a due to the cost cut in paper, staples, paper clips, etc etc.
[QUOTE=SCRAMPAGE;38638023]Oh god
What's the cost[/QUOTE]
A child's education is priceless
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;38638079]A child's education is priceless[/QUOTE]
Considering the amount of education funding in many first-world countries, priceless is just one way to put it.
In my high school we were barely just upgraded to C2D desktops. Still had 1024x768 CRTs. This was my senior year in 2010-2011. And we were the top school in our district.
uhhhh
no shit
if you involve them into the studies of course its better
[QUOTE=thelurker1234;38638178]uhhhh
no shit
if you involve them into the studies of course its better[/QUOTE]
Well if you knew this all along, why the hell didn't you share it with the world beforehand?
And then this happens
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/Z8s6Z.gif[/IMG]
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;38638191]Well if you knew this all along, why the hell didn't you share it with the world beforehand?[/QUOTE]
It's nothing new that involving them is better.
And in the US at least schools in my area have interactive boards like this, not tables as awesome as these though.
There's no way this'll be in 90% of schools, there's too many kids who just don't give a shit how much something costs and the second it goes wrong they'll put their fist through it then the headteacher'll just go "Well if little Jimmy Fuckup here's going to wreck our £30k suite we're going to sell it rather than have to fork out more cash when Jimmy's siblings smash something"
[QUOTE=thelurker1234;38638213]It's nothing new that involving them is better.
And in the US at least schools in my area have interactive boards like this, not tables as awesome as these though.[/QUOTE]
Everyone knows involving them is better.
This article is specifically about a way to involve them better.
Reminds me of Ender's Game.
[QUOTE=TwinkieHouse;38638211]And then this happens
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/Z8s6Z.gif[/IMG][/QUOTE]
[IMG]http://replygif.net/i/209[/IMG]
[QUOTE=thelurker1234;38638178]uhhhh
no shit
if you involve them into the studies of course its better[/QUOTE]
That reminds me of this one teacher on 4chan who bought Sid Meier's Civilization IV for his class and used it during lessons and free-time. Got a lot of praise for it.
[QUOTE=markg06;38638256]There's no way this'll be in 90% of schools, there's too many kids who just don't give a shit how much something costs and the second it goes wrong they'll put their fist through it then the headteacher'll just go "Well if little Jimmy Fuckup here's going to wreck our £30k suite we're going to sell it rather than have to fork out more cash when Jimmy's siblings smash something"[/QUOTE]
You could make them pretty tough I bet. Additionally, it might be because I live in quite a rich area, but my school has never had a problem with breaking computers.
[QUOTE=NeonpieDFTBA;38638922]You could make them pretty tough I bet. Additionally, it might be because I live in quite a rich area, but my school has never had a problem with breaking computers.[/QUOTE]
Nobody in my school has ever broken an entire computer, just fucked around with the keyboards or the internal system files. They just spelt out swears on the keyboard by switching around the keys...
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