Enhancing the Learning Curve

“Education is evolving due to the impact of the Internet. We cannot teach our students in the same manner in which we were taught. Change is necessary to engage students not in the curriculum we are responsible for teaching, but in school. Period.”- April Chamberlain.

Technology is constantly changing and in turn is not only affecting our day to day activities, but also the way we go about learning and interacting. Those in Education are continuing to discover this as students who are so used to technological advantages at home do better if they are offered similar device capabilities in the classroom. With enhanced learning a primary focus for most (if not all) educational settings, many are realizing the impact and importance of interactive whiteboards. A piece of technology that enables a teacher or instructor to connect with their students, interact, collaborate, and so much more.

Interactive whiteboards can and are often used for more than in a classroom capacity, however for the purpose of this blog we will discuss its advantages in a learning environment, focusing on Steelcase’s revolutionary eno board. These boards are increasingly being integrated into schools and what are starting to be called “Smart Classrooms”. The eno interactive board is the first of its kind to blend traditional marker boards with the use of technology to create a more engaging and powerful teaching tool with both a dry erase and digitally interactive surface. In addition to the ease of switching from marker to digital, teachers are benefiting from the use of the technology because they can use more readily display lectures, notes, graphs, and also save all the lessons and work for print or email with a simple and easy click.  Aside from the professional ease, instructors are finding Steelcase’s eno board drastically improving the interaction and participation among students and aiding the enhancement of their learning.

As classrooms around the world are transforming into dynamic collaborative learning environments thanks to the likes of eno board and Steelcase’s educational solutions, it’s important to understand WHY these are so impactful. We are using technology in nearly every aspect of our lives as I’ve previously stated. Seeing a 5 year old child with an IPad is no longer as ludicrous as it would have been five years ago. Technology is the pen and paper of today, and educational facilities are encountering this bold truth. In order to maximize a student’s capabilities and a teacher’s potential they need to be given the tools to succeed. When you use technology to read a newspaper or to write your school paper, why wouldn’t it be included in the classroom? I recall as a student when teachers fought for times to schedule their classes for just one hour, if they were lucky two, in the computer room down the hall for reports and research. Often moving the entire class was disruptive and also limited the time students had to do any kind of work before the allotted time was up.  Now, with the majority of people with their own laptops, tablets, and other gadgets (or schools that even provide them), if they can use these things in class in conjunction with interactive whiteboards, it can give that time back to students and teachers. Students can share their papers and projects from their personal device with an eno board for presentations and discussion, while also saving time on note taking because the teacher could just send lessons to them.

The most environmentally green and lowest cost of ownership among interactive whiteboards, the eno board boasts many powerful tools to help continue the needed growth of engagement and interaction in our classrooms today, but again is so easy to use and still like the conventional whiteboards that even the most technophobic teacher would be able to use it without difficulty. Technology is enhancing a student’s ability to learn and obtain knowledge and by equipping our schools with it, we are setting ourselves up for an even brighter and intellectual future than we have today. Contact Fearing’s to find out more about the eno board and how we are partnering with schools to create and design smarter classrooms.