Digital technology has long been making inroads in the classroom, but the past couple of years accelerated the adoption of next-gen education solutions. As schools have embraced flipped classrooms and blended learning — where students alternate between learning in a classroom and at home — educators have had to be flexible to meet students’ ever-changing needs.
Putting learning materials online and enabling video calls between educators and students is a start. Tech-enabled hybrid learning models allow for more inclusive and interactive classes, whether schools embrace full-time, regularly scheduled blended learning or just provide support for remote learning as needed.
Teaming up to teach with tech
Samsung teamed up with learning technology company Boxlight to create a series of holistic solutions that bridge in-person and online learning with interactive classroom displays and educational software specifically designed to help students meet their educational goals. Boxlight’s MimioConnect Blended Learning Platform, available on the new Samsung Interactive Pro, is a best-of-both-worlds approach that gives teachers engaging, multipurpose display tools for their classroom, plus the supporting software and internet connection to better engage with students learning remotely.
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Any instruction, idea generation and notes logged on the Interactive Pro can easily be shared remotely to students’ laptops, PCs, smartphones or tablets. Paired with Boxlight’s education solutions, remote students can actively participate in class and collaborate with their peers, no matter where they are.
Connecting students with their classrooms
In blended learning environments, MimioConnect enables:
- Real-time collaboration between teachers and students on the same document, regardless of location
- Assignments that can be pushed to students in the classroom or at home with a single click
- Built-in videoconferencing for face-to-face discussions, building stronger relationships in hybrid classes
- Engaging learning tools such as interactive questions and polls
- Analytics of student understanding using data such as scores and time spent on tasks
- Grading assignments and sending students their scores
As teachers present lessons, MimioConnect allows students to follow along in real time — whether they’re in the classroom or at home. Educators can foster more connected, collaborative experiences by giving students opportunities to share their work with the class.
The MimioConnect platform comes with thousands of premade learning activities, curated for today’s remote and hybrid classrooms. Teachers can create collaboration opportunities using their stored lesson material, or access third-party lesson material on specific subjects and geared toward different grade levels. Once they create these lesson plans in the platform, teachers can send these lessons to students, allowing each student to work through new material at their own pace.
Energizing lessons with an intuitive digital canvas
Some of the MimioConnect and Samsung classroom bundles, such as the Mimio Collaboration bundle, include a new Samsung interactive display, which visually commands the learning space in 4K UHD resolution.
Built for engaging, modern and collaborative learning, the Interactive Pro’s wall-filling canvas offers built-in annotation and screen mirroring capabilities. Up to 20 people can write on the display simultaneously — ideal for group work — with a smooth and intuitive pen-to-paper feel. For multimedia creativity, the display offers watercolor and oil-style drawing modes. Everything created on the display is easy to save, revisit and share.
The display’s onboard, embedded computer is built to support most daily classroom needs. And in particularly demanding circumstances, when teachers need more computing power than what’s already onboard, they can connect the screen to a compatible external PC through the Open Pluggable Specification (OPS) slot on the display.
Internet browsing, document review and image editing are all accessible from the screen’s seamless user interface, with little to no learning curve. Teachers and students can annotate directly on top of digital content, no matter the content type. These annotations, notes and other class materials are readily stored — and they can be shared via email directly from the display.
When the screen isn’t in use, it can continue to serve the classroom as digital signage, displaying reminders about upcoming assignments and tests or sharing birthday wishes.
With Boxlight’s MimioMobile app, students can work on MimioStudio activities on their mobile devices, and then see their ideas shared on the display at the front of the class. Students gain more hands-on and collaborative learning time, while their teachers gain a better understanding of students’ comprehension and team learning dynamics. The MimioMobile app is compatible with almost any mobile device, including Android devices and Chromebooks.
The past couple of years raised widespread awareness of how digital technology can bridge physical and virtual divides in education — ensuring all class time is valuable. As schools adapt to new learning methods and hybrid class environments, modern educational technology can help support inclusive, engaging learning for all.
Learn more about adding interactive digital signage to the classroom with this free white paper. Or compare Samsung interactive displays to find the perfect one for your students’ learning needs.
