Every year, the National Center for Educational Statistics releases an annual report that summarizes the state of education in the United States. The 2023 report said that students and teachers are still struggling, even though the pandemic is effectively over, and recovery has begun.
Classroom tools such as interactive displays can’t overcome all the challenges, but they can help teachers boost engagement and bridge the gap between in-person and remote learning.
Several studies show that using interactive whiteboards in the classroom enhances the learning process, increases student engagement, and improves their knowledge retention. Samsung Interactive Display, for example, allows teachers and students to write intuitively — using their finger, a stylus, or another writing utensil — then, save and share their work right from the board. With audio and video support, the touchscreen display can also access internet- or server-based content, making them easy to integrate into existing lesson plans.
Here are eight ways you can improve the classroom learning experience with Samsung Interactive Display.
1. Get competitive in the classroom
Many teachers want to know: Can a smart board be used as a whiteboard? Yes, thanks to its touchscreen functionality, teachers and students can draw pictures and images or write equations and text directly onto the surface.
Interactive whiteboards like Samsung Interactive Display support multi-writing with up to 20 touchpoints, so a large group of students can work on the screen simultaneously. They might race to see who can solve an equation faster or find a prepositional phrase first. You can also use Intelligent Apps, such as timers and stopwatches, to gamify the learning environment. This helps students put their learning to the test in lighthearted, engaging ways.
2. Tap multiple knowledge resources
When planning a lesson, you may have many resources you want to share. Using Samsung Interactive Display, you can take advantage of a variety of screen-mode options, including multiple screen mode and multi-touch mode. This lets you easily and dynamically display all the information you need to communicate with students. With this powerful screen sharing, you can have students screen mirror up to nine devices simultaneously regardless of device type, as the display supports Apple iOS and MacOS, Microsoft Windows, Android, and ChromeOS. You can also make it easier to access applications or tools by pinning them directly to the home screen bar for easy access.
3. Highlight what’s important
With interactive whiteboards, students and teachers can highlight misspelled words on the screen or the correct answer to a problem. They can also highlight words, answers, and photos — pretty much anything that’s on the smart board. On the Samsung Interactive Display, powered by Android, a built-in app called Mark lets you draw further attention to any element on the screen with annotations. You can then save the image of your annotations to your local drive and send it home digitally with students for homework help.
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4. Travel beyond the classroom
One of the best ways to use interactive smart boards for teaching and learning is to play and display audio and video files on the internet. Teachers can use the board’s web browser to enjoy an interactive tour of Ellis Island in New York while they’re teaching about immigration, for example, or take a virtual field trip to Philadelphia’s Museum of the American Revolution while teaching American history — all without having to leave the classroom.
5. Use preloaded templates to customize your lesson
Samsung Interactive Display can be customized with preloaded templates. You can add gameboards, calendars, maps, sheet music, menus, and more. You can keep everyone on track with a daily agenda or annotate and fill in maps during social studies. Built-in apps and tools such as Note give you instant access to mind maps, math tools, grids, shapes, and more. Write, draw, or leverage the “write-to-type” feature to solve a math problem, brainstorm on project ideas, or explain a new concept.
6. Share your presentations
These interactive whiteboards enable screen sharing, so teachers and students can easily project a PC display from almost any device to share with the class. This means you can create presentations, lessons, and documents at home, and share them in the classroom via Samsung Interactive Display. Desktop Synch lets you reverse the direction and cast the panel’s screen directly to student devices. The HDMI Out setting further allows whiteboard screen content to be shared on another screen in the classroom, too, making it possible for multiple groups to work at their own pace.
Using the built-in document viewer, you can open Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and PDF files directly on and from the board to make edits. You might use this feature as a tool for group essay editing or to create lists, such as classroom rules.
7. Enable students to read along
Sites such as Scholastic Kids Home Base and Storyline Online feature popular children’s books that can be displayed on your interactive whiteboard. Storyline Online’s books are searchable by grade level, run time, author, and title. Its videos also feature professional actors, too. Many school districts have access to e-books, which teachers can download onto their own devices and share via the interactive whiteboard with the whole class.
8. Connect with remote students
When students are sick or absent or can’t get to school due to inclement weather, remote learning technology allows them to participate from home. Teachers can use the videoconferencing solution and real-time collaboration features on Samsung Interactive Display to support hybrid lessons. Teachers can push assignments to students in the classroom and remotely.
Keeping students engaged
Interactive smart boards unlock a world of options for teachers and students. When educators take advantage of all the potential interactive whiteboard activities out there, they can create a highly effective learning environment that helps all types of learners stay engaged.
Learn more about how interactive displays can empower educators to take control of the curriculum in this free guide. And discover the full range of Samsung Interactive Displays, all designed for more engaging and visually enhanced collaboration.
