Dive Brief:

• Today’s interactive display technology has advanced from simple projectors to tools for collaboration in classrooms that less frequently have teachers lecturing from the front of the room.
• District Administration reports technology advances have brought touch-screen displays to more schools as their price has gone down, and annotation tools as well as multi-user functionality have given students more control in interactive lessons.
• One trend experts see is the decoupling of display hardware and software so the projectors themselves are more versatile, and the software itself has advanced to allow for greater integration, making the tools so attractive many schools are making purchases without any need for return on investment.

Dive Insight:

When the first SMART boards started being installed in classrooms, one major complaint was that purchases were made before teachers had any training and they used them exactly like the white boards or chalkboards that preceded them. In many districts, professional development has caught up to the technology and teachers are getting more adept with such displays, but this tendency is one to always be wary of with any ed tech initiative.

For districts that do not have the money to purchase such expensive technology and where one-to-one device programs are years off, collaborative classrooms are not out of reach. Elaine Plybon, an educational technology leader in Texas, used one of her school’s old televisions to create a more accessible mirrored screen for her single classroom computer. Sometimes it just takes creative thinking.