Smart classroom technology, its most important features and uses
Why use smart classrooms, and what is the impact of artificial intelligence on them
Recently, educational institutions have been investing in new technologies, which contribute significantly to transforming traditional education into smart classrooms.
One of its most important characteristics is that it combines both advanced technology and traditional education, because it is considered one of the most important technologies that will have a major role in changing the future of education.
Through many studies conducted by some agencies, it has been confirmed that students who are taught through the use of the smart classroom system have scored higher grades than those who received education using the traditional system.
Through the following lines, we will talk about the topic in detail, so let’s continue together.
The concept of smart classrooms in the educational process
It is a place where the blended learning system thrives, through which the smart classroom system is improved, which provides many opportunities like never before.
In order to learn and teach, because learning through smart classes is more fun for the student in subjects that are more boring for him.
And because of the technology that is placed in digital learning, which is prepared and placed in advance, and through specialized software, listening devices, and audio-visual capabilities, endless ways of teaching and learning are opened.
And growth as one unit, and in the recent period education has become a necessity that must be achieved, in which the skills of individuals are updated with the passage of years, in terms of the harsh competitive environment and technology.
And due to the entry of technology into every aspect of our lives, all parties to the educational process must keep pace with this development, and it is a crime to prevent students or teachers from making the most of the developments.
Definition of smart classroom
The Smart Classroom is a mode of intensive teaching, in which the current traditional classroom setting is created, rather than taking away from the teaching or attention of the students.
For the opportunity to provide them with a quality education through understanding many concepts in a different and better way, in addition to achieving academic excellence, and improving their reading and comprehension skills.
It is worth noting that in the recent period, the atmosphere of lectures and the recording of the most important notes in which they are made have begun to disappear and lose their effectiveness, because books are considered an inseparable part of learning in the classroom.
As well as the efforts being made for academic growth in order to implement deeper levels of conceptual development and growth, and therefore it is the responsibility of education to employ various technological opportunities in order to achieve gains for students.
In the era of new technologies that we live in today, the smart learning education system is a boon for all students who want to make the most of the existing resources, as technology is a tool to bridge the gap between both teachers and students.
Why are smart classrooms used in school?
In higher education, the use of smart classrooms is high, and this is because they allow students to pursue many of their interests in a completely different way, whether inside or outside the classroom.
In addition, it enables all students to follow up on their educational activities from their homes through distance learning or what is called online, and through the use of many resources and many different tools.
This is in order to motivate them to learn more effectively, in addition to that smart classrooms have a major role in providing high-quality educational spaces, in order to provide both teachers and students with classes that are more effective and beneficial for them.
Smart classrooms contain many technological tools that are used in the educational process, in addition to many other equipment equipped to be used in the educational process.
Which are connected to the Internet, and one of the most important modern technologies that are used in smart classrooms are interactive whiteboards.
Interactive whiteboards
Whiteboards are considered one of the most important modern technology tools that are used in smart classrooms. The development of smart classrooms has gone through several different developmental stages.
Which started from the use of chalk in the classroom and blackboards to the most modern technologies until it reached the interactive whiteboards.
The whiteboards consist of a projector, a computer, and a display board, as well as many advanced software technologies.
Which is operated through a touch panel that is connected to a device on which it is projected, and the teacher is in full control of the information that is copied or that can be transferred to any other slide.
Advantages of using interactive whiteboards
It has many advantages in order to improve the quality of education, the most important of which are:
- Better performance of audio and video equipment.
- Transition to open architecture solutions.
- It is more user friendly and IT friendly.
- Handling various types of content for media, presentations, and video.
- Highlight any limited area, plus pointers to highlight something when certain areas are highlighted.
- Equipment takes up another space in crowded rooms.
- The screen can be shaded in order to hide and reveal information by selection, which is used specifically in questions and answers.
What can make a classroom smart?
Until a short period, we were still sticking to the traditional classes, but in 2020 something happened that changed all the scales, since since the spread of the Corona virus, many things have changed upside down, which did not witness such a change even in the World War.
As since the spread of the first year of the Corona virus, the movement of the economy has been paralyzed, and it has been able to seize the equivalent of 4 billion people in their homes, which prompted the world to think about finding any way for life to continue.
The wheel of work does not stop, and it is in the market, and methodologies are found, and the smart classroom was the method of education used in this period.
Brandon Paykamian, a journalist who specializes in higher education issues, says that the smart classroom is a well-known term in the educational technology lexicon.
But many educators and technology developers say that the smart classroom is more about how teachers use emerging technologies and how much of the tools available to them.
The continuation of the Corona virus had a major role in the process of accelerating digitization in educational institutions, as the value of the tools that are used in smart classrooms is estimated at the equivalent of $ 117 billion to 2022.
Which is estimated at the equivalent of $ 260 billion by 2028, based on many studies that were conducted in 2022.
And because of the technology that has been used in education and the expansion of schools, the question remains, what makes the classroom smart? It is that the difference between teachers occurs over time.
As for many other professions that are related to the field of learning through technology, the matter lies in how to use this technology in the classroom and not to use a lot of technology tools.
Based on Stephen Langford, Chief Information Officer of the Fairton School District in Oregon, the policy of defining the smart classroom is through the use of a wide variety of technology tools.
In addition to the hardware and software that can be used to improve the teaching and learning process, he also believes that it is important for teachers to have a great deal of science and knowledge to use these tools and integrate them with learning experiences.
For students, so that students are able to display the activities they are doing on their own devices on the display screen, in order to show their learning to their classmates.
Or this can be done either through working in an individual way, or in a collective team, through the use of an education system, or virtual augmented reality.
This is in addition to the professional development of the teacher that gives the teacher many different ways to learn, which is like the smart classroom.
This type of classroom is not just smart classrooms and the many devices that are used in it, rather these classrooms should be viewed as a combination of hardware and software applications, in addition to the professional development of teachers in order to provide a certain set of methods for learning and demonstrating it .
As for Joel Kupperstein, Senior Vice President of Curriculum Management in a company, he believes that smart classrooms must aim to provide many specialized educational experiences for a specific group of students, in addition to achieving many other goals.
He believes that the concept of the smart classroom is achieved through its ability to change the way teachers use it to provide different experiences specialized in technology.
He explained that in the classroom we look for the educational goals that we want to achieve, because they are more important than the technology itself.
What are the requirements to work in a smart classroom?
There are some requirements that must be met in order to work in smart classrooms, and below we will mention them:-
1- Training teachers to use smart classrooms
At the beginning of the semester, technicians and technicians must teach and train teachers to use these technologies, in addition to explaining how to use the equipment in the classroom.
And how to control it, as well as how to conduct the presentation, and the use of many devices for displaying data and images.
And how to send and receive pictures and files from the teacher’s computer, to the students’ computers, and share them via the Internet.
2- Smart classroom use manual
An introductory booklet must be provided containing a different set of snapshots of different pictures inside the smart classroom, and pictures of the devices that are located in it.
In which an explanation is given for each image on each part of the device, in order to be a guide that can be referred to at the time of need.
Some of the obstacles that hinder the spread of smart classrooms
There are some obstacles that limit the spread of smart classrooms, and we will mention them as follows:
- No internet connection.
- Poor infrastructure in some schools.
- Lack of cadres of teachers that are able to deal with smart classrooms.
Artificial intelligence and its impact on smart classrooms
There are a lot of people that focus on the work of educational technology developers on artificial intelligence-based platforms.
To be more specific, there is a significant interest and role for artificial intelligence in the technology that is used in the educational process, and in the management of planning data, in order to make educational plans and curricula smarter.
Perhaps the role of artificial intelligence in the educational process system and its various functions, such as data management for educational planning, which is based on measuring measures of student performance.
It could be pivotal in the smart classrooms of the future, because there is a lot of focus on the need to use data and inform and improve any learnings.
So the idea is how to leverage the data that will be useful, so this is where the use of AI is a powerful tool.
This is in order to examine the data and look at the different patterns that pertain to the educational process and reduce the burden on teachers, which gives them a virtual assistant who can help them manage some data related to the classroom.
At the end of our article, we hope that we have provided you with the benefit you desire, after we have mentioned many aspects of smart classrooms, which are represented in the concept of the smart classroom, and its requirements.
Such as display screens, how traditional classrooms can be converted into smart classrooms, the role of artificial intelligence in these classrooms, and the most important disadvantages of smart classrooms.