The "Star Trek" style touch screen class room of the future that set to replace books and blackboards, I eagerly wish that this invention would have been discovered long ago so I could be able to use that desk.
Although it's a great invention , this multi touch multi user-smart desks have been trailed in a three year project by more than 400 pupils , and have been the 'Star Trek Classroom'.
Studies have shown that the smart desk can significantly improve pupils maths.
Smart desk can have benefits over doing mathematics on paper.
Researches says that watching that what your friends doing , and being able to fully participate in group activities , offers new ways of working in class.
Lead researcher, Professor Liz Burd, School of Education, Durham University, said: 'Our aim was to encourage far higher levels of active student engagement, where knowledge is obtained by sharing, problem-solving and creating, rather than by passive listening.
'This classroom enables both active engagement and equal access.
'We found our tables encouraged students to collaborate more effectively.
'We were delighted to observe groups of students enhancing others’ understanding of mathematical concepts.
'Such collaboration just did not happen when students used paper-based approaches.'
The project called SynergyNet set out to integrate a fully collaborative system of desks, building it into the 'fabric and furniture of the classroom'.
The new desks with a ‘multi-touch’ surface are the central component, and are networked and linked to a main smartboard.
In terms of current teaching, the new system means that the ‘move-to-use’ whiteboard is by-passed and the new desks can be both screen and keyboard.
The desks act like multi-touch whiteboards and several students can use any one desk at once.
The technology allows all students to take part rather than one individual dominating.
The teacher plays a key role in the classroom and can send tasks to different tables to individuals and groups.
The teacher can also send one group’s answers on to the next group to work on and add to, or to the board for a class discussion.
A live feed of the desks goes directly to the teacher who can intervene quickly to help an individual while allowing the group work to continue.
Professor Steve Higgins said: 'Technology like this has enormous potential for teaching as it can help the teacher to manage and to orchestrate the learning of individuals and groups of learners to ensure they are both challenged and supported so that they can learn effectively.'
Researcher, Emma Mercier, School of Education, Durham University, said: 'Cooperative learning works very well in the new classroom because the pupils interact and learn in a different way.
'The children really enjoy doing maths in this way and are always disappointed when you turn the desks off.'
'We can achieve fluency in maths through practice, however, boosting a pupil’s ability to find a range of solutions to arithmetic questions is harder to teach.
'This classroom can help teachers to use collaborative learning to improve their pupils’ flexibility in maths.'
