How To Bring 21st Century Technology Into The Classroom

With the recent announcement of 54,000 extra sixth form places in this years budget, it is more important than ever that teachers have the necessary aids to ensure all students get as much as possible from their education.

The main purpose of audiovisual technology is to improve communications, improve the way you want to impart your information and the way you deliver that information to your audience. This is particularly beneficial in the education sector as it helps tutors and lecturers get their information across to the students in the most effective way possible. Audiovisual technology doesn't mean flashy and expensive and it's not limited purely to those with a never ending budget, like all technology, packages, can be tailored to make sure you only buy what you need and to help make sure it really does prove productive to both you and your students, from projection equipment, to interactive white boards through to plasma screens.

The primary benefits of AV technology is all down to good communication, AV is there to support what you say, it doesn't distract from what you're saying. The easier and more efficiently you impart your lesson, the easier and more efficiently your students can learn. This of course makes the whole teaching experience more effective and time productive, for example, if your lecture notes are displayed on a clear screen or overhead projector, your students may find it easier to take notes and you don't have to keep stopping or repeating yourself.

Universities have been investing in AV technology for a number of years. A lecturer, lecturing to a room of 150 students cant just be done from a lap top, you need good quality audio visual equipment to enhance both the visual and audio impact. If it is made interactive, students are more likely to take it on board and engage in the lesson that much more. So it's really a case of using audiovisual to assist the lecturer and for the students to enjoy it and learn more.

It's not just universities and colleges that can benefit from audiovisual technology though, one of the key benefits of AV technology in primary and secondary schools would be interactive white boards. Over the last two to three years, the Government has recognised that AV technology is raising the standard of the classroom in terms of the equipment which can in turn, help the children learn more.

Technology is a huge part of children's lives, they use it everyday from texting and using mobile phones to social networking sites, if they see this same level of technology in their classroom, studies show they are more likely to engage in their lesson.

Interactive style voting systems are becoming more and more popular and this is now being integrated into the classroom. It's all down to engaging the student, a question can be put on a board and the pupils have an interactive voting system, the pupils can even give information. Traditionally, if a teacher asks a question to a class full of students, half may raise their hand, but only one can answer and the teacher has no way of knowing whether every student knew that answer or whether the student who was picked was the only one. An interactive voting system ensures every student has the chance to answer and even better, the teacher can see at a glance what percentage of the class knew the answer and this can help them gage whether or not they can move onto the next topic or whether they may need to spend some more time on it. This also means that no student is overlooked and the quieter students who are normally too shy to volunteer an answer can be equally assed by the teacher.

This is a much more effective than waiting for an end of week or end of term test, by the time the teacher gets the results it may be too late to go back to the topic and ensure all the pupils are up the required standard.