SMART Table Helps Increase Collaborative Learning
Monday, December 21st, 2009
“It’s really cool,” says one shy youngster, a pre-schooler at the exclusive Baldwin Academy in Pacific Beach. “It’s a lot of fun,” adds another, breaking into a smile. When Baldwin became selected as the only pilot school for the SMART Table in Southern California, these precocious learners immediately demonstrated the rewards. AVI-SPL’s Education Market Manager, Maggie McGill, was instrumental in helping to make a difference.
“The best benefit of the SMART Table is its ability to promote collaborative learning, with room for up to eight students to interact,” says McGill. With a format similar to that of an iPhone, the SMART Table is the first multitouch, multiuser interactive learning center that allows groups of primary school students to work simultaneously on its surface. From math to social studies to art, the SMART Table allows the youngest of learners to take a fun, hands-on approach to their activities. Best of all, it helps teachers create new and unique collaborative learning activities with minimal preparation time.
“For me to be able to work with their pre-K teacher and get her true feedback has been phenomenal,” adds McGill. “Both she and the kids absolutely love it.”
The SMART Table has currently been on loan to Baldwin since August; they hope to purchase the technology in the near future.
AVI-SPL recently helped Hillsborough County students get their first look at the dynamic features of SMART Technologies latest innovation, the SMART Table. The fourth graders at Lee Elementary Magnet School in Tampa, Fla., are among the first students in the county – and state – to have access to this exciting technology. From math to social studies to art, the SMART Table allows the youngest of learners to take a fun, hands on approach to their activities. Best of all, it helps teachers create new and unique collaborative learning activities with minimal preparation time.
Using the SMART Table, multiple learners can simultaneously match answers with questions, share and manipulate pictures and videos, work together to solve math questions and draw simultaneously over a drawing canvas.