Most current students have grown up with technology more than any other generation, most were able to text before they could touch type and have more email addresses in their electronic phone book than they do postal addresses. Bringing this technology they're used to into the classroom is the equivalent to giving the lecture in their native language. The technology they're used to is only going to evolve and they're going to take this evolved technology with them when they go out to work, even if you're not entirely confident with university technology, or if you're a little sceptical, you're going to have to get used to it. Text books are often outdated the second they're published, as long as you can validate the source, technology can ensure that what teaching is as up to date as possible, it can also allow you to collaborate with other educators in your field from around the world.
Physically printing copies of hand outs can be very time consuming, uneconomical and it's not a very environmentally friendly way of ensuring your students get access to all the resources and information they're going to need, having links in your lecture notes displayed on a screen (either to an external website or to an internal page on your schools own intranet) means your students can access the information in their own way in their own time, if these notes are projected onto a screen in your lecture theatre or onto an interactive white board, it's very simple for your students to simply make a note of where the information is stored.
Studies have shown students are more likely to understand and remember the lecture if there's an interactive element to it. With a standard lecture theatre easily holding a minimum of 100 students it?s almost impossible to involve them all, especially as you'll often get the same few students eager to offer answers to your questions while the others just take their notes, it's impossible to conduct a debate in every lecture and get every student involved so you'll need another way to encourage active participation and get them to engage.
You also have the problem of making sure none of your students get left behind, those who aren't as confident to raise their hand when they don't understand will struggle to digest the rest of the lecture, what if they're not the only student confused by a subject you've just raised? All of a sudden, you've got a dozen or so students who need clarification and you're unaware of it. now you're faced with not only having to interactively engage with your lecturer theatre full of students but also you need to be psychic and know if any of your students are struggling to keep up, if just one student doesn?t understand a point is it time efficient for you to have to go back over it whilst the rest of the room doesn?t have a problem?
Several schools have started to introduce an interactive voting system; each student has the ability to ? 'vote' on whether they've understood a particular subject, the lecturer can ask a question, and can see at a glance what percentage of the room understood the previous topic. If you can see that only 65% of your student got the answer right you know that 35% didn't fully understand which would mean it's in their interest and yours to quickly go through the main points again, if you can see that only one or two got the answer wrong it may be easier to speak to them at the end of the lecture rather than going over a topic the rest of the room understood. This university technology will also ensure all the students are actively participating in the lecture, so no one is going to be having a quick snooze at the back of the room.
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Reflex AV University stocks and installs almost every type of
university technology
you could possible need to ensure you're lecture is as interactive and engaging as possible, from digital projectors to interactive white boards to voting systems. With over 25 years AV experience, we only to select the products of manufacturers that we know produce high quality reliable products
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