Collaboration Technology

Technology is a huge part of education. It seems now every university professor uses powerpoint presentations for their lectures instead of a chalkboard or whiteboard. Students communicate with their professors and each other through e-mail. Assignments and tests can now be done and submitted online. It's a very different world from what my parents' world was. One of the newest technologies that is starting to show up in university classrooms in called "ClassSpot." "ClassSpot transforms teacher-centric presentation classrooms into interactive spaces where students can participate more fully." It enables students and teachers to share screens and work together on in class examples. This facilitates participation in a more open and effective manner. Students are more involved in lectures as they are able to work on examples.

An article posted on campustechnology.com talks in great detail about how universities are using ClassSpot to make the classroom more interactive. A great example shared in the article talks about how a classroom equipped with three display screens could post a poem on the central display, while web pages or an interactive "white board" could be displayed on the other two. This would allow students and instructors to work together to edit, critique, and find other information about the displayed poem. Students and instructors are both able to control the screens and edit information. This is just one small example of how technology is changing the classroom that we know. There are undoubtedly even more inventions on the way.

Sources:

www.campustechnology.com

http://www.tidebreak.com/products/classspot