Effectiveness of Smart Classes

Today computers play a big role in education. We hear about smart classes every day. 'Smart Classes' has changed the very concept of learning (classroom teaching). It's an innovative technology that has aimed to revolutionize the way teachers teach and students learn in class. Obviously, this methodology has proved beneficial for the students. "Smart Classes", providing education better through presentations and videos. We all know that if a topic is understood by a visual method, it becomes more beneficial to understand to students. So the demand of using smart classes is being forcefully raised.

Smart Classes replaces traditional teaching method of using blackboards or whiteboard that teacher used to write with a chalk. By using this advanced technology of smart board teachers can provide more information for students from various sources in a short time because Smart Board has the capacity to connect to the Internet. There is no wastage of time both for students and teachers in this learning process.

I think a student can learn better through visualization. All the students may not understand the teaching methodology of a teacher, but can understand by smart classes. This can be seen in case of movies, i.e. students remember movies better than the lessons taught in classroom. This type of teaching creates an interest in them. So e-learning is absolutely better. But this should not be applied to all the topics in every subject, because imagination and visualization and application capability of student regarding the subject may be reduced. So smart classes are better only up to certain limit.

Effectiveness of the Smart Classroom Control Techniques

1. Appeal to audio-visual senses: By using smart boards in a classroom, we are appealing to both the audio sense and visual senses of students. Learning in such a way is very effective as the information is strongly embedded in students mind this way.
2. No wastage of time: In traditional type of classroom, a lot of time was wasted in drawing diagrams on the black/white boards, whereas in Smart-boards, diagrams are in memory and thus time is utilized more for the active learning part.
3. No chalk Dust: Some teachers and even front line students used to suffer from chalk dust getting into their eyes and lungs. This had ill effect on health. Using smart-board we are eliminating this health issue.
4. Virtual field trips: Students are taken virtually to field trips while teaching, say, a teacher is covering a lesson on desert animals, using smart-board, we could give a tour of desert like Sahara or Kalahari to teach this topic.
5. Marker Feature: Smart board teaching is not 'see-only’; we could use special markers to underline or mark an important location while teaching. We can even write on it to make the concept more clear.
6. Inbuilt library: Smart boards have an inbuilt library in it which enables a teacher to have an instant look at it in case of requirement. He/she may not have to scan a real library for this.
7. Active learning: Smart boards leads to active learning process where both the teacher and the students are involved. Smart classes are very beneficial for all types of students. There are different types of students in a class room and their learning abilities are vary from one another. Some students learn by seeing the lesson material, some learn easily by hearing it and some students can learn by seeing or hearing the lesson material. Smart classes provide all these facilities for the students to learn easily using modern technology.
8. Admin Access for Teachers Allowing students to use tablets can prove to be a valuable step in the edification process, for it paves a path for an interactive form of learning. However, teachers should have admin access to the tablets. They should have the power to oversee the type of activities that the students are engaging in. Merely glancing at the activities is not everything and teachers should have the provision to lock the screen and remotely operate the students’ device, if need be. This is a key classroom control feature that will ensure that you will be able to manage the classroom and streamline the teaching in the best way possible.
9. Regular monitoring:  It is crucial to ensure regular monitoring the activities of the students. Smart classes can have a negative impact on the students if the right monitoring is not implemented as they may get distracted. Check out ways in which you can impose the right set of rules and regulations. The field of technology is ever evolving, and you can implement newer functions to create a smart class that will serve the purpose of taking learning a step further.

The author of this article is Assistant Professor, Pioneer Institute of Professional Studies, Indore