Trends4Tomorrow (March 4, 2009) — Researchers at Britain’s Durham University are working on ways to replace today’s classroom desks with interactive tables.  The goal of the university’s Technology-Enhanced Learning Research Group is to design new learning environments using interactive multi-touch desks that look and act like enormous versions of the Apple iPhone.

The team observed how students and teachers interact in classes and identified ways technology could improve collaboration. Then they set about designing an interactive classroom solution called 'SynergyNet' with the goals achieving active student engagement and learning.

The new desk with a 'multi-touch' surface will be the centerpiece of SynergyNet.   The desks are networked and linked to a main smart-board offering new opportunities for teaching and collaboration.

The system encourages collaboration between students and teachers.  It also discourages traditional teacher-centric learning. The desks allow simultaneous screen contact by multiple users using fingers or pens.  So, several students will be able to work together at a desk. The objective is to create a 'natural way' for students to use computers in class.

The SynergyNet vision aims to: 'transform teaching, learning and help to improve outcomes through shared ideas, more exciting lessons… and to engage 'hard to reach' learners, with special needs support, more motivating ways of learning, and more choice about how and where to learn.'

Dr. Liz Burd, Director of Active Learning in Computing at Durham University says: "Our vision is that every desk in school in 10 years time will be interactive. The new desk can be both a screen and a keyboard, it can act like a multi-touch whiteboard and several students can use it at once. It offers fantastic scope for more participative teaching and learning.”

A single work-desk can operate as a set of individual work spaces and/or a large screen allowing students to cooperate on a task. The software will be used to link everything together in a fully interactive classroom system of desks and smart-boards.

Teachers will be able to instantly display examples of good work by students on the main smart-board; tasks could also be set for each individual desk.

After testing the system with students of all ages, the software will be available to schools for free as open source code.

Click here to see how the new SynergyNet desks work:
http://smart.dur.ac.uk/index.php?n=Main.MultitouchPage