Smart classrooms are the classrooms enhanced with technological equipment for the purpose of better learning and teaching. Based on the equipment available smart classrooms can be categorized as follows:
- Basic Smart Classes: The classrooms with basic smart technology include gadgets like laptops or computers, projector, DVD or VCD player and a viewing screen etc.
- Intermediate Smart Classes: The intermediate smart classrooms are one step ahead of the basic technology smart classrooms. They include gadgets like a smart podium with the control panel in addition to a laptop, projector, screen and DVD or VCD player etc.
- Advanced Smart Classes: The advanced smart classrooms have all the gadgets of a basic or intermediate smart classroom but their features are very advanced, that is, they use the newest technology.
What are the Equipments Installed in a Smart Classroom?
The equipment installed in most of the smart classrooms are:
- Computer or Laptop: A computer or laptop is a basic and necessary requirement of a smart classroom. Instead of writing on board with a chalk or marker, teaching process is done by presentation or images or multimedia in a smart classroom.
- Projector: it is an optical device. It projects stationery or moving objects onto a screen. They create an image by shining light through a transparent lens or by a laser.
- Screen: It is a surface used to display the images projected by a projector. The screens may be rigid wall-mounted screens, pull down screens, fixed frame screens, electrical screens, switchable projection screens, or mobile screens.
- Microphone: it is generally called as mic or mike. It is a device which converts audio signals into electrical signals. These signals are then transmitted, amplified or recorded.
- Amplifier and Speaker: These are the electronic devices which are used to increase the volume of a sound.
- Podiums: it is a platform usually made of wood which raises the person standing on it so that he becomes visual to all the audience.
- Document Camera: They are also called as visual presenters, visualizers, digital overheads. They are used for displaying an object to a large audience. A document camera magnifies and projects the images of a two dimensional as well as a three-dimensional object. The object is simply placed under the document camera. The camera takes its image and produces its live image by using a projector.
- Smart Podiums: They are also called smart boards or smart LCDs. It is an interactive pen display which can be connected to the computer or laptop externally via the USB port or RGB ports. It can be called as an external monitor with the facility of digital inking. With a smart podium, we can open documents, presentations, multimedia files and can write on them with a digital pen. We can also save our work.
- DVD or VCD Player: There are a large number of videos available on the internet but still there is a requirement of VCD or DVD player because there are some videos which have copyright and have to be purchased. These are often in the form of DVDs or CDs.
- Overhead Projector: It is a device which is used to display enlarged images of a transparent acetate sheet placed on its base on a screen. This device was very famous a few years back, but now it is being replaced by computer-based projectors.
Advantages of Smart Classrooms
There are many advantages of the smart classroom. Some of them are as follows:
- Access to Online Resources: In a smart classroom, the teacher can use the resources available on the internet for the better understanding of the students. For every subject, there are numerous resources available on the internet which can be accessed by the teachers as well as the students at any time in a smart classroom. Internet plays a major role in the learning process. Today’s students are curious to know about everything. They want to gain extra knowledge about the ongoing topic in the class. This is a limitation of books. The books print only the syllabus. For those who want to learn beyond the syllabus, the internet is a very useful tool. Even for the syllabus, the resources available on the internet are very helpful.
- Digital Medium for Notes: In a regular classroom, the teacher writes on the board and the students note it down in their notebooks. In this methodology of teaching, the student’s mind gets diverted in two directions, one is listening to the teacher and understanding and the other is writing or making notes for future reference. In this way, the students do not understand the topic properly or get confused or even sometimes, they do not listen to anything and just make notes. This is a very dull approach in the teaching process. But this is not the case in a smart classroom. In a smart classroom, there is a digital approach for notes. The teacher, instead of writing on the board, teachers using PowerPoint presentation, word documents, images, videos, and audios. These resources are given to the students in pen drives, CDs, or they are emailed to them. In this way, the students do not have to write for making notes. Notes are provided to them and they can devote their full concentration to the lecture.
- Advantageous for the Absentees: If a student who studies in a regular classroom is absent for one day, it becomes difficult for him to gather all the notes of the classes he missed. Also, it becomes difficult for the teacher to explain the previous topics to the students who were absent. The students then take a shortcut method and get the notes photocopied from other students. In this way, the students do not understand anything from the classes he missed. In a smart classroom, the lectures are recorded. Whenever a student is absent he can anytime see the recorded lecture. These recorded lectures are also uploaded on the internet which can be accessed by the students anytime by a login id and password. The notes are also in digital form, so they can be easily provided to the student.
- Ease of Understanding: There are many topics in the curriculum which are very difficult to understand. They cannot be just taught by using a chalk and a black blackboard. They require an interactive teaching approach. With smart classes, the teacher can use multimedia to teach that topic to the students. The students learn more from what they see rather than from what they listen. So the students understand easily and effectively all the difficult topics in a smart classroom.
- Makes Learning Enjoyable: If we go and look in a regular classroom, the students are feeling very sleepy. Some of the students are not even listening to the teacher. They are busy talking with their friends. In short, the class becomes very boring for them. But it is not so in a smart classroom. The use of smart technology in the class makes the classroom a fun room. The class becomes interesting and enjoyable for the students. No student feels sleepy. It makes learning a fun process. The students who do not like to go to schools also start enjoying the school.
- Improves the Academic Performance: It is often seen that the students studying in a smart class get a better result than the students studying in a regular class. This is so because the understanding ability in the students studying in a smart classroom is way more than other students. The use of technology in the classroom for teaching increases the understanding of the students. The topic becomes clearer and the base of the subject becomes stronger. Obviously, the students with a better hold of the subject and with strong basic knowledge of the subject will score more in exams.
- Communication: The technology used in a smart classroom makes video conferencing possible in the classroom itself. In this way, the students can communicate with the person who is an expert on the subject. In various schools and colleges with the facility of smart classrooms, guest lectures are organized weekly in which the students can communicate with the experts such as professors of IITs and IIMs or the people engaged in research work. This provides the students with extra information about their subjects which beyond the scope of the textbooks. The students get to know about the ongoing issues related to their subjects. They get acquainted with the upcoming technology and theories. This proves very beneficial for them in the near future.
- Health Friendly: There are some teachers who are very sensitive towards the use of chalk or markers. Some of them experience skin allergies when they write with chalk and some are allergic to the chalk dust. Some teachers are not comfortable with the smell of the ink used in the markers. For these teachers smart classrooms are advantageous. There is no or very less use of markers or chalk in a smart classroom. The teaching is done by using digital or e-resources. So, there is no chance of allergy.
Disadvantages of Smart Classrooms:
With so many advantages of the smart classrooms, there are a few disadvantages also which makes the use of smart technology quite limited. They are:
- Costly: The technology used in the smart classrooms is very expensive. All the schools cannot afford it. Even the schools which can afford it get over the budget after buying it. Some schools often take loans to buy the smart technology. Consequently, the fees of the schools are increased to meet the cost of the equipment. The admission fees of the schools with smart classrooms also hike. All parents cannot afford such an expensive education for their children. Every child cannot get access to the smart classrooms.
- Skilled Faculty: All teachers cannot use smart technology for teaching. The teachers have to be trained before they can they can start teaching in a smart classroom. The teachers are trained to use the technology in an effective manner. They are also trained to handle faults in the gadgets. This training also costs much. If the teachers are not properly trained the technology would become a disturbing factor rather than becoming helpful.
- Maintenance: Like all electronic gadgets, the gadgets used in smart classrooms require proper maintenance. The rooms in which these gadgets are installed should be free from dust particles and should not face direct sunlight otherwise the gadgets will become faulty. Also, these equipment release a lot of heat in the surrounding so the rooms should be air-conditioned. Technical staff has to be appointed for the maintenance of devices. This further adds to the cost. The devices also need to be updated regularly which is a very time-consuming process.
- Technical Faults: All the electronic devices are prone to faults. If the equipment does not work one day, the day is considered as a waste. They require a lot of time to come back to their proper functioning state. No teaching can be done on that day. In this case, the teacher should always be ready for an alternative methodology for teaching that is, using the blackboard. But this would be a very dull experience for the teachers as well as the students who are regularly participating in smart classrooms. The workload of the teachers is also increased as they have to prepare the topic as per two different methodologies of teaching.
Conclusion
Smart classrooms increase the interest of the students in studies. Students tend to learn more. With so many advantages and a few disadvantages, smart classes can still be considered good for the students. Due to some disadvantages, we cannot ignore the advantages of smart classrooms. All the disadvantages have a solution except for the disadvantage of the cost involved. But in the coming few decades, the rise in technology would definitely decrease the cost of these devices to some extent. Moreover, the new inventions in the fields of computer science and technology would definitely make teaching and learning even much better. The government schools should also employ smart technology in their classes so that all the students can have access to smart classrooms.
