PolyVision Helps Education Community See the Classroom of the Future

LONDON, July 16, 2012 – The nature of the classroom is changing, from the physical layout of the space to the way educators and learners share information. Students are entering with a heightened digital acumen and lowered attention span, while teachers feel pressure to deliver higher test scores, increase collaboration, and drive engagement, often with restrictive budgets. To address these challenges, PolyVision, a leader in the development of teaching and learning technology, has developed a philosophy that asks educators, administrators and technologists to unlearn everything they know about the traditional classroom and use of educational technology.

Throughout the year, PolyVision will be demonstrating this concept of unlearning through new research aimed at rethinking classroom space, technology and pedagogy, interactive displays featuring new products; and special guest appearances, at education events worldwide.

“Learning today needs to combine the best in technology and pedagogy into a classroom space that is supportive and engaging. Today’s students were born digital, social and connected. To reach and engage them requires the education community to unlearn their current approach,” said Robert Heitmeier, PolyVision general manager. “PolyVision has reimagined, reinvented and unlearned the status quo to reach over 250 million learners in the process. Learning has changed, students have changed and classrooms need to change to keep up.”

Education events will also provide the opportunity for PolyVision to showcase a variety of new solutions and product enhancements that support its UNLEARN concept and facilitate different instructional approaches, such as:

  • Whole group engagement solutions to reach auditory, kinesthetic and visual learners
    • New sound-enhanced ēno flex is a flexible interactive whiteboard solution combining dry-erase or tack boards with ēno interactive surface.  It includes a proprietary sound solution, called ēno play that fills the classroom with rich, even sound.
    • Splashtop for ēno is a new, interactive app that turns a tablet, such as an iPad, into a mobile interactive whiteboard and lets the teacher or student control the interactive whiteboard content from anywhere in the room using the same ēno controls that teachers are already familiar with.
  • Differentiated learning solutions
    • An updated fuse visualizer with enhanced TrueSnap™ and audio/video recording capability, which translates into high-resolution document scanning and web sharing to facilitate distance learning or flipped classroom videos, in addition to traditional document camera functions.
  • Project-based small-group student collaboration

media:scape by Steelcase boosts student collaboration with a “walk up and connect” station that allows three to six students connect computers and tablets and control the content of what is projected on one or more LCD screens.

PolyVision has also revamped some of its existing product line. PolyVision’s ēno interactive whiteboard now includes a new dongle that provides mobile capabilities, saving time for both the teacher and technology director when changing classroom learning configurations, moving classroom to classroom, or pairing styluses for multiple teachers.

PolyVision kicked off the UNLEARN campaign at the ISTE conference last month and will continue to do so at other education events around the world for the next year. For further details on the campaign overall and upcoming events please visit www.polyvision.com/unlearn