Students no longer just sit down to watch the teacher and be writing throughout the class. Now they interact and collaborate during it, concentrating their attention at the front of the room.
Richard Santa
Projectors have been gaining strength within schools in recent years. We went from seeing a single projector for the whole school, to schools that after an investment are improving their technological offer and little by little have been providing each classroom with a projector, in addition to other spaces such as auditoriums and boardrooms; demonstrating that schools are committed to improving their educational offer hand in hand with technology.
Different projector manufacturers have increasingly specialized their equipment for this segment. One of the common characteristics among all are the functions of interactivity, through which they seek to favor the relationship of teachers, students and the topics of estdio of each day.
As Alfredo Cano, from Casio Mexico, pointed out, "the new ICTs have caused a revolution in the way of teaching, it is a new era of the teaching-learning cycle, but for the affectation to be positive, an integral development must be considered in which teachers in the first instance are prepared for the use of these new technologies, that they have enough training to use their resources in a friendly and colloquial way. Incorporating multimedia content in the chairs implies the constant improvement of the resources and didactic strategies that are attractive to the students, promoting cooperative learning".
In the same sense, Miriam Mendoza, from Boxlight, said that "The use of technology is a great area of opportunity for schools, since their educational offers are much more attractive, they are at the forefront of information technologies, in addition to being compatible with the educational models that have been penetrating with greater force in each school".
Segment with good expectations
I wish there was a market study that indicates not only the base of projectors installed at the service of education, but also the base used, as Juan Carlos Chávez, from Christie Latin America, commented. "Interactive projectors are very useful but in my opinion they are low use since an educational system is required to push and encourage the use of these tools. It is proven in several tests that the use of multimedia in the classroom increases knowledge retention. But, like any tool, it depends a lot on the teacher."
Part of the little use is due to the lack of knowledge in the market of the different options and benefits that these projectors provide to a classroom. Alfredo Cano of Casio explained that the education sector has incorporated various technologies that integrate projectors in an interactive environment, as well as software and other multimedia resources that have transformed traditional educational classrooms, allowing for new schemes to teach classes.
"In Mexico, important efforts have been made in terms of technology integration in the education sector, which represents a challenge given that constant investment is required to equip all educational institutions, in addition to various additional costs that ensure the constant operation of these devices," he added.
Some developments
Boxlight: It has a wide range of projectors that in addition to being interactive are tactile and multimedia. They allow to offer a wide range of benefits to the school, the teacher and the student; because through the advances of technology, teaching-learning have become much more efficient and the use of the class increases day by day.
Miriam Mendoza of Boxlight highlighted, adding the benefits of having a wide range of luminosity that adapts to different light conditions; equipment that can be mounted to the wall or ceiling, thus reducing the shadow; wireless technology that allows you to connect with other devices and have collaborative classes; intuitive equipment that is easy to use; equipment that reduces costs since the same user can change the lamp and filter of their equipment.
"It adds technologies that allow interactive, tactile classes and the latter allows up to 10 touch points which is equal to having up to ten children interacting on the projected image; software that allows you to work with different platforms, applications and information that are in the cloud or on the web, including generating evaluations, results and statistics at the moment; and be highly competitive in warranties by offering five years of general warranty and three years of lamp," added the Boxlight spokeswoman.
Christie: Christie's education projectors are concentrated in three series. The Captiva are 1DLP laser phosphor projectors. It is the only solid state projector with more than 3000 lumens, 0.25:1 ultra-short throw lens and option to choose between HD or UltraWide resolution. It ensures exceptional luminosity and high brightness in tight spaces.
Being able to be used in portrait mode, Captiva enables a myriad of creative applications. It is also a very quiet projector, which works at full capacity up to 20,000 hours and without a lamp.
Juan Carlos Chávez highlighted that also in 1DLP technology, they have recently launched the GS Series of laser phosphor projectors that also have 20,000 hours of operation without the need to replace lamps or filters. With their solid-state lighting and high resolution, these GS Series laser diode projectors, available in WXGA, HD and WUXGA resolutions, are a very economical solution.
And in LCD technology, the latest is the D Series which includes five 3LCD digital projectors. With brightness spectra of between 6000 and 8000 lumens with a single lamp and the 0.38:1 ultra-short range (UST) lens option, The new Christie D Series has a 10:000:1 contrast ratio, incorporates one of the brightest single lamps on the market and high resolution XGA, WXGA and WUXGA.
Casio: Casio's Lampfree offers a wide range of projectors that eliminate the need for consumable replacement thanks to lamp-free technology, allowing IT areas to engage in more important tasks than maintenance and operation overhaul. Other features that distinguish them are the low noise level, fast power on and friendly access of other devices to interact.
Casio projectors offer sufficient connectivity that even allow a network administration and the acceptance of guests to make presentations, in this case the tasks, case studies and projects that are discussed in class can be transmitted having as a source a tablet, a cell phone even through simultaneous connection of four pCs giving rise to greater interaction between students and teachers in the development of the themes
Alfredo Cano of Casio Mexico added that: "The education sector has incorporated various technologies that integrate projectors in an interactive environment, as well as software and other multimedia resources that have transformed traditional educational classrooms accommodating new schemes to teach classes. In Mexico, significant efforts have been made in terms of technology integration in the education sector, which represents a challenge given that constant investment is required to equip all educational institutions, in addition to various additional costs that ensure the constant operation of these devices."
To keep in mind
The three Casio experts, Christie and Boxlight consulted for this article, made a series of recommendations for an educational institution to take into account when it wants to acquire a projector:
- Special guarantees for the education sector
- Ease of use
- Variety of luminosity that adapts to the different light conditions in the place
- Portability, with compact and lightweight equipment.
- Inputs and outputs that allow you to connect a wide variety of equipment
- Service and technical support available for the team
- Ecological awareness of mercury use
- Interactivity with different applications and educational tools
- Possibility of evaluations with information at the moment
- Multimedia features that allow you to interact with other devices within the classroom, even wirelessly.
- Ease of integration of the projector into the educational system of the campus.
- Awareness of what the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) implies, in which variables such as:
- - Power consumption
- - Minimum maintenance cost
- - Replacement cost of consumables such as lamps and filters.
