Features of my vision of a Smart Classroom:

  • Puck-like devices -- like those featured in Steelcase's Media:Scape product -- that would provide a way for students sitting in a more traditional face-to-face classroom to quickly and easily plug in a variety of devices and "play" their media for the class to see/hear -- thus, further helping to bridge the online and face-to-face worlds while enabling students to display their creative work


  • Multi-touch, wall-sized "monitors" / "displays"


  • Pan-Tilt-Zoom cameras -- controllable via the web even -- that can be used for web-based collaboration


  • Flexible, movable, adjustable tables -- for easy, quick reconfigurations of a room -- perhaps even multiple times within the same class period


  • Comfortable chairs on wheels -- for easy, quick reconfigurations of a room -- perhaps even multiple times within the same class period


Example Scenarios:

  • Scenario 1:
    I'm a student at Table #4. I want to show my project to the class. I click on the puck-like device that I've hooked up my laptop to...and because the professor has approved it, I am able to instantly start showing/playing my presentation up on one of the wall-sized monitors (some of which are multi-touch boards). Check out the puck-like device from Steelcase's Media:Scape product.
  • Scenario #2:
    I'm a Music Major at Table #3. I want to play a piece from my recent recital that I had recorded and is now on my iPod. I hook up my iPod to the puck-like device and then I click on the puck to let the rest of the class listen to me version of Bach's Concerto Op. 13 No. 2.
  • Scenario #3:
    I am the professor and I want to bring in a class from Italy. I use a web-based videoconferencing product to show the other class on one or more of the wall-sized "displays".

Potential Smart Classroom of the Future.

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by Daniel S. Christian