Derek Marsden is a highly qualified AVIXA Certified AV professional, with extensive experience in control systems, video distribution, audio conferencing, professional audio, and customer service. Marsden has invested his entire professional career in the audiovisual industry and has established himself as a leading authority in AV technology across multiple sectors and applications in South Africa. He has recently rejoined Electrosonic SA in a management role within the company’s AV Division. Marsden brings a wealth of experience and an intricate understanding of the AV industry in South Africa and shares his insights into the role of AV technology in the education sector in the following article.
With the exception of a few shabby overhead projectors, a cacophonous Roneo machine and the poor 16mm projector that was used to bore students with grainy, poor-quality instructional programmes – AV technology was non-existent in the classroom during my school career. Regrettably, the situation has not changed in many South African public schools – especially if one compares our classrooms with those in more developed countries.
According to a study done by the University of South Florida, micro computers were being deployed in certain schools in the USA as early as the late 1970’s. By 2002, 87% of America’s public classrooms were connected to the internet. With the integration of instructional technology in the classroom, as well as the rise of technological innovation in society as a whole, skills such as information processing, problem solving and communicating via technology have become essential for the modern student.
According to a white paper released by AVIXA, well designed AV/IT technologies in the learning environment motivate and stimulate students, engage them in topical discussion and promote intellectual curiosity.
Understanding learning spaces
The ‘learning space’ refers to the physical environment where teaching and learning is carried out. Petite spaces, accommodating between 1 to 12 learners, are best for small courses, seminars and postgraduate courses and study groups. Small spaces, accommodating between 15 to 40 learners, are commonly referred to as seminar rooms or lab classrooms, and are designed to promote better communication between students and the educator, and have been shown to positively impact on learner results. Larger rooms, which accommodate groups of between 40 and 150 participants, constitute the majority of spaces on most university campuses. These spaces are often associated with the lowest levels of interaction between educators and participants. However, strong AV/IT design can facilitate a vastly improved learning experience for students in these environments. When designing AV/IT solutions for the various types of learning spaces, it is imperative that you take into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of the learning space and deliver systems that are best suited to the environment that they serve.
Matching technology and methodology
Another consideration that determines the technology requirements is the style of instruction that will be carried out within a learning space. The didactic or lecture mode of instruction involves minimal interaction and collaboration, requiring a simple lecture station and a multimedia solution which allows for unilateral communication, with one speaker addressing many listeners with little or no interaction between participants.
Whole group, collaborative or case study style teaching, on the other hand, encourages conversation and group discussion. The concept of the ‘flipped classroom’ comes into play, whereby students are required to review prescribed content beforehand and use class time to debate and demonstrate the results of their investigations into the topic under discussion. Implementing AV/IT systems that facilitate collaboration and information sharing are very appropriate for these spaces. The concept of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), utilising tablets and smartphones, or user-supplied laptops via a wireless collaboration gateway and shared group or interactive displays may appear in an AV design to support this style of learning.
Where a collaborative philosophy is employed, small groups of between 4 and 9 students are encouraged to engage in active problem-solving around a specific topic and present feedback to the group. A flipped classroom may also apply, where a unilateral style involving a lecturer and listeners is replaced by a multilateral, class led discussion with a facilitator that enables collaborative problem solving between students. A collaborative multimedia solution can be deployed for these spaces, so that students can actively manipulate and share content between themselves and other groups.
Kinesthetic or physical learning is often used in the sciences, such as when learners observe a scientific experiment or process demonstrated in a laboratory setting by an instructor. In these instances, devices such as document and pan tilt zoom (PTZ) cameras focused on physical subject materials have the potential to vastly improve the quality of visibility and therefore the level of participant involvement.
