Smart Classrooms

Smart Classrooms are technology enhanced classrooms that foster opportunities for teaching and learning by integrating learning technology, such as computers, specialized software, audience response technology, assistive listening devices, networking, and audio/visual capabilities. Classroom Services leads the support, design, and planning for campus learning spaces.

·         The Benefits of Going for Smart Classrooms in your Education Institution

• ·         We all know how helpful it is to remember something that is taught visually to us rather than the one that is read through pages after pages. Just imagine, how beneficial would it be for students to understand a chapter visually in class. The concept of smart class education is indeed a blessing to the students of the 21st Century. Technology is changing the way life functions and if it’s for the good, then why not go for it!
  
  

• ·         Smart classes use all interactive modules like videos and presentations and these visually attractive methods of teaching becomes appealing to students who are already struggling with the traditional method of teaching in a classroom. In fact, smart classes are almost like watching movies as sometimes, animated visuals are used to teach a point. This kind of visual is both eye-catching and young students can easily relate with them. This is because the audio-visual senses of students are targeted and it helps the students store the information fast and more effectively. And then, there is the advantage of utilizing much of the time wasted earlier in drawing or preparing diagrams on board. Smart boards have all these information in memory and can be presented during the time of class lectures and thus, the time saved can be used in more important things.
• ·         Some students and teachers have problems with chalk dust and they tend to suffer from allergic reactions. The smart boards saves you from such distress and won’t let you develop any health issues later. Smart boards are a lot smarter when it comes to field trips which is impossible with textbooks. A field trip to the deserts of Sahara or the rain forests of the Amazon basin becomes easy with visuals in the smart boards of smart classroom. These visuals are definitely more attractive than those descriptions in a few lines of a textbook.
  •      One of the main reasons behind the constant increase in popularity of smart classes is the fact that this kind of education is perfect for all kinds of students. A classroom has students with varied power of understanding and learning, and studying from notes and other materials becomes difficult for some students. But the use of smart classes and modern technology eases the learning process for all students. Moreover, this kind of education in class promotes more interaction between teacher and student with more participation from both sides
  • ·         When you take the negative side of this kind of smart education, there are just a few when compared to the myriad advantages it offers to students. Some technical fault that might arise during a class lecture is a common concern among those lobbying against smart technologies in classroom education. Then, there is the costing factor as well that is preventing schools to adopt this technology. With smart education comes the problem of high cost of education.The possibilities or advantages of smart classrooms are endless. Although adopting such a new concept might be a tough decision for many, but the technology can create a new opening for the education sector.

SMART CLASSES FOR IMPROVEMENT IN COMMUNICATIVE ENGLISH-

In the modern era there is hardly anyone who can keep away from the mainstream technology. English speaker's smart class is the first of this kind making use of 21st century's technical revolution in education by digitalizing classrooms as the real substitute for traditional classrooms. As a part of linking language with technology smart classroom helps students to set up activity room for English to acquire accent and fluency. It minimizes the work of teacher. Along with the software, books, audio visual equipment furniture and trainer ,some activities to increase speaking skills can be arranged. This helps to have interaction. In an audio visual room of this sort learning is in a new environment enjoyable and sometimes funny without formal textbooks. There is no need of expertise to handle a smart class, but a teacher with even less knowledge can do it profitably as the handbook supplied along with it guides and eases teaching. Finally, the smart classroom is not simply meant for English alone but can be a classroom for teaching other subjects too. Language is the basis of all communication that has made possible all the advancements. As far as language is concerned English is playing an important role in our system as well as in national life. It has greatly contributed to the growth of knowledge in India. English has 4 important skills. Listening and speaking can be learnt from the environment, reading skill requires efforts and it is important from academic point of view too. But, these skills must be practiced at primary level. It is commonly experienced that if child don't learn to read by third grade, then he can't read to learn. Earlier researches in the field of linguistics reveal that nearly 8% of children suffer from reading difficulties who remain under-achievers.
Smart classroom are good to overcome this problem. Through proper audio-visual presentations, students get maximum sensory experience. An independent study by Eugene Research Institute reveals that 5th% graders who participate in smart classroom are 60% more likely to reach state reading benchmarks than those who do not participate. According to Lincoln(1992) without the images to create meaning in the words, children will not read. Glasser (2001) states that children only understand 10% of what is read but 80% of what is experienced. It can be improved by giving students the opportunities to work with or experience the reading passage.
Moreover, reading skills and academic achievement are related. Smart classrooms through various interactive modes, present different topics from different subjects. These are easily understood by the learners and academic achievement is affected. Trifonas(2004) argues that a text is a set of "lexical or visual signs" that acts as cues to guide the reader's mental decoding and meaning-making operations. Sevindik (2007) determined the effectiveness of smart classrooms on academic achievement of nursing students. The finding showed that lectures given through smart classroom increased academic achievement. In another study, to measure the effectiveness of Educomp smart classrooms, D and B street information service India Pvt. Ltd. (2010), it was reported that the educomp smart class program has a larger impact on two of the three key learning goals of all students-comprehension and retention. The Educomp smart class program has an over all positive impact on students more in terms of generating curiosity and grasping complex concepts rather than capturing attention, while it help teachers in managing time better. Becker (2005) argues that the kind of active learning necessary to master principles and concepts and explain student work is easier to implement in a technology-rich environment where "students have a rich array of information to work with, when communications structures enable students to pose relevant questions to appropriate individuals…and when technology based tools such as databases, analytic software and composition software help them to extract understanding from information".