Teaching Untethered – The Power of Wireless Display in the Classroom

The power of wireless technology to remove the physical barriers separating teachers from students and moving teachers into the “Power Zone.”

The Power Zone is widely considered one of the five fundamentals of exceptional instruction, as outlined in the 2021 book The Fundamental Five Revisited by Sean Cain, Mike Laird, Sherilynn Cotten, and Jayne Ellspermann. Often described as teaching in the “Power Zone,” more teachers are being reminded that physical proximity is key to reaching students. As teachers are less bound to the whiteboard and their traditional position at the front of the classroom, research shows that the proximity of teacher and student is the glue that binds and amplifies all teaching practices. The freedom for teachers to dynamically change position in the classroom that has come with innovations like wireless display technology and screen mirroring increases engagement with students and presents many other powerful, transformative possibilities for teachers and students. The vast potential of today’s wireless classroom has come with the technology designed by a handful of forward-looking companies. However, not all classroom technology promotes teaching in the “Power Zone.”

The proven effectiveness of wireless content sharing is just a first step towards untethering teachers from technology that so often pins them at the front of the classroom. Author, Doug Lemov, in his best-selling book Teach Like a Champion, describes this move to be closer to students as “Breaking the Plane”; getting past the invisible line that runs across the center of the room to get to the spaces where teachers can engage better with students. Even with a full classroom, breaking that imaginary plane and teaching untethered can create a sense of closeness that approaches one-to-one teaching. Whether during instruction or monitoring, this new sense of sharing space with students profoundly influences the learning process. It’s no wonder that it has become known as the “Power Zone” for teachers.

Ironically, as more advanced technology has arrived in classrooms, not all of it supports the teacher’s ability to move around the classroom. Innovations like interactive flat panels (IFPs) and supporting software, while useful, seem to adhere to an older paradigm, often drawing the instructor back to the front of the classroom to touch a screen or change a program. This type of technology causes the teacher to have to pause to attend to the technology and creates an unfortunate shift away from personal contact–away from the “Power Zone”. So, it’s not a surprise that technology that focuses on wireless presentation and wireless screen mirroring can be so liberating for teachers who have discovered the power of connecting with students as they move more freely around the classroom.

Why Starting with Wireless Just Makes Sense
How all-in-one displays keep teachers tied to the front of the classroom –
And why this is bad in today’s learning environment. Read the whitepaper.

Putting Teachers in “The Zone”

The ScreenBeam 1000 EDU Gen 2 next-generation classroom technology gets teachers closer to students with its affordable wireless content sharing from any device. There’s also an included whiteboard application. This smart and easy wireless presentation was designed with the classroom in mind, allowing teachers and students to share interactive and collaborative classroom experiences that inspire learning. With ScreenBeam’s 1000 EDU Gen 2 wireless receiver deployed with an inexpensive touch display, classrooms can engage and collaborate in new and dynamic ways. In addition to these powerful teaching tools, schools can take advantage of the unit’s user-friendly digital signage and graphic presentation software so that otherwise idle displays can be employed to educate, inform, and alert staff, students, and guests.

For 1:1 classroom environments where each student works with a device, ScreenBeam also offers a cloud-based service called Orchestrate that combines wireless presentation and screen sharing abilities with even more powerful instructional tools and classroom management. Unlike other classroom management tools that are focused primarily on device monitoring and control, Orchestrate adds classroom management in a way that puts teaching first by promoting a student-centric approach to instruction. Orchestrate uniquely provides classroom management while facilitating teacher mobility, touch screen interactivity, and student wireless presentation, improving behavior and learning outcomes.

Watch video: Orchestrate by ScreenBeam enables a unique combination of powerful instructional tools, classroom management, and wireless display in one simple application.

About ScreenBeam

Based in San Jose, CA USA, ScreenBeam manufactures award-winning wireless content-sharing and collaboration solutions that enable collaboration in work and learning spaces, including hybrid environments. ScreenBeam solutions, including wireless display and wireless presentation for education, are designed to be easy to deploy, use, and maintain; increase engagement; and drive positive outcomes. ScreenBeam launched the first Wi-Fi-certified wireless display receiver to the market and developed the world’s first enterprise-class Miracast™ receiver for dense enterprise environments. ScreenBeam is the only co-engineering partner for Microsoft’s implementation of Miracast in Microsoft Windows operating systems and Microsoft 365.