Teaching with technology can be a daunting task for many teachers and it can require extra time and effort to integrate it into the classroom. Fortunately, there are some fantastic tools out there that have made life easier and even include tons of free professional development to guide best practices. However, even with these great tools at the ready, teachers are being limited because they are stuck to the projector or display by a long cable. What can be done to get the most out of these tools and these devices?
With any Windows 10 enabled laptop, tablet, 2-in-1, or mobile device teachers can connect to their projectors wirelessly with ScreenBeam. If you know how to plug in a computer to a display, then you know how to connect a ScreenBeam device. Now that you’re free to move about the classroom, here are three great tools that get the wires out of the way and let the instruction take center stage.
- Cutting the Cord with Microsoft OneNote
If you haven’t heard of OneNote then this is a great day for you! OneNote is an educational gem nestled in a productivity juggernaut. Seriously, I have seen a teacher cry when she saw all the great things she could do with OneNote. However, if you are using it as an everyday instructional tool, as many do, you need to be able to move around your classroom, take digital notes, capture evidence of student work, share the device with students and more. By connecting to ScreenBeam you automatically increase the usefulness of OneNote because you are not limited to being stuck at the front of the room. Look at some of these great OneNote videos and click here for some free professional development.
- Moving into Augmented Reality Instruction with LifeLiqe
Lifeliqe (pronounced “life-like”) is a platform that houses more than 1,000 moving models created by eCorinth. These models are arranged in categories like human biology, paleontology, plant biology, geometry, chemistry, physics and more. The great thing about these models is that they can be viewed on the screen in three different ways: flat, virtual, or my favorite – augmented reality. Think of it like Pokemon Go with educational content. Hopefully you can already see the educational “hooks” that this can bring to any classroom teacher but wouldn’t it be better if you could move outside of the range of where the cord connects to the computer to place an animated, 3D, AR version of a Bohr model of Helium on a student’s desk to record a video of their explanation of the electrons orbiting the nucleus? Yes, this is possible with LifeLiqe AND ScreenBeam! Check it out LifeLiqe in the Windows Store here!
- Recording Lessons and Building a Resource Library with Office Mix
If you’re like me, you’ve got favorite lessons that you love to teach. As a technology teacher, mine were always around the introduction to coding and seeing the student’s brains light up when they ran their first command line…and it worked. Office Mix is a tool that uses Power Point to allow you to combine recorded screen casts, HD video, audio instructions, digital inking and even quiz content into a lesson that you can use and distribute for more than just the students sitting in your classroom. It is a very powerful e-learning tool that is free and even hosts the content for free! With Office Mix and ScreenBeam you can cut the cord and place your computer anywhere in the room while recording lesson content and teaching at the same time. After that, the possibilities are endless as to what you can do.
At its core ScreenBeam is an access point connecting your device to a screen wirelessly. However, it also allows teachers and students to access the technology they are given to the point where it just makes sense in today’s classroom. Students and teachers stream audio and video without wires everyday outside the classroom, why are we still connecting with wires inside the classroom?
David Lopez
Director, Edu Strategy at ScreenBeam
Helping education technology leaders rethink the modern classroom.
Tampa, Florida, United States