How Interactive Flat Panels Improve Student Engagement and Retention...

 

How Interactive Flat Panels Improve Student Engagement and Retention

Do students truly become smarter because of the use of technology?

This question is being asked in today’s classrooms. Interactive Flat Panels (IFPs) are a far cry from boring, static, whiteboards. These are not simply large monitors; they are multi touch, engaging pieces of teaching equipment meant to capture interest, help in retention and ensure mastery of the concepts. But what’s the magic behind a screen and the ability to enhance learning? Let’s see if we can take this apart.

1. Transforming Passive Learning into Active Learning

In most teaching-learning situations, instructors adopt the ‘chalk and talk’ technique, where the teacher explains, and the learners mindlessly listen. Such a situation provides very little opportunities for active involvement which, in turn, encourages the learners to drift away.

This is where Interactive flat panels can change the ‘passive’ to ‘active’ perspective for teaching. Changing the digital content and the ability to draw, write, and annotate content makes lessons exciting. Rather than being passive recipients, learners now physically engage and in the process touch and manipulate the content. Research proves that this is a more effective way to learn as the learners are more engaged in the process.

In a mathematics class, for instance, a teacher can solve step-by-step equations and in the process ask the learners to solve the equations, for example, and then go and solve the equations directly on the panel. The learners are active and alert and in the process strengthen their retention.

2. Catering to Different Learning Styles

Students learn in different ways.​ Some learn through observation while others through listening, and a large part is through doing and practice. Interactive flat panels accommodate any and all of these learning styles:

• The visual learner engages with animated videos and various colourful charts.

• Auditory learners listen to audio recordings, discussions, and explanation clips.

• The kinaesthetic learner engages physically with the lesson by touching, dragging, and drawing on the lesson on the screen.

By providing multiple learning styles through a single platform, IFPs make sure every student is accounted for. This in turn, greatly increases both engagement and knowledge retention.

3. Encouraging Collaboration and Teamwork

In the modern world, collaboration is an imperative skill, and interactive flat panels promote it. Instead of one-sided lectures, students can engage in group activities around the same panel. 

In a science class, a group of students could brainstorm an experiment and stick notes and other diagrams on the panel. In history, learners can build a timeline together, and in language classes, groups can collaboratively edit and rewrite a story in real time.

Collaborative learning promotes: 

• Increased interaction and collaboration among students 

• Enhanced communication skills

• Increased self-direction in the learning process

Students are more likely to commit to memory the concepts and ideas which they actively work on and shape.

4. Integrating Multimedia for Better Understanding

To hear information and read it is not enough and this is why it is forgotten so fast. Studies have indicated that pupils learn better and remember information easily if lessons are accompanied by multiple types of media.

Multimedia instructional tools provide faculties with capabilities such as:

• Full-motion video and flourishing animations.

• Representable and dynamic illustrations.

• Enhanced real-time control devices.

• Responsive applications with immediate assessments.

As an illustration, students are not only constrained to reading about the solar system. They can view and interact with its 3D animated model and control the planets to spin, zoom, and even orbit. This makes it easier, more enjoyable, and most importantly, more effective.

5. Immediate Feedback and Assessment

In addition to increasing engagement and retention, IFPs also help give immediate feedback. This can be in the form of quizzes, polls, or problem-solving activities in which the teacher can have their students submit answers either through the panel or by using a connected device.

The immediate feedback allows students to:

• Amend errors immediately

• Reinforce concepts they just learned

• Remain motivated by viewing their progress in real-time

This formative assessment regarding their knowledge helps students stay engaged and informed about potential learning gaps.

6. Making Learning More Accessible

Interactive flat panels also provide inclusivity in the classroom. Screen magnification, text-to-speech, or captioned videos are some of the features that can help students with special needs to have learning presented to them in an accessible manner. Lessons can also be recorded and stored for students who may want or need to refer back to it later to help them process the information.

IFPs helpfully enhance and support that every learner can access the materials in a manner that frames the learning around their needs, and they improve the likelihood of engagement and enhance retention in learning overall.

7. Preparing Students for a Tech-Driven Future

When students can relate their learning to the real world, they are more engaged and thus more likely to retain the information and skills learned. Interactive flat panels introduce students to digital tools and technology that resemble learning in higher education and professional environments.

By assimilating the use of interactive displays, touch panel technology, digital collaboration, and multimedia tools, students will be more prepared for 21st-century workplaces. When it feels like learning is practical and forward-facing, it is more lasting and impactful.

8. Saving and Revisiting Lessons

IFPs have one of the biggest advantages of being able to save whole lessons with annotations, sketches, and notes with a click of the button so students can come back to these saved lessons later and build understanding over time.

Being able to save the lessons in this way enables the students to support long-term retention, because they can revisit the material as many times as needed (especially before exams or projects) and they can refer to these saved lessons rather than only their notes.

Conclusion

Interactive Flat Panels are not just digital whiteboards, they are game-changers that re-imagine how students learn, collaborate, and retain information. Interactive Flat Panels bridge the gap between passive learning and active participation, they reach all modes of learning, and implement media into a students' environment with instant feedback. All of these factors contribute to an interactive classroom that builds equity and buzz. The positive outcomes of IFPs are two-fold, they promote 21st century learning by preparing learners who have yet to adapt to technology, and they create an interactive environment that allows students to save lessons for revisitation and retain the content in the long-term. Therefore, Interactive Flat Panels are not just the latest technology in the modern classroom, but rather a new way to think about the classroom environment altogether.