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Education Research in the SynergyNet Classroom
During October and November 2010, six schools visiting the SynergyNet Classroom in groups of 16. Spending up to 5 hours in the lab, these groups of ten-year olds had the opportunity to become familiar with the tables (with activities like asteroids, pebble pool and jigsaws)
The groups completed a number of maths and history tasks to allow the team to begin to answer questions about the differences between single and multiple groups working on these tasks, the manner in which the networked tables and screens supported whole-class discussion of the activities, and differences in table orientation (traditional or centered).
The image below shows a group of school children in the centered classroom with Prof Steve Higgins.
Opening up the process
Tom Barrett took time out from teaching to visit us in Durham. It is exciting to discuss the potential for multi-touch desks in classrooms with somebody who understands and has experience of the technology. Tom has agreed to facilitate the open nature in which we want to run the project – both from a technology and a process perspective.
To this end, Tom has setup a flickr group where we are inviting educators to submit their ideas for applications of multi-touch in the classroom.
On his blog, Tom has also shared some of the video he took during our visit.