Future Classroom project, healthy budget!

[supportman]

I've been given a budget of around £5,000 to build a demonstration classroom with the latest IT technologies for teachers.

 

I've built a few rooms on a budget but this is a little different as we want to use it so teachers can go further with IT than before.

 

I'm thinking:

 

- 75" touchscreen (but not sure which one, clevertouch max maybe?)...

- Wireless keyboard and mouse (with some kind of rechargable tray if they exist?)

- OPS computer in back of touch screen

- Webcam functionality with recording possibly at the back of the room

- Some kind of nice furniture or podium for the keyboard and mouse

 

I have no idea really on where to start or what works... Has anyone done a project like this?

Edited June 15, 2022 by supportman

[Roberto]

I have no idea really on where to start or what works... Has anyone dont a project like this?

 

You might start by finding out what and how the teacher of the future will be teaching students of the future in this classroom of the future. I know that sounds like I'm being snarky and maybe I am a little but you can't design a solution until the problem it is trying to solve has been properly defined - and it's the teaching staff who need to be involved with that.

Edited June 15, 2022 by Roberto

[mavhc]

Indeed, how futuristic are we looking? Things you expect to be standard in 5 years, or new ways of teaching?

 

How do you enable collaboration between students and the teacher? How do you make hybrid in school and online classes work better? What software will you use to make everything more efficient? No point having hardware without software.

 

I'd make it standard to record all lessons for people who aren't there. Face tracking room cameras, record the whiteboard, teacher wears a wireless microphone, it's all recorded automatically, and made available to all the students.

[chazzy2501]

A high quality visualiser. Our teachers have the Optoma DC450 they think this has changed teaching for them. (it was just for covid originally)

 

Art department for showing in detail what they are doing. The English department love showing what they are reading.

 

Our English department have the docking station HDMI output go to the visualiser (which is connected to the display) with one button the teacher can switch between the laptop and the visualizer. (very simple)

 

Our Art Department use them via USB like a webcam (using the optoma software) but could use it in teams as content from camera. (which they liked but need training on)

 

 

https://www.avpartsmaster.co.uk/optoma-dc450-visualiser-document-camera-p164893/s164862?gclid=Cj0KCQjwhqaVBhCxARIsAHK1tiOVwtcJm_NTWpZqRaBEOxkXxPbpaDQTwC3jHnLvWHu88tnTsshIXO8aAoy3EALw_wcB

 

Also Maths and MFL are using drawing tablets, instead of the interactive screens, they want to upgrade to wireless versions in the future.

 

I would have all this piped through a docking station on a desk. Not a computer in the screen (but all our staff have laptops)

[steveg]

Is 75" big enough now that 84 are pretty cheap? This is the first year we are moving to the larger screens having had 70's for the last 7 years.

 

Are ops pc's popular with staff? Most want the ability to sit at a desk with their monitor in front of them. Not really demonstrating the latest tech, but just putting in what has been proven to work and be popular!

[mavhc]

1:1 laptops for everyone if you don't already do that, students and all staff

[supportman]

Some really good points here, thanks.

 

I'm going on a learning exercise with some teachers and our head of digital learning to get more research done.

 

Currently looking at clevertouch Max and smart 6000s screens which appear to be top of the range. It will be interesting to compare with the basic newline ones we already have.

 

Also very interested in a visuliser and writing tablets, those sounds like a great idea for tech domonstrations!

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

1:1 laptops for everyone if you don't already do that, students and all staff

 

Yeh we are running a trial with Microsoft Surface SE laptops soon but I want to sort the actual classrooms first so they are ready for all this collaboration.

[Andrew_C]

Multiple outputs from whatever device used for computing.

 

Something like - Laptop screen has MIS and email on it, monitor showing the teacher what is being shown to class.

[dhicks]

Wireless keyboard and mouse (with some kind of rechargable tray if they exist?)

 

We use the Logitech K400 - lasts for a fair while on plain AA batteries, has a touch pad combined with the keyboard so the two separate bits don't wander off.

 

-OPS computer in back of touch screen

- Webcam functionality with recording possibly at the back of the room

 

The OPS PC should treat the touch display as the main display, with an HDMI (or DisplayPort or something) port for a secondary screen, which you could use as a separate screen for the teacher - remember to swap around the "primary screen" settings in Windows. Depending on how you want to do the video recording, you could use the secondary HDMI output to mirror the display and take that into a video switcher and then into a separate PC for recording / live streaming - you might want to budget for a second small workstation / laptop to sit at the back as a dedicated video recording machine. Personally, I think I'd use a PTZ camera at the back of the room with configurable pre-set positions that can be controlled by the teacher with a remote - nice simple interface, not too much to go wrong.

 

If you're going to set up a room to record sound and video in, you might want to add some decent lighting at the point the teacher will be standing and some sound treatment on the walls / ceiling.

 

Some kind of nice furniture or podium for the keyboard and mouse

 

We've got on quite nicely with a decently solid music stand - not expensive, and generally quite light and height-adjustable.

[mavhc]

The number of times I get "the screen is on but it's not working, it's just a blue screen" because they can't tell Duplicate from Extend. Sigh. The thing is to reduce the workload for the teacher, not add to it. Any video recording/streaming needs to be automatic.

 

Stream whatever is on the board (pc or visualiser), except if what's on the board is the video chat with the remote person, in which case stream the camera mounted at the front of the class (and the room microphone), or the face tracking camera pointed at the teacher, along with the teacher's microphone.

 

Picture in Picture the other video sources.

 

Or better yet just stream all 3 so the user can override the default and switch between them.

 

Wire up each student desk with a 4 button voting system that would integrate with software for people running at home, probably just use an API to connect to polls run in the chat of the video chat service. Checking that students are listening and understanding when you can't see all their faces is great.

 

Need a TA to input the 4 options and activate the poll when the teacher asks.

[supportman]

Thanks all, i've taken a lot on board.

 

Current plan is:

 

- Smartboard 6000s

- Logitech K400

- OPS VeryPC Windows 10 machine

- Optoma DC450 Visuliser

- Top-Tec Rubi furniture cabinet stand

[supportman]

The last piece of the jigsaw is an auto tracking PTZ camera at the back of the classroom.

 

Has anyone installed one of these for remote lesson recording? I've had a quick google but hard to find reviews.

[robslack]

You might be better with Laptops and Docking stations then the OPS PC, We have recently removed the PCs in classes for 1:1 Staff Laptops and Docking stations and staff prefer this (After the initial complaints about change!)

[SamanthaD]

As always - don't spec your screen size based on budget. The size of your screen has to be calculated on a per room basis looking at the distance from the furthest viewer, and is a ratio based on screen height and element % height (ie font size) to guarantee visual acuity. There are calculators out there to work this out for you.

 

OPS PC's might be slick and easy, but a PITA when you need to change it out quick because it's broken.

 

Visualisers are great, I suggest getting one without a flatbed (we use Wolfvision vSolution Cam). Flatbed's take up too much space when not in use and just get in the way. The Optoma ones look interesting - just be careful that the in built mics don't connect to the in-room speakers and cause feedback!

 

If you want recording capability then that's a new headache, even more so if you want automatic. Legally you have to tell / show everyone in the room you're recording, even if it's just audio. (We have Sonic Foundry Mediasite installed in over 100 rooms, lectures are automatically recorded but there's also a "record now" feature for Ad Hoc stuff. We have a light to show when recording is taking place. All uploaded to the VLE automatically. It ain't cheap!)

 

TopTec Rubi's are good, but shallow in depth. If you deploy site wide ask for suited keys, makes a world of difference.

 

For me - the one thing that makes everything so much easier is a RS232 control panel. No more remotes for the screens/projectors. Just On, Off and Source buttons, maybe a blank / freeze, and a volume control. All on one panel that never needs batteries. And nested commands, so when you press On it always goes to the default input and volume level every time. Literally turning it off and on again resets everything. Networkable to do scripts and remote monitoring (turn everything off at 10pm? Screen's blank? Let me look... You've got the blank button on) If you're looking at Rubi's they have a control panel housing available, improves the user experience no end IMO!

[supportman]

For me - the one thing that makes everything so much easier is a RS232 control panel. No more remotes for the screens/projectors. Just On, Off and Source buttons, maybe a blank / freeze, and a volume control. All on one panel that never needs batteries. And nested commands, so when you press On it always goes to the default input and volume level every time. Literally turning it off and on again resets everything. Networkable to do scripts and remote monitoring (turn everything off at 10pm? Screen's blank? Let me look... You've got the blank button on) If you're looking at Rubi's they have a control panel housing available, improves the user experience no end IMO!

 

Great insight you have their, sounds like you have a nice setup

 

Can you recomend any RS232 panel? Do they work with all interactive TV's?

[SamanthaD]

Great insight you have their, sounds like you have a nice setup

 

Can you recomend any RS232 panel? Do they work with all interactive TV's?

 

We use Extron - the MLC Plus range is great (mostly MLC Plus 200's with some 100's where there is less inputs to manage). There's no real code to learn, it's all based on drivers so it's more configuring based on simple logic, and training is free. Can be as simple or complex as you want it to be!

[supportman]

Boss has now requested a "Teaching Wall". Budget may have to be increased

 

Has anyone done this before?

 

Do any company provide a flat pack version?

[SamanthaD]

Define a teaching wall, with educational rationale rather than "it looks nice" and with some clear guidelines on who will be creating the content to go on such a high-resolution device.

 

Here pixel pitch has a direct correlation on how far away the closest viewer should be - for every 1mm of pitch the viewer should be 1m away. (ie 2.5mm pixel pitch, closest viewer should be 2.5m away. Try fitting that into a classroom!)

 

Possible, but it aint cheap and I would argue not suitable for a normal classroom setting - a random bag being knocked into it could be quite pricey to replace! All that said have a look at https://displaysolutions.samsung.com/the-wall - this looks promising.

[supportman]

Something like this

 

[steveg]

We use this company https://constellations.uk.com/ for something very similar. Very robust furniture that has stood up to primary school abuse superbly.

[jhothersall]

Get one of these to support video calls for external learners and guest speakers - https://www.youtube.com/c/OwlLabs/videos Its a 360 Degree camera, and we are have one for demo, they are very good.

 

They do cost about £1000, but very impressive (saw them at Bett).

 

Edited June 21, 2022 by jhothersall

[SamanthaD]

Get one of these to support video calls for external learners and guest speakers - https://www.youtube.com/c/OwlLabs/videos Its a 360 Degree camera, and we are have one for demo, they are very good.

 

They do cost about £1000, but very impressive (saw them at Bett).

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]65767[/ATTACH]

 

Did you see the post I put into the Security forum? https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/06/vulnerabilities-in-meeting-owl-videoconference-device-imperil-100k-users/

[mavhc]

As a wise man once side: Hardware people can't write software

[BenQ_Chris]

Hi, here at BenQ we have 3 ranges of interactive screens to offer.

 

RE (Essential) - 65", 75", 86" & 98"Native 4K, Full HD Android OS that upscales to 4KUHD, built in speakers, BenQ Eye Care Technology (low blue light, flicker free & anti glare), FOC cloud based device management, FOC cloud based account system (giving access to cloud storage for PC-less use), FOC cloud based messaging system, FOC network based screen sharing (supporting Windows, mac, Android & iOS) & includes a wall bracket in the box

 

RM (Master) - 65", 75" & 86"Native 4K, 4KUHD Android OS, built in front facing speakers with mic array, BenQ Eye Care Technology (low blue light, flicker free & anti glare), Germ resistant screen & pens, FOC cloud based device management, FOC cloud based account system (giving access to cloud storage for PC-less use),FOC cloud based messaging system, FOC network based screen sharing (supporting Windows, mac, Android & iOS) & includes a wall bracket in the box

 

RP (Pro) - 65", 75" & 86"Native 4K, 4KUHD Android OS, built in front facing speakers with mic array, BenQ Eye Care Technology (low blue light, flicker free & anti glare), Germ resistant screen, CO2 & air quality sensor built in, FOC cloud based device management, FOC cloud based account system (giving access to cloud storage for PC-less use) with supporting NFC card sign on, FOC cloud based messaging system, FOC network based screen sharing (supporting Windows, mac, Android & iOS) & includes a wall bracket in the box

 

On top of all of that, we also offer our new whiteboarding app, EZWrite 6 (full version on RM03, Lite version on RE01 & RP02), this will allow you create interactive and editable whiteboards. We also offer, for the first time a Windows based version so you can plan lessons in advance. As well as an expandable canvas one of the big step forwards with EZWrite 6 is that it enables you to open .iwb files. So if you do have old IWB content, you can either save as a .iwb file (or depending on source software - "export" as a .iwb file).

 

All of the screens above, upon registration, are also covered by a 5 year de/re-install warranty, giving you peace of mind.

 

We also have OPS units and cameras (Full HD, 4K UHD ultra-wide, PTZ), so the hardware is looked after by the same supplier.

 

Prices start from £1686, if you'd like to know more, have any specific questions or would like to arrange a demonstration please let me know.

[mavhc]

What version of Android, and how long do you provide security updates for it? How are the updates installed?