5 Educational Advantages of Incorporating Classroom Projectors into the School Environment

Any member of a school from the teacher to the IT manager could tell you how many times they’ve seen some sort of guide or post on ‘the next best way of sparking engagement within the classroom using this innovative technology’.

However, with budgets tighter than ever before, there is a real strain on schools to find the best ways to enhance the education process without breaking the bank. Its perhaps best then to sometimes take a step back from the technological buzz around you to consider the kind of solutions you’ll be able to realistically incorporate in order to achieve the levels of innovation required.

Whilst Audio Visual equipment is great for making the most out of lesson time, it’s not always the cheapest of technologies to buy for your school, therefore the focus is almost always on what it can do rather than how you are going to be able to incorporate it on your terms.  So, the real question here is, is there a way to spark this engagement using Audio Visual technology without breaking the bank?

Luckily, the answer is quite plain and simple here – enter the trusty breed of classroom projectors. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, you can’t open the blinds and it’s just a matter of time until the loud buzz on the device is finally silenced by the bulb dying out on us mid lesson. Perhaps these were valid points a few years ago but thankfully, gone are the days when a projectors biggest enemy was a rouge beam of sunlight peeking through that crack in the blinds. With advancements in this old faithful technology, projectors have now become just as an effective resource as any other device within the classroom.

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest educational advantages you’ll achieve through incorporating a projector into your classrooms without draining every last bit of your budget.

Student engagement
You don’t need me to tell you that any form of tool or technology employed within the classroom should have one simple goal – to improve learning outcomes for your students through the best levels of engagement possible. However, keeping a class of up to 30 kids engaged with a topic is no mean feat, especially when it may require extended periods of discussion from the class teacher.

With a projector in the classroom however, you really can see the back of desktop daydreamers for good. Picture this: you have an image within a textbook that you’d like to discuss with the class, meaning you need everyone to look down at books but also stay engaged with the discussion. I’d quite happily predict that half of those students would still be looking down at the book once the discussion had started. However, with a projector within the classroom, you can display the chosen image at the front of the classroom. With a focal point in the room you now have 30 students all reviewing the task in unison, with attention already engaged in the right place for the lesson to progress effectively.

One device in particular which enables student engagement is the Epson EB-990U. The split-screen function allows a teacher to display content from two students monitors simultaneously on the board, where the class can then discuss the content on the screens as well as being able to take pride in showcasing their work. Plus, as an added bonus the teacher is able to review the content that is going to be put up on the screen before the rest of the students are able to see it, thus avoiding any sticky situations!

Visual learners
With many students classified as ‘visual learners’, there is an increasing need to cater for their learning style accordingly. Did you know that visual learners remember 75% of educational material when they have an image or physical representation in front of them? Therefore, the introduction of the projector provides the perfect opportunity to enable these learners to make the most out of their lesson time without letting any vital information slip through the cracks.

Interactive lesson plans
It’s all well and good me telling you that by simply incorporating a projector into the classroom you’ll see a boost in student engagement, but what about when the initial wow factor of this new technology starts to wear off? It’s a common theme with any kind of technology, there is always a buzz to begin with but then things settle down into a norm.

This is where a little bit of innovation from you comes into play. Teachers already have a wealth of knowledge of how to best educate their class, but by bringing projectors into the mix, they can also have an array of exciting ways in which they can utilise technology to further this with interactive lesson plans. Be it getting students to come up to the front to participate in an activity or even showing a pre-recorded video exploring another planet, through using visual content – lesson plans can be made more exciting and interactive. If you’re struggling for ideas, why don’t you check out this short article giving you 18 innovative ideas for your classroom projector!

Efficient note taking
There are definitely more innovative uses for a projector in the classroom, but let’s take things back to basics for a second. Many a time I found myself leaning over to someone else’s book or avoiding taking notes because I couldn’t get something wrote down fast enough. This would often result in extra time spent outside the lesson struggling with homework or perhaps not getting it completed at all.

However, all of this could have been avoided were there a visual representation of text alongside the vocal communication from the teacher. It’s great to have the bells and whistles when teaching a class of students, but if they aren’t picking up the basic foundations of the lesson, all of this additional hard work is left jeopardised.

If it’s the simpler things such as making sure students are able to take the most effective notes, then the EB-X27 projector from Epson may be perfectly suited to your needs. Balancing price and performance, this offering from our partners at Epson ensures that you’re able to showcase all of the important classroom resource required on the screen, without the 4 figure price tags to match.

Better student presentations
So, through using a projector you can get students engaged with learning when they’re in the classroom, but how about sparking this engagement for learning once they’ve walked out of the door? Well similar to how a teacher can deliver exciting lessons, through using an interactive resource such as a projector, students are able to create exciting and informative presentations which are more likely to help them get their message across than using speech alone.

Alongside this, you can also see how better student presentations can also aid the engagement of other students within the classroom. If students are struggling to engage with vocal conversations with a teacher, the chances are that this will be the same case with their fellow students. Through enabling students to deliver effective and interactive presentations, they’ll not only further their own understanding of a subject but also that of their classmates.

So, there you have it, 5 of the biggest educational advantages that can be gained through incorporating a projector into the classroom environment. Ranging from basic to advanced uses, projectors are clearly offering students and teachers alike a platform in which then can excel in teaching and learning through technology. If you’d like to further investigate the advantages of classroom projectors within education – why not check out three of the most innovative solutions coming from our partners Epson by finding out more below.