I was delighted to receive a video this week from Andrew Hatch from Durham University and the SynergyNet Project. In it he explains and demonstrates some further features of networked multitouch desks that the team have been developing.
Just to recap what was demonstrated:
Menu hiding on student desks.
Remote load of application or content.
Synchronise content layout to student desks.
Independent updates and action on the desks.
Changes on teacher desk updated on other student desks, including adding new content.
On screen keyboard in the note application.
Lock student desk content.
Clear student desk content.
Complete synchronisation between two tables – allowing for collaboration.
Further to the simple act of passing content from one table to the next, these features really begin to structure the way a whole class might work using multitouch. Once again this is one of the main aims of this project, to explore and develop the whole environment not just one single device.
What do you think? I am excited to see these developments and it gives me a much clearer idea as to how the whole classroom may function.
Before Christmas I was lucky enough to visit the Technology-Enhanced Learning team at Durham University and learn more about their extended research into multi-touch desks and building a classroom environment that made the most of this technology.
Yesterday I returned for my second visit and caught up with their developments and also discussed my own recent experiences of using the SMART Table in my classroom.
Since I was last with them they have made some very important steps forward, including:
Installed a 10 camera/mic ceiling rig in their main laboratory to record and document students working on the multi-touch desks. (They are building their own video review software to best review, tag and explore the resulting evidence)
Conducted early primary pupil investigations, with the children completing some simple group tasks on the tables. As I said to the team in my first visit, once children are using the devices all of the bugs and glitches will be pointed out!
Finalised the build of the table hardware, unfortunately they have had trouble with the first prototype and it was on its way back to Germany so I didn’t get a chance to see it.
Completed the second build of their multi-touch software.
The most significant step for me, really illustrates the direction this project is heading – they are not just developing stand alone devices but how the environment can work together. It is about how children can work together and communicate and how the multi-touch technology can facilitate this. In this film you will see what I mean!
We talked about the potential of a mobile device for the teacher in the multi-touch classroom – perhaps adding comments and content to the children’s table on the fly. In a similar way to the iPhone contacts application Bump. Another crucial discussion was about the importance of building a framework of activity creation so that teachers would be able to quickly build appropriate tasks and make the most of this sort of environment.
I am always excited to see the work this very talented team are up to and once again I wasn’t disappointed. They have invited me to write an academic paper with them about my experiences of creating learning content for multi-touch and also to attend a steering group meeting in November. The next update about the work Durham are doing may be before then as I am hoping to get hold of their software and help them develop it over the coming months.
By the end of next week we will have installed a SMART Table in my classroom. We are part of a small scale (3 school) seedling pilot here in England. As you can imagine, I am excited to further explore what such a device might offer within the primary classroom, and to do so over a longer period.
In my experience there was a muted reaction to the SMART Table (and other interactive multi-touch technologies) at the recent BETT show in London. Clearly the first reactions are hugely positive, I remember using the Philips Entertaible for the first time back in July 2006 – big iPhones! However there were very important, lingering questions that soon simmered to the surface when I talked with Christian Lortz, the product manager for the SMART Table.
My approach to the IWB has been the same since we began using them in 2002, it is not about the device but about the application – it is what you do with it that counts. The IWB is a big control device for your computer. The SMART Table is much the same with the added feature of multiple users. When you work with 9 and 10 year olds you realise that such novelty very quickly wears thin.
These are some fo the ideas and questions I have in mind in the run up to working with the SMART Table.
Depth
I am looking forward to exploring the types of software that can be written that takes full advantage of multiple users. At the moment the brief applications offer little in depth learning activities. With my own year group I suppose I want children to be able to engage with an activity independently or collaboratively for between 15-20 minutes. Not all the time of course, but in my experience children will work through things quicker then anticipated.
I hope our work with the SMART Table will help define software and applications of greater learning depth then what I have seen in the past. Beyond the initial novelty, leading to richer enhanced learning opportunities.
User Profile
How do you track what individuals contribute to an activity? This is an important question for the adolescent multi-touch table. As a child approaches the table, I want their individual contribution to be tracked and monitored as an activity progresses. Who contributes most when working in a group? Who sits back?
Enhance or dilute?
The jury is out. A ready device is on it’s way to my classroom and I hope that in time the learning activities that can be provided for my class will enhance what we already do. Let’s hope that path is swift and the quality of what already is taking place in my classroom is not diluted by the novelty of multi-touch.
Can you stack them?
This was a question I put to the team at Durham University about the design of a suitable multi-touch table for the primary classroom. Mostly serious, I was keen to point out that I want furniture to be flexible so that I can clear room for a drama session or party. A stackable table-top device would be ideal. I am interested to see how the SMART Table integrates into our busy room and what the children make of it’s design. Will they be too big to sit around it comfortably?
Collaborate
We have explored the way that children can collaborate using Google Docs and their own laptop. This also includes the difficulties they often face. So I am keen to see how well they work in a more open, physical digital space. Will the manual style of collaboration change the way they work compared to working as a team in a Google Doc? Again I hope that software is developed that provides more in depth collaboration opportunities, perhaps over a longer period of time.
Of course I will be taking the opportunity to write about our experiences with the SMART Table in blog posts and via my Twitter and Flickr feed. I may even push the boat out and start a new Twitter account for our kids to document what they think.
I have been following the progression of multi-touch technology in primary education for about 4 years now and have been fortunate enough to see and use devices such as the Philips Entertaible in our school, and the early stages of the Durham University Synergy Net project. Looking back on someoftheposts that I have written on the subject, there is a refrain about how long it will be before we see these devices in our classrooms.
Well they are here, ready to go. But once again the key thing is to quickly get beyond the novelty and develop applications that go beyond what can be conventionally done and seek out true learning enhancement.
What key issues do you think need to be addressed in regard to a multi-touch device? Does the SMART Table really have the potential to further enhance what we do in the primary classroom? If you have used one, what were your first impressions and what applications do you think have a future with such a device?
If you would like to contribute further to the concept of multi-touch desk development then please consider joining my Classroom 2.0 group.
For the first time in 2006 I saw a multi-touch device in action in the labs of Philips in Eindhoven. Just recently the wave of multi-touch devices has grown and this is especially clear in the use of mobile phones (also my iPod looks different). I suffered from iPhone envy when I was in Glasgow for the SLF as so many people had them, pinching and flicking their way through mobile content. A month or so after I returned from Eindhoven I wrote that perhaps the IWB had past it’s sell by date. What I am aware of now, that admittedly I wasn’t at the time of that post, is how much research and development needs to be done for multi-touch to be a strong enough technology for the average classroom.
Multi-touch technology in phones such as the iPhone, G1, Samsung Anycall SPH-M4650 and the new LG KF900 places it in the mainstream and can only accelerate the advancement of similar learning technologies.
The first consumer oriented multi-touch PC (ready for Windows 7) in the shape of the HP Touchsmart tx2 is available now and has a whole raft of gestures for the user to take advantage of:
SINGLE, DOUBLE TAP: Select objects by touching them once (single tap), or double tap to open objects/programs.
FLICK: Scroll or pan within an application either horizontally or vertically. For example, in MediaSmart Photo, flick your finger to the left on the display and the inertia from your flick will move the photos leftward, just as if you pushed a piece of paper to the left on a table.
PRESS & DRAG: Touch an object on the display and hold and drag it to the desired destination.
ARC: Allows you to move tracks to/from playlists without having to make a straight line.
PINCH: Touch an object on the display once to select the item then place 2 fingers on opposite corners of the object, then move them closer together to decrease the object’s size or to zoom out. Move fingers away from one another to enlarge the object or to zoom in.
ROTATE: Rotate photos by touching the object once to select the item then use 2 fingers on opposite corners of the image and rotate the image either clockwise or counter-clockwise.
LAUNCH MEDIASMART: Touch the screen with two fingers together and write the letter m on the display to launch the MediaSmart Smart Menu.
My involvement with Durham University has made me realise that multi-touch is still a fledgling in terms of mainstream classroom technology. They are at the very beginning of four years of research into what multi-touch means for the classroom, so I was surprised to see the SMART Table being released.
On one hand you have an expensive device available for the classroom now and on the other academics still trying to find the answers questions about multiple touch interactivity and how this impacts on collaborative learning and pedagogy. I hope that soon I will be able to see the SMART Table in action and perhaps sound out Steljes, the SMART distributor here in the UK, about the future of multi-touch and what they foresee,
I have had a SMARTBoard in my classroom for five years and I think that multi-touch devices will become a standard for mobile technology, more and more PCs will take advantage of it, to the benefit of future classroom technology. But what is beyond that? Will mainstream multi-touch devices just remain in the hands of our students and be brought into our schools? Will it take so long for all schools to actually be able to afford multi-touch devices that the next development for user/learner information interaction is already becoming a reality?
Yesterday I visited Durham’s Technology-Enhanced Learning Research group who had invited me to see their multi-touch interactive desk that hit the headlines recently. It was in fact my Mum who sent me a newspaper clipping about the device and following my TeachMeet presentation Dr Liz Burd invited me to visit.
It is always thrilling to see the birth place of new technologies and I have been priveleged to have seen two such concept labs. It is motivating and inspiring to meet innovative people such as the team working at Durham University and equally exciting to hear their open philosophy towards the interactive desk development.
The interactive desk is one element of a much bigger picture approach to this research and development looking to redefine what a collaborative learning environment can be. Durham have won funding for 4 years for the project. It is very refreshing as it is not just about a single device or product but deals with as they state in their grant proposal “the design of an educational technology that is strongly supportive of social pedagogy.” They call the wider learning environment concept “SynergyNet”.
This learning environment will be technology rich, where ICT is seamlessly integrated into the fabric of a classroom but the technology does not intrude on the main focus of the activity (Smith and Harrison 2001). Our enthusiastic claims for the positive impact of this technology on learning are based on its ability to facilitate classroom dialogue and pupil collaboration. Central to SynergyNet is a new form of desk that contains a large built-in multi-touch surface.
The team go on to explain that:
This research aligns directly to TLRPs (Teaching and Learning Research Programme) evidence-informed pedagogic Principle 7 (James and Pollard, 2007) that effective teaching and learning foster not only individual but also social processes and outcomes. Thus this research aims:
Aim 1: To create a radically new technology-rich learning environment that integrates with traditional classroom layouts and collective activities.
Aim 2: To design and implement a new form of user interface for educational multi-touch systems.
Aim 3: To formulate a new pedagogy that eases transition and movement between teacher-centric and pupil centric interaction.
Aim 4: To analyse pupils’ learning strategies to inform fundamental research by capturing data as pupils use the SynergyNet environment
Doctors Liz Burd, Andrew Hatch (seated in the picture above) and Phyo Kyaw played as my hosts for the day and showed me their Techno Cafe which was the inspiration for the SynergyNet project. It was an informal learning space for leactures and seminars, divided up into small booths in the style of a diner. Each booth was rich with technology: SMARTBoard, hard wiring available for tablets and other devices, speakers, cameras to monitor the activity in the booths from a central teacher’s podium.
The multi-touch desk itself has been developed with learning in mind from the beginning and actually using it was very exciting. However the design was unexpected, it was a large podium with the surface itself at about a 40 degree angle. The surface itself was a synthetic fabric like a drum skin and Liz Burd explain that they had tried all sorts of different surfaces to facilitate touch and she thought a tracing paper texture would be ideal.
As I have said the open approach to the project was a refreshing change and they openly encouraged me to take pictures and video and to blog about the project. Here are three videos I took currently available on YouTube – please use them in your own blog posts and to show staff to instigate discussion.
Both of these simple application are very much to prove the code and application architecture that underpins the use of the device. You can see that they are simple and rudimentary but this is the first step. We talked about the possibilities of applications and I was delighted to hear that Liz, Andrew and Phyo would be willing to take ideas and contributions from educators who are working with a range of different age groups.
This is the inner workings of the device and you can see the projector/camera/infra red construction, again their willingness for me to film “behind the scenes” underlines their open source philosophy to many of the project elements.
In fact the project’s research outcomes clearly state these ideas:
A revolutionary learning environment using integrated ICT – We will develop free, open-source software to enable pupils to use the SynergyNet multi-touch tables and teachers to control the immersive classroom environment.
A new integrated pedagogy – Through the use and the design of the SynergyNet environment, we will evolve a new technology-supported social pedagogy.
A data capture system – We will develop free, open-source software to enable researchers automatically to capture video and audio data and simultaneously record user-interactions with PC or multi-touch technology.
A data-rich repository of classroom activity – We will record pupils’ collaborative exchanges (verbal and non-verbal) as they use the system. This will used to inform the evaluation and evolution of the research but the richness of the data means that it has great potential to support other research projects within TLRP and beyond.
Our final conversation of the day centred on the next steps for the SynergyNet project and I raised the huge potential that social networking tools have in terms of gathering ideas and insight from wider education communities. I have agreed to help the team from Durham to facilitate the way our networks can make an impact on this research and how the voices of many teachers and educators could contribute to their project aims.
You have the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing development of this exciting project as at this stage the team need ideas. Contribute your ideas and thoughts for development using the newly created Flickr group “Multi-Touch Interactive Desk: Applications and Gesture Ideas”
You can contribute in two ways.
Possible learning activities from any age range that would benefit from multi-touch capabilities. Upload screenshots or photos of classroom activities that could be transformed with multi-touch. Ensure you explain what you are adding and your ideas for how it could be improved.
It is also a place to suggest gestures that could be developed for the device, think the iPhone “pinch” and “twist” but what else would you like? Upload a diagram or better still a short video of the gesture and what it would do.
The potential for this project is huge and if it continues to listen to the voices of wider communities it should have a strong and exciting future. No doubt we will explore the prospects of other online tools to gather your ideas but for now take a look again at the films and think what could you have done differently in your classroom with that sort of tool? What activities could you imagine with many of these desks working together in a classroom? Why not show your students the films and encourage them to suggest their ideas.
I know that the team would love to hear your comments, reactions and learning activity ideas – whether here, on the YouTube videos or with an image or video contribution to the Flickr group. I think this is a wonderful opportunity for us to help define the future of classroom interactive devices and not just be the consumer, so please get the word out and let’s see if we can make a difference.
You never know maybe in years to come you will have these devices at your school and you could say you played your part.
