Presentation products for interactive classrooms (some call flipped classrooms) and collaborative spaces (may be called huddle or team spaces) have seen some new systems to help with the group interactive learning process in the last year. SMART or other electronic white boards lead the process but new products that support the use of your personal device or BYOD and personal web conference capabilities are making collaboration even more dynamic.
Here are just a few of the devices Thorburn Associates is reviewing to see if they really do make interactive collaboration easier and more productive:
Mersive Solstice – Wireless BYOD: Link
This has the best combination of features and cost-effectiveness you can find in a BYOD wireless device currently in the marketplace. At its base it is a BYOD wireless sharing device, but it has capabilities like those in the video link above that make it a fantastic tool for classroom or collaborative meeting spaces. The down side is you have to put it on the campus network, or it lives on a private BYOD network that will need to be approved by the IT department. However, there are tricks to place it on wired internal networks for secure sharing while allowing guest users access to the device’s access point.
Microsoft Surface Hub: Link
Wouldn’t it be cool to have a giant, table-sized Microsoft Surface tablet which also has Xbox cameras, added white boarding/annotation, and web conference abilities? After many delays in production, this is now the leading edge of interactive displays for all kinds of spaces.
There are also some interesting ideas as to how best deploy these so that people use them properly. This link has some good examples of ways furniture and collaboration can complement each other: http://on.mash.to/2n5iBON .
Huddlewall Interactive Projector System: Link
You say that your group needs to interact with and view up to 20 feet worth of desktop at one time? If so, then this is a great tool for larger scale collaborations. It is run from a PC that can also be used to connect to web conferences, wireless BYOD endpoints, and other tools to expand its capabilities. The pen writing on paper is a neat trick too!
T1V ThinkHub: Video Link
You like the larger space offered by the Huddlewall solution, but you want to impress everyone with image quality (and your expendable income)? Then the T1V ThinkHub solution on a video wall may be right for you. The same software package may be used on individual displays as well for any number of applications.
These are just a few of the latest products, but they are part of a larger industry trend to incorporate as many people sharing and interacting as possible. These products can be found in classrooms, corporate brainstorming spaces, public displays, and many other locations as more and more end users discover their benefits. This trend is here to stay and if we do say so – it’s pretty awesome! But do not blink this is a photograph in time, these will all be surpassed /replaced next month with something new!