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Listen, Learn and Apply

Published: July 26, 2024
The objective of an interactive education experience is to design spaces — and support teaching methods — to engage students more fully. SITTIPOLIS/STOCK.ADOBE.COM

In the commercial AV industry, the largest and best understood market is corporate. Most agree that the second-largest market is education. And this rapidly developing market requires more than dated assumptions and cursory understandings. We are faced with the fact that today’s students are not reachable and teachable with traditional methods. For us to meet the new requirements that the education community presents, we must explore and truly understand the new ways to learn, as well as how technology helps. 

As designers/integrators, it is our responsibility to understand differences in past and future trends and then apply what we have learned to the needs of the education community. Dr. Stephen Covey, famed for his 7 Habits books, tells us to “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” This is especially true for the education market. 

So, let’s look at understanding new education environments and explore a few new ways to help reach and teach students. 

One major trend involves flexible learning environments that accommodate different teaching and learning styles. Education institutions are incorporating unconventional room layouts that break away from the traditional teacher/student orientation, which may not address the new reality of promoting an interactive education experience. The objective is to design spaces — and support teaching methods — to engage students more fully. 

Immersive Learning: An Up-and-Coming Trend 

Immersive learning is an up-and-coming trend. The idea is to create a highly engaging and interactive learning experience using a variety of new (to education) technologies. It differs from traditional classroom learning in its focus on active, experiential, multisensory and flexible experiences with more engaging, highly personalized approaches. The following four trends fall under the umbrella of immersive learning: 

  • Social-emotional learning (SEL) refers to the process through which individuals learn and apply a set of social, emotional and related skills, attitudes, behaviors and values that help direct students. This includes thoughts, feelings and actions in ways that enable them to succeed in school. 
  • Personalized learning is an approach that aims to customize learning for each student’s strengths, needs, skills and interests. Each student gets a personal learning plan based on their knowledge and how they learn. 
  • Project-based learning (PBL) is an approach designed to give students the opportunity to develop knowledge and skills through engaging projects set around challenges they may face in the real world. 
  • Blended learning combines traditional face-to-face instruction with technology-mediated online instruction and delivery methods. 

The question to ponder is how technologies can facilitate and reinforce these new education experiences. Keep in mind that the totality of the experience (mind, body and spirit) must be memorable, and technologies must reinforce what is taught with the goal of remaining in students’ minds after the class bell has rung. 

Questions from the Education Community 

We also must understand and respond to questions from administrators and teachers as they consider which technologies to embrace. The following is an excellent list of questions, quoted from TeachThought, which an integrator might be asked. TeachThought is an organization dedicated to innovation in education. 

  1. How exactly will this help students learn and who do we know that’s true?
  2. What will the new technology change and what needs to be changed to accommodate the new technology?
  3. When might this technology be replaced by better technology and is the financial and training cost worth it with that timeframe and expiration date in mind?
  4. What is the total cost–not just in purchase, training, and ongoing maintenance and updates but also changes to curriculum, assessment, instruction, and other education components?
  5. In one sentence, what is the purpose of the technology? Be specific.
  6. Is a rollout plan necessary? If so, what’s ours?
  7. Should we test at a small scale before adopting?
  8. Does this technology help serve the school we are or the school we want to become?
  9. Is the technology for teachers or for students? (It’s rarely, truly equally for both.) Neither is necessarily better than the other — just be clear what the answer is.
  10. Will there be an implementation dip? If so, what can do to lessen that ahead of time?
  11. Is this the best tool or technology available to do what we want it to do?
  12. How well has this technology been supported over the last two years?
  13. What is the roadmap and update schedule for this technology over the next two years?
  14. How will we get support if necessary?
  15. What impact on student performance (and the quality of their lives) can we expect from this education technology?
  16. What similar purchases have we made in the past? How did those purchases grow students — or fail to grow students — and why?

Technology Now Plays a Pivotal Role 

New technologies are playing a pivotal role in facilitating what is now known as engaged learning. The lecturing-teacher format is being supplanted by the teacher–student experience. 

Over the last five years, the evolution of tech in higher education has been on steroids. The global pandemic was certainly a big factor, but this trend started before that, and it has accelerated. As in so many areas of our society — both business and personal — it is all about the experience. 


 Alan C. Brawn, CTS, DSCE, DSDE, DSNE, DCME, DSSP, ISF-C, is principal at Brawn Consulting. 

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