Inspiring Collaboration With the early adoption of technology comes the change in behaviour to accommodate it into normal lives. Along with static boards comes a “victorian” seating arrangement that lines up everyone around one point. The freedom interactive boards bring means that teachers, and business leaders, can break into smaller groups, or ‘huddles’ to enhance participation. “In terms of the learning spaces in schools, they are very different today,” said Lampard. “Unfortunately, because of the way that some schools are financed in the UK, there’s some that would love to do more, but classrooms are now being set up in a more fluid way. “In the schools that I visited it was common to go into a classroom and see a Victorian straight row learning style. Now the classrooms tend to be more in a pod style setup with lots of little groups of six or eight children sitting together around the classroom.” That ability to break off into different groups does mirror the working world. In the same way departments break off into meetings, schools have been taking advantage of these collaboration techniques, which are now seeping into the business world. “What we’re coming across is the flexibility that people require,” said Stuart Collingwood, UK and Europe General Manager at Owl Labs. “If you look at the classroom, where these systems originated, they are smaller spaces, they might need to move equipment between spaces. “As a result, there’s an inherent flexibility that has been driven into the supply of products. They want to be able to move things around and make the best use of the investment across a wide room base. “When we talk about boardrooms, the same requirements are now very prevalent in business to the extent that the days of an uber big projector for one boardroom to satisfy the demands of a particular group of senior people is lessened. Today, people want to be able to apply technology where it’s required, and if possible, be able to move it around.” Lessons Learnt Despite the arrival of flexible collaboration, Lampard went on to say that there is still a lot that we can learn from the classroom. Tearing down the walls of the cubicle desks was another area where he believes office workers can improve their day to day experience. With no physical barriers,
the team building and idea sharing that businesses are hoping for happens naturally. As lessons learnt goes though, there have been all manner of breakthroughs influenced by the classroom that we can apply to the corporate landscape. Levitton said that the use of AV solutions in classrooms has led to the widespread availability of tools that let everyone, from teachers to CEOs, ensure their spaces are more accessible to those with disabilities. “Accessibility features in a classroom and learning environment are crucial,” said Levitton. “Educational technology has revolutionised the way that students who perhaps struggle with learning difficulties can engage with lessons going forward. These features cannot be overstated for their importance not just within the classroom but for any user, be that a student or a CEO. “Features like the immersive reader, and accommodating features for students & colleagues that have issues with hearing and sight, which in a classroom are a necessity, have perhaps been overlooked in a corporate setting. With these features embedded into interactive displays, not only are they innately improving all those key factors like collaboration and engagement but they’re also introducing exciting new accessibility and inclusivity features into modern business and conferencing. “Another crucial lesson and positive benefit of interactive displays in a corporate setting is the improvement of equity of voice and participation in business environments. Whether in person or remotely colleagues are able to be involved, explain and directly engage with a presentation or in a conference call as opposed to being passive viewers. This two-way communication drives involvement, engagement and collaboration and has too often been overlooked.” Without the use in schools, these tools may not have been developed, especially given the lack of disabled in corporate jobs. That feedback from teachers has been invaluable to technology providers, with Collingwood adding that teachers don’t pull their punches when it comes to telling technology providers how they feel. “Teachers have quite organic needs in school, and in many ways they are far more qualified teachers than executives in boardrooms so they quickly see the nuances of a product. “Broadly speaking, when it comes to
Wayne Lampard Regional Manager UKI & Sub Saharan Africa
i3-technologies.com
The big difference
has been that schools in the UK have always been quite early
adopters of technology
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