STEM educationClassroom of the future: next generation of school desks boost math skills

Researchers designing and testing the classroom of the future have found that multi-touch, multi-user desks can boost skills in mathematics.

New results from a 3-year project working with over 400 pupils, mostly 8-10 year olds, show that collaborative learning increases both fluency and flexibility in math. It also shows that using an interactive ‘smart’ desk can have benefits over doing mathematics on paper.

Using multi-touch desks in the new classroom, the children were able to work together in new ways to solve and answer questions and problems using inventive solutions. Seeing what your friends are doing, and being able to fully participate in group activities, offers new ways of working in class, the researchers say.

A Durham University release reports that the Star Trek classroom could also help learning and teaching in other subjects.

The findings published in the journal Learning and Instruction, show that children who use a collaborative math activity in the SynergyNet classroom improve in both mathematical flexibility and fluency, while children working on traditional paper-based activities only improve in flexibility.

During the project, the team found that 45 percent of students who used NumberNet increased in the number of unique mathematical expressions they created after using NumberNet, compared to 16 percent of students in the traditional paper-based activity.

Lead researcher, Professor Liz Burd of the School of Education at Durham University, said: “Our aim was to encourage far higher levels of active student engagement, where knowledge is obtained by sharing, problem-solving and creating, rather than by passive listening. This classroom enables both active engagement and equal access.

“We found our tables encouraged students to collaborate more effectively. We were delighted to observe groups of students enhancing others’ understanding of mathematical concepts. Such collaboration just did not happen when students used paper-based approaches.”

The Durham University team designed software and desks that recognize multiple touches on the desktop using vision systems that see infrared light. The project called SynergyNet set out to integrate a fully collaborative system of desks, building it into the fabric and furniture of the classroom. The new desks with a multi-touch surface are the central component, and these are networked and linked to a main smartboard.

In terms of current teaching, the new system means that the move-to-use whiteboard is by-passed and the new desks can be both screen and keyboard. The desks act like multi-touch whiteboards and several students can use any one desk at once.

The technology allows all