Technology Can Transform Learning Experiences in Classrooms

Max Hsu, the Regional Director for MEA at ViewSonic, speaks about how learning has changed over the past few years, products and services for the education sector, and more

How has learning changed in the past 1.5 years?
The COVID-19 crisis forced students, educators, and institutions into urgently exploring the possibilities of distance learning and moving towards corresponding solutions. This changed the face of school education almost entirely for the said period – more and more of what was being taught at school and the way it was taught at school, curricular and co-curricular, was being integrated into distance learning however possible.

Education tools like our advanced distance learning solution, myViewBoard that we were offering free of charge to schools when the lockdowns began helped many schools to make their digital education transition easier. It enables teachers to conduct distance learning lessons via an open and agnostic platform that ensures education and learning outcomes are not compromised upon, no matter wherever students happen to be self-quarantined during this pandemic.

Have you seen a major demand from the education sector in terms of digital transformation?
Absolutely. Even though we had most of our existing education tools in place before the pandemic hit, schools, educators, and students were adopting the new technology at their own pace. The rapid shift to full-time virtual education and now a somewhat hybrid model for all schools across the globe led to a heightened need for better learning solutions that help teachers focus more on the teaching and students more on the learning, instead of struggling with making the lesson go smoothly. These solutions have been specially designed to keep the rapidly changing needs of blended and remote learning methods, most of which have grown exponentially during the pandemic.

Which products and solutions do Viewsonic offers specifically for the education sector?
ViewSonic has leveraged its progressive and future-focused vision to address some of the issues faced by the education industry through its innovative solutions. This new ID1330 ViewBoard pen display allows intuitive teaching without altering the teachers’ natural behavior. This visual tool transmits course content onto a digitalized whiteboard handwriting format directly to each student in the classroom or elsewhere. It is lightweight (0.8 kg) and ultra-thin (7 mm) making it super portable too.

There’s our ViewBoard notepad PF0730-10WW which is designed to help students digitize notes and enable real-time synchronization. It comes with a drawing pad and a battery-free pen, and works with different types of paper, from sticky notes to yellow legal notepads, with up to 1 cm thickness. The all-new Pen Display PT1050 is another useful tool with a 10.1-inch full HD LCD with a hardened surface for great durability and compatibility with the supported Windows systems. It allows students to write, draw, annotate and sign directly on the screen and is designed to enhance visual communication.

How according to you can technology elevate the learning experience, especially in the classroom?
Technology can transform learning experiences in classrooms given the sheer convenience that comes along with it. Switching the board with an interactive education display, for example, can unlock infinite learning possibilities for children. ViewSonic’s ViewBoard IFP50 series stands out with its synchronous writing performance with its eye-care certified displays with low blue light that remains flicker-free at all brightness levels.

Teachers can write smoothly, with the pen serving as an extension of their fingertips, and can even write simultaneously with the equipped dual pens of different colors and thicknesses. Something like this is not possible on a whiteboard or most other displays, also combining the hardware solution with our software solutions myViewBoard plays a big role in how interactive and impactful a class can be.

Are schools in the MEA region tech-ready or are there still challenges they face in terms of tech adoption?
The pandemic has forced schools to be tech-ready, whether they were ready for it or not. While a number of schools were already embracing the use of emerging technologies, the lockdowns and safety concerns forced the ones that weren’t as tech-enabled, too. There continue to remain challenges in terms of improving distance and hybrid education models, and they are being solved on the go as well.

Solutions like our myViewBoard eco-system are collaborative tools that have everything required to prepare materials, teach and interact with students inside as well as outside the classroom. For higher adoption of edtech solutions, it is important to look at solutions like these that are ideal for traditional front-of-class teaching, flipped classrooms, blended teaching pedagogy, and virtual lessons as well.