Smart City Seminar and Expo was held in Taipei, Taiwan last week and boy was it a show stopper. Visitors got to see all of the latest in Smart City technologies that are transforming our communities and society in order to make life and business easier.
This year’s exhibition held a close place in the hearts of us here at AVer as we participated in the Smart Education Expo where our products joined the likes of other industry leaders to explore the future of education as we take steps to build a new type of classroom for young learners everywhere.
We wanted to give our thoughts on what we saw and show just how much the classroom of the future is changing.
STEAM Tools are Gaining Steam
There has been much talk about how STEAM courses are going to be a major driver in the future of education. Already companies are getting out ahead of the curve and providing innovative student friendly tools that promote interest in these types of studies.
From user-friendly construction sets that explain engineering and physics to drones and programmable robots for coding and AI, all these different classroom experiments were on display. We found it very exciting to see a lot of interest in the engineering and coding aspects of this year’s show.
It is our belief that these high-knowledge fields of study are going to be playing more and more importance in the future. Seeing so many examples of how tomorrow’s classrooms will be tackling these difficult and sometimes confusing topics was thrilling and we can’t wait to see what is in store for them next year.
With the strong presence of STEAM based companies we can expect that the industry is beginning to build behind these courses to provide an exciting future in the classroom.
Augmented Reality is Becoming Learning Reality
As a surprise to no one who follows tech in education the ideas of augmented and virtual reality in the classroom have taken off in the past several years and they were on full display at Smart City this year.
Some very interesting takes on augmented reality where on display and included a virtual laboratory where students could plug in and take part in mixing virtual chemicals and see their reactions. From the floating circles of CH3COOH + NaHCO3 = CH3COONa + CO2 + H2O coming from a foaming baking soda volcano or a H2 balloon being exploded by a lit match that wasn’t there, students would get to experience their lab experiments in a totally different way. One that was safe, but also provided a more game like atmosphere that future learners may be more accustomed too.
Other interesting showcases on display where virtual calligraphy writing that made your writing appear in front of your eyes and a virtual tour that let you explore the wonders of the world all while comfortably sitting on a convenient exercise bike.
All of these innovations in AR and VR were very exciting to see and we are looking forward with great interest in seeing what comes next at Smart City 2020.
The Classroom is Becoming More Engaging and Connected
Of course all of these new technological breakthroughs caught out attention, but an overarching theme was clearly visible throughout the entire Smart Education Expo and that was engagement and connectivity.
All of the above innovations are looking great and definitely fit into the engagement part of my previous statement, but I would be remiss to not mention the total classroom solution that was on display (which in full disclosure we play a large role in).
STEAM learning was very cool to experience firsthand, but I wasn’t in the classroom, I was at an exhibit. Building and showcasing these experiments is one thing on a showroom floor, but how do “you” as a teacher showcase them to your students. AR is great and really exciting, but only one person can use a headset at a time. How do you connect students when only 1 learner can actually see the experiments?
Luckily we were there to provide answers. STEAM learning kits need to be displayed to everyone so all can learn. This was is a great opportunity for visualizers to play their role in broadcasting the experiments. VR and AR headsets were easily connected to display what the user was seeing on interactive flat panels to provide onlookers with an idea of what the user was seeing, which made for several funny laughs.
Overall, our experience at the Smart Expo was an thrilling one. The theme of engagement and connectivity ran strong throughout all of the exhibitions on display.
We were glad we could play our part in showcasing all of this wonderful new education technology and look forward to continuing to innovate so that the classrooms of the future will be an entirely new experience.