From traditional classroom projectors hooked to the ceiling to ultraportable digital projectors, a teacher can use a projector in the classroom in multiple ways that are engaging, fun, and create a better interactive learning experience.
But even the best classroom projectors don’t help students if you don’t know how to use them.
The class of projector will influence the sound quality, playback volume, brightness and image quality, and interactive display ability. However, classrooms are transformed by technology, assisting educators in creating exciting teaching and learning experiences. Interactive projectors can transform a traditional class session into a real-time digital classroom within seconds. Even a conventional overhead projector can enhance class time by saving the teacher’s time and improving the student’s learning experience by simplifying note-taking. What other advantages do school digital projectors have, and how can educators use projectors in their schools to keep students interested in learning?
How To Connect A Classroom Projector
Connecting your computer to the overhead projector screen is easy. Plug into the computer the video and audio cables. Check if your computer port supports a VGA cable or an HDMI cable. The port for the audio cable is standard; you don’t need an additional audio connection with an HDMI adapter. Use a video adapter if your computer doesn’t have either of these ports.
Control panels of overhead projectors in the classroom vary, but they are clearly marked for ease of use. Some overhead projectors have an on/off power button; laser projectors feature touch screen power on/off; or a video button labeled HDMI, VGA, or Laptop. The teacher can also turn the overhead projector on with the projector remote.
Run the AirMedia application. In the login window, fill in the IP address and login code listed on the projector screen and your user name. With AirMedia, note the code and IP address listed at the top of the projection screen. The stop button disconnects from AirMedia; use the pause button to freeze the screen.
Most projection screens lower automatically. For manually raising or lowering the screen, use the settings button and the up/down buttons. Tap on any of the input source buttons to exit the screen.
After the presentation, select the off power button and tap yes to confirm the system shutdown.
Ideas For How To Use Projectors In The Classroom
Interactive projectors in the classroom are no longer a project for the future but are actively used in schools today. With a simple click, education changes from disinterested learning to active students who interact in classes. The numerous advantages of using a projector in the classroom are only limited by a teacher’s imagination.
Easier Note-Taking
Copying handwritten notes from a board is challenging; some teachers’ handwriting is hard to decipher. Even students who write fast find it difficult to take quality class notes and listen to the teacher simultaneously.
Valuable Class Time
Teachers writing notes on the chalkboard, waiting for students to copy the information, and then erasing the information to make space for more notes takes time – valuable class time. It takes less time with projectors that display laptop screens. No more writing on the board; the technology allows for better use of class time.
Virtual Field Trip
Students love field trips and always look forward to the next field trip; it is generally a fun school outing. Virtual field trips are even more fun. Multiple classrooms can simultaneously experience a virtual field trip to any venue in the world. They aren’t limited to day trips but can travel within seconds across the globe, visit foreign nations’ cultures, and even go back in time.
Geography Reality
Google Earth and Google Maps are rich resources to liven up a geography lesson. Teachers can take students on geography scavenger hunts and adventures. Finding a river on a map is much more fun than reading the name in a textbook.
Engaging Videos
Interactive projectors bring big-screen educational entertainment into the classroom. Everyone enjoys watching moves on a big screen. Unlike flat-screen displays that are harder on the eyes, with interactive projectors, everyone can see the screen, even the students sitting behind a tall student.
Create Gamification Classrooms
Kids love games. Teachers can gamify lessons with interactive projectors using the familiar action-reward system used in video games. With gamification, teachers present a tedious lesson as engaging content to students.
History And Current Events
An interactive whiteboard, digital displays, and high-quality images can connect history with current events. History becomes more realistic and exciting when students associate what happened in the past with familiar events today.
PowerPoint Presentations
Teach students using PowerPoint presentations and visualize the presentation with a projector. Many teachers promote interactive participation allowing students to present class projects using PowerPoint presentations.
Experiencing Stories
An interactive projector can translate learners from their desks into the world of their favorite books. Reading becomes entertaining on the next level when readers take a journey into the story and the time and place where their characters live.
Interactive Participation
Learners can experience science, biology, math, and social studies, not just read words in a textbook. Using an interactive projector, the teacher-student experience comes alive when they encounter open-heart surgery, the reality of a science experiment, or dive deep to explore a coral reef.
Digitized World
LED projectors, document cameras, projector whiteboard walls, and other digital tools offer greater teaching versatility and dynamic learning. Teachers are no longer bound to dry-erase boards. With videos, slides, images, and transferring content from their computer screen, teachers use projectors to present the world to their students within the classroom walls.
Start The Day Smiling
Learning is fun and entertaining when the day’s lessons start by representing students and their uniqueness as cars driving out of the garage, animals in the forest waking up, or a fish swimming in the ocean. The hilarious icebreaker creates anticipation for the day’s learning. Smiling, they recognize themselves and classmates preparing for the day’s lessons in the digitalized presentation.
Highly Organized Notes
With a laptop and classroom projectors, teachers can prepare and organize all their notes prior to the lesson. There is no need to copy information on the blackboard; everything is displayed on the screen in a highly organized way. Teachers can now take their time repeating complex concepts to classes; they are no longer wasting time writing ideas on school blackboards. Teachers can focus on teaching and students on concentrating and learning.
Teaching With Web Content
Access to the internet broadens students’ knowledge; they can now listen to global experts on specific topics, research a project, and use internet-based programs. Teachers and students can use the internet to gather materials, create, prepare, and support lesson content. A teacher can use web content, like videos or TED talks, to occupy students while bringing an absent student up to date or assisting a struggling student.
Remote Student Classrooms
The advantages of combining classroom projectors and online technology are endless. One of the most significant benefits is teaching remote students and offering education to a broader audience using hybrid classroom methods.
More Ideas
A person can traditionally teach students or open the world to them in exciting, innovative ways. Using projectors in a classroom becomes more accessible and manageable with all the available technology. Here are more ideas to stimulate teachers’ and students’ imaginations.
- Storyboarding
- Read aloud
- Revisiting tests
- Art and museum virtual tours
- Problem-solving
- Comparing using split-screen
- Demonstrate math problems
- Interactive classroom decor and themes
- Display classroom posted projects
- Invite visitors remotely
- Art protection of masterpieces
- Painting murals by tracing images
- Classroom management displays
- Comparing grammar in writing
- Display class schedules as wall decor
- Using charts, tables, and graphics in maths and stats
- Modeling processes
- Simulation exercises prior to tests
- Writing prompts
- Transform classroom into a virtual scene
How do you use projectors in your classroom to engage your students? What me