If you are someone interested in education and education technology, you cannot help but have noticed how classroom technology is rapidly evolving. No longer do students have to crowd around a computer monitor to view presentations, web sites, or training programs. Multimedia projectors are fast becoming ubiquitous in classrooms around the world. These directly engage students and add impact to each lesson.

 

The inclusion and installation of multimedia projectors in classrooms has led to increased research and development efforts from product manufacturers. In the past, educators had to make do with adapting business projectors for their needs. Quite often they made do with a large machine that was not portable, thereby having to relocate their class for a lesson and making it impractical for daily use. Today, more and more projectors are being introduced to meet specific classroom needs.

 

When talking about the applications that multimedia projectors are being used for, 91 percent of educators surveyed said that they most commonly use these projectors for multimedia presentations. Educators also commented that these projectors let them provide information to students in more than one form, such as a combination of text, audio, graphics or full-motion video. They said that this increased the students' chances of grasping and learning the lesson.

 

Approximately 89 percent of educators said that they used these projectors for projecting computer screen images of the Internet or other PC applications while teaching. About 45 percent said they used multimedia projectors to display movies in the classroom. We shall now discuss some of the benefits of multimedia projector in a classroom.

 

 

Here are some benefits of multimedia projectors.

 

1) Benefits for both students and teachers: Multimedia projectors affect the teaching and learning experience in various ways. These include adoption of visual aid, greater flexibility for alternative teaching methods, enhanced teacher demonstrations, increased student awareness, and customized curriculum applications.

 

2) Provides a visual and colourful learning experience for students: These projectors allow teachers to provide diverse content to all students in the classroom at once. They are perfect for this generation's visually oriented students, because they help make abstract concepts easier to understand.

 

3) Encourages alternative ways of teaching: A multimedia projector makes more educational information available to students by not forcing the teacher to rely only on books. These projectors change conventional habits and rituals in the classroom. In fact, many believe that a multimedia projector may soon replace the chalkboard and overhead projector.

 

4) Makes teaching easier and better: The entire class can view one big screen without difficulty, instead of crowding around a PC monitor. The multimedia projector has made it easier to teach Internet-related subjects, as well as the demonstration of new software applications. This holds the attention of students and also increases their motivation to learn. These projectors also make it possible to electronically submit and view the work of students.

 

5) Used for a variety of curriculum-specific applications: Teachers can use multimedia projectors for a variety of curriculum-specific applications. For example, in language arts, a teacher can link up to an author's web site, to provide greater insight to a reading assignment. A science teacher, on the other hand, can create a PowerPoint presentation to demonstrate a frog dissection. In social studies, a teacher demonstrates the path of a tornado for increased audio and visual impact. For Math courses, projectors can teach students how to work with spreadsheets, calculate formulas, and use charts and graphs. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Teachers will be able to use these projectors in several creative ways to make teaching and learning fun and relevant.

 

Several teachers are already using multimedia projectors. However, many also use traditional technologies, such as TVs, VCRs, PC networks, and laptop or desktop computers. Also, very few teachers surveyed have access to interactive whiteboards and DVD player, which are perfect complements to multimedia projectors.

 

With these numbers, it is obvious that there is a huge opportunity, when it comes to using multimedia projectors in classrooms. Most teachers are receptive about using these projectors to make their lessons interesting and interactive.

 

So, if you are an educator or a school administrator, do consider installing and using a multimedia projector in your classrooms. Here's to engaging ways of teaching and learning!