How to Prepare Your Students for Collaborative Future in Tech-Rich Classrooms?

BenQ interactive displays come with EZWrite cloud whiteboarding software installed and ready to use straight out of the box. Plenty of useful functions are included to boost collaboration.

Optimally, your students should have access to digital devices like Chromebooks or iPads to use during class. 

Depending on the kind of exercise you would like your students to complete, you can use EZWrite in different ways. If you are teaching a larger class, you could for example divide your students into smaller groups. In such a case, it’s great if you use the split screen function found in EZWrite, where the board divides itself into a few sections, each one for a different group to use. If your class consists of fewer students, you can use the whole, undivided whiteboard space.

You can assign each group their own project or divide the class into task-specific teams. Let’s say you are holding a class about building robots. You could divide your class into a design team (who will be responsible for coming up with how the robot will look), a sourcing group (responsible for creating a list of materials and parts needed), and an execution team (in charge of planning the “production” of the robot, the tasks that will need to be completed once the robot is designed and its parts are ready to use).

Students can access the EZWrite cloud whiteboard and use it as a canvas to share their ideas. Turn on the split screen function, and add a title for each section (e.g. “Design”, “Sourcing”, “Execution”). Ask students from each team to add their ideas via the sticky note function on their own device. When students who have joined the cloud whiteboard with “collaboration” mode enabled add or edit content on their devices, results also show on the interactive display for the whole class to see and engage with. 

You can also use the timer function in EZWrite to measure the time students have available to complete each task.

See other ways BenQ interactive boards help with developing collaborative skills.

Some tasks might require showing more complex content than can be hand-drawn in the limited space of the cloud whiteboard or a sticky note. For example, the design team might want to use a more sophisticated drawing or graphics software on their iPad or laptop. 

In such a case, it’s useful to display personal device content on the interactive display to share results with the whole class.

Thanks to InstaShare, learners can now do it wirelessly, without getting up from their seat. All that’s needed it to ensure that the student’s device is connected to the same network as the board. 

Up to nine screens can be mirrored to your interactive display, and the teacher has full control over how many and which devices are displayed. You can select a single device to be enlarged to a full screen, or the screen can be divided into up to nine picture-in-picture segments with each part corresponding to a different device.

We have explainers for you, explaining how exactly to connect either your computer, or your mobile device to the BenQ interactive board.