Commercial Integrator + Security Sales July 2024 - 8

AV BRAINS & BRAWN
Listen, Learn and Apply
Increasingly, technology plays a pivotal role as education transforms from the traditional
teacher-student approach to something that's more interactive and engaging. By Alan C. Brawn
IN THE COMMERCIAL AV industry,
the largest and best understood
market is corporate. Most agree that the
second-largest market is education. And
this rapidly developing market requires
more than dated assumptions and cursory
understandings. We are faced with the
fact that today's students are not reachable
and teachable with traditional
methods. For us to meet the new
requirements that the education community
presents, we must explore and truly
understand the new ways to learn, as well
as how technology helps.
As designers/integrators, it is our
responsibility to understand differences
in past and future trends and then apply
what we have learned to the needs of
the education community. Dr. Stephen
Covey, famed for his 7 Habits books, tells
us to " Seek first to understand, then to be
understood. " This is especially true for the
education market.
So, let's look at understanding new
education environments and explore a few
new ways to help reach and teach students.
One major trend involves flexible
learning environments that accommodate
different teaching and learning styles.
Education institutions are incorporating
unconventional room layouts that break
away from the traditional teacher/student
orientation, which may not address the
new reality of promoting an interactive
education experience. The objective is
to design spaces - and support teaching
methods - to engage students more fully.
Immersive Learning:
An Up-and-Coming Trend
Immersive learning is an up-and-coming
trend. The idea is to create a highly engaging
and interactive learning experience
using a variety of new (to education)
technologies. It differs from traditional
classroom learning in its focus on active,
experiential, multisensory and flexible
experiences with more engaging, highly
The objective of an interactive education experience is to design spaces - and
support teaching methods - to engage students more fully.
personalized approaches. The following
four trends fall under the umbrella of
immersive learning:
■ Social-emotional learning (SEL) refers
to the process through which individuals
learn and apply a set of social,
emotional and related skills, attitudes,
behaviors and values that help direct
students. This includes thoughts, feelings
and actions in ways that enable
them to succeed in school.
■ Personalized learning is an approach
that aims to customize learning for
each student's strengths, needs, skills
and interests. Each student gets a
personal learning plan based on their
knowledge and how they learn.
■ Project-based learning (PBL) is an
8 Commercial Integrator+Security Sales & Integration | July 2024
approach designed to give students
the opportunity to develop knowledge
and skills through engaging projects
set around challenges they may face
in the real world.
■ Blended learning combines traditional
face-to-face instruction with
technology-mediated online instruction
and delivery methods.
The question to ponder is how
technologies can facilitate and reinforce
these new education experiences. Keep
in mind that the totality of the experience
(mind, body and spirit) must be
memorable, and technologies must
reinforce what is taught with the goal of
remaining in students' minds after the
class bell has rung.
SITTIPOL/STOCK.ADOBE.COM

Commercial Integrator + Security Sales July 2024

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