How Audiovisual Technology Can Benefit the Classroom

The main purpose of audiovisual technology is to improve communications, improve the way you want to impart your information and the way you deliver that information to your audience. This technology can be particularly beneficial to the education sector. Audiovisual technology doesn't have to be over the top expensive or flashy technology, which you're never going to use.  The technology you use to do this can vary from projector equipment, interactive white boards, plasma screens, LCD screens through to digital signage.

The primary benefits of AV technology is all down to good communication, AV is there to support what you say, it doesn't distract from what you're saying, it's just there to help you impart that information. The other element to think about is productivity, effective communication means that everyone should be doing what they need to do better, either in a shorter time or more accurately. Its just trying to improve the whole communication process, improve the productivity, and just to impart what you're trying to say, either on a one to one basis or through a workshop, as accurately and clearly as possible so everyone knows where you're coming from.

Universities have been investing in AV technology for a number of years. A lecturer, lecturing to a room of about 150 students cant just be done from a lap top, you need good quality audio visual equipment to enhance both the visual impact, and also the audio as well. If it is made interactive, students are more likely to take it on board and engage in the lesson that much more, so it's really a case of using audiovisual to assist the lecturer and for the students to enjoy it and learn more.

One of the key benefits of AV technology in primary and secondary schools would be interactive white boards, over the last two to three years, the Government has recognized that AV technology is raising the standard of the classroom in terms of the equipment which in turn help the children learn more. The teacher can then really demonstrate the curriculum with learning software and the information they need to impart, the students can get involved so much so, that they can actually go up to the board and put the answers up and it's all done electronically which is beneficial as the children of today are into electronics so they embrace that technology.

We've all seen the TV show, 'who wants to be a millionaire'; this popular interactive style voting system is now being integrated into the classroom. It's all down to engaging the student, a question can be put on a board and the pupils have a similar voting system, the pupil can even give information. It can be used to assess how well the class is developing and understanding the knowledge you're trying to impart.

If a teacher asks a question and a classroom full of goes up, the first person the teacher asks may get the question right but that doesn't mean that all the other hands that went up had the same answer. This can make it very difficult for the person teaching to asses who are moving in the right direction and who aren't, this way they can actually understand which individuals aren't keeping up, but more importantly, it can help them decide whether they should move onto the next section, if you ask a question and you can see that only 20% got it right you would know you shouldn't really move on but if 90% got it right, you know it would be ok to move on. This means you get real time up to date information on what's going on in the classroom or lecturer theater all because of the effective use of audio visual technology.