Smart Tech Table - is it worth buying yet?
Touch-screen monitors where the user can press buttons on the screen have been in use for years, for example at shopping mall kiosks, information points and so on. Smart tech have brought the popular touch screen functionality of their white boards to a smaller table, where pupils can sit / stand around and collaborate on tasks. It is still in its infancy, but is it any good for education? What could the future hold for the Smart Table?
Anyone who has actually used a touch screen will understand that they are not accurate. Pressing buttons is fairly menial, however, dragging images around, and trying to touch smaller objects become much more tricky. The sensitivity of the board is not very precise, and makes us question what educational use the pupils are actually deriving from using the Smart table. Tasks where you would use real, every-day objects, such as money work, or counting objects, and drawing have relevant tasks on the board. Yes the technology is new for the classroom, yes it's interesting to the pupils, but for what purpose? Plastic coins, pencil and paper are a lot cheaper than this table.
The table can deal with up to forty fingers on the 'screen' at one time. Do you have more than four children in your class? So how do you decide who gets to go on it?
Aimed at primary pupils, a pointless drawing program is included which looks great, but for what use? The only possible educational use we can think of is for primary geometry, translations of shapes, symmetry and reflection etc.
The Smart table is an interesting concept - great for up-market cocktail bars, and pointless fun, but we seriously question its educational use. Microsoft have their own product the Microsoft Surface which isn't aimed at the educational market, but is a similar concept.