The classroom of the future has become a reality at the Carlo Anti High School in Villafranca di Verona, a Northern Italian city. A new collaborative learning zone at the school has been created by Media Direct Srl, a leader in technology for the education sector. The classroom is fitted with NovoConnect wireless presentation and collaboration system  and the D755WTIR projector from Vivitek. The space also features a range of other cutting edge hardware as well as custom seating to facilitate interactive learning for students and teachers alike.

High school in Italy is known as Scuola Superiore and lasts for five years, with pupils attending between the ages of fourteen and nineteen. The school had the ambition of empowering students with new technology, to enable them to be full participants in their research work, with teachers acting as facilitators along the learning sequence. Media Direct Srl, under their CampuStore brand, sourced the most innovative and technically advanced products for the project, now called Aule 4.0.

The company put together a blueprint for the classroom which included an interactive whiteboard combined with a projector. The company also wanted to introduce BYOD (bring your own device) into the mix as this would enable students to participate in lessons, share content and collaborate, from their tablets and smartphones. Curved mobile benches were also specified as they promote co-operation and openness in a better way than a standard layout classroom. Furthermore, additional round tables were also included for similar reasons.

CampuStore drew up a plan for the classroom by drawing on their previous experience in supplying solutions for the education sector, as well as the emerging digital trends in education. The company combined a Vivitek D755WTIR projector and CampusBoard interactive whiteboard with an Easi-View document and web camera.

At the heart of the system is Vivitek NovoConnect, a tool that allows students to seamlessly collaborate on shared content via PC, Mac and tablet devices.  NovoConnect is integrated with a Vivitek D755WTIR projector which offers ultra-short throw performance and creates an interactive surface on the whiteboard which can transform the learning experience into a truly collaborative process. NovoConnect delivers two-way communication between student devices and ensures lessons come alive with real time input from students instantly incorporated into shared content.

NovoConnect allows distributed display and control between PC, Mac and tablet devices through wireless communication to enable content sharing across multiple devices. It is compatible with Windows, Mac OS, iOS and Android operating systems. The system offers ‘One-Click’ presentation management that gives the teacher a quick and effective method to hand over control to participating individuals. The system is fully secure and only individuals who are logged via PIN can participate and contribute. The system also provides instant access to all common Cloud-based resources so that content that is stored remotely can be used and shared in sessions.

Pierluigi Lanzarini of Media Direct Srl, is delighted with the solution and the benefits it has created for pupils and staff: “There is a real trend towards harnessing the power of technology into the classroom. There are many solutions available but not many that make students active as opposed to passive participants. NovoConnect can achieve this through its ability to integrate content from student devices into learning sessions. This helps increase pupil engagement and promotes creativity within the classroom. The installation at Carlo Anti High School is the perfect demonstration of this, especially when set in the contex of the other design features within Aule 4.0.”

The newly launched D755WTIR is a new Ultra-Short-Throw projector that takes interactivity in the classroom to a new level. It features a finger-touch feature which allows simultaneous writing, drawing and annotations for up to 4 touch points. Its ultra-short-throw operation makes it the ideal projection solution for learning environments as it delivers optimum performance in even the smallest of classrooms.

For more information visit www.vivitek.eu