A physical classroom is still where it ‘happens’ most often for university and college lecturers. That almost private, very personal space within which a relationship between a teacher and many students is so crucial to student learning and to the teacher’s personal fulfilment and enjoyment.
Good things can happen in a classroom without any ICT or AV (audio-visual) tools but normally these days a teacher will tend to use slides coupled to a projector screen. Of course they can also now make use of the internet in class and show videos and websites. That’s great but what is perhaps not so great always is the fact that the content displayed is against one presentation wall and a session can become one long presentation, with not much intervention or interaction from the audience.
In SMART teaching a classroom will see much greater participation from the students. They will tend to work in groups more and they will use technology for a variety of meaningful reasons, including at times presenting to the rest of the room. But the technology in a SMART classroom is not just about ICT and AV, it is also about the furniture in the room and several ‘basics’ such as writing surface and lighting.
SMART Teaching 