Using Large Shared Displays to Create a Collaborative Classroom Learning Environment

Our goal in this work is to create a more collaborative learning environment in the classroom, by designing and implementing a system infrastructure to support easy use and management of a large shared (tiled) display. Through this shared display space, instructor and student interaction is facilitated. This large display space provides the primary means of presentation of lecture material, allowing the lecturer to keep multiple screens of material in view of the students for reference and reuse. Additionally, students can download any portion of the tiled display they find relevant, enabling them to go back at any time to previous screens of the presentation. Students can also use this display to present their work, ideas, or questions to the class. The instructor allocates a portion (or all) of the display to students, enabling student presentation and the sharing of student work, or their responses to in-class exercises, in support of interactive group problem solving. Via their individual laptop computers, instructors and students can thus present material and interact via this tiled display, all enabled to be interactive participants, enhancing interaction and collaboration between students and instructors.