There are still many areas of technology left for children’s ministry to explore. One technology that I am sure will eventually find its way into Sunday school classrooms is interactive tables.
Scheduled for a spring 2009 release, SMART Technologies has created a SMART Table for primary education that is similar to Microsoft Surface. Its initial cost is expected to be $8,000.
The table allows kids to collaborate together using a variety of tools such as sketching, moving, and scaling objects. It also appears the platform is open for developers to create new applications for the SMART Table.
Such innovations in children’s ministry curriculum are not expected anytime soon, but it is fun to dream of what could be.
SMART Tables are already being used in elementary and secondary schools in our region (London, Ontario, Canada). Some schools have several classrooms (one has every classroom) outfitted with this system.
Not only are the boards themselves interactive, they allow for further interactivity when students are at their desks. There are “controllers” on which students can answer questions that are up on the board, with the results of polls or questions showing on the SMART table.
Also, DVD and video playback are also possible on these, which makes these boards much easier to set up and use than a projector/screen.
Very cool, Pat!
[...] Future of Children’s Ministry Curriculum. Check it. [...]
Very interesting piece of technology from Microsoft’s Surface Computing Group. It is highly interactive (social) and clearly fun to use (motivation built in) but it is not per se curriculum. Its uses are myriad, jukebox, picture editing, travel planning and editing. But it is not curriculum since it doesn’t teach or structure learning…it mediates interaction in ways that are fun, innovative and deeply inventive. As such it is a powerful motivator for self-discovery or mediated classroom enrichment. But as with anything, it requires APPLICATION toward a desired and often hidden end!
@Keith
To clarify, I was not saying that the SMART Table is curriculum, but I was implying that this technology may be the future of children’s ministry curriculum, particularly since SMART Technologies has a developers’ network.
[...] 6. The Future of Children’s Ministry Curriculum [...]
[...] colleague send me this link The Future of Children’s Ministry Curriculum about the Smart Table being the future of children’s ministry [...]