Usually, when thinking about adding a projector people consider the most essential aspects of the purchase: room size, distance from screen, and brightness. But there’s more to the equation and in this article we’ll look at three key aspects we think you should take into account when choosing smart wireless projectors for your classrooms. 

As the times change, we see ever-smarter projectors and technology to support our ever-changing  students. Engagement plays an increasingly pivotal role in maintaining student focus and class success. Student-centred teaching, flipped classrooms, hybrid learning, and the ever-more central position of technology in education. All of these are apparent across Europe and beyond.

Teachers no longer have to settle for a one-way flow of knowledge, with more discussion and cooperation coming to the fore. Educators enable learning and offer sources of knowledge, but students take responsibility for the processing of educational materials, and that’s where technology comes in.

Traditional projectors allowed you to show supersized images and PowerPoint presentations, but smart projectors with built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth have full access to the internet without relying on any external devices, like your laptop. With internet and big screen viewing, there’s so much to do and share in the class. From websites to a plethora of familiar and useful apps, it’s all done right on the projector without switching sources or messy cable entanglement. Combine the visual impact of a large screen with the wealth of information available on the internet, and it’s obvious that smart wireless projectors help boost learning efficacy plus enhance your ability to illustrate topics and concepts.

The smart part of projectors gives you access to a unified AMS, or Account Management Solution. With AMS, you log in to all your cloud storage accounts for instant retrieval of teaching materials. All of this is available in any classroom with Wi-Fi, as modern smart projectors are quite compact and easily movable. Again, there’s no need to lug your laptop or even phone around with you, as everything you need for online access is in the projector.

Contemporary pedagogical trends put students in the centre of the class and openly encourage activity rather than passive learning by rote. Creativity and personal agency are of prime importance, and this goes hand in hand with the simple fact that most students now have personal smart devices they’re very accustomed to. The instant connectivity and compatibility the smart wireless projectors offer with these devices via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth immediately create a fertile landscape for innovative teaching and engaged learning. Tech-savvy learners find “old school” teaching methods off-putting, while relating to any platform that’s smart and connected. They take connectivity almost for granted, and its absence becomes an issue.

A good projector has the smarts to support easy and fast casting and mirroring from student devices to the big screen. This facilitates a nearly limitless collaborative potential while supporting diverse “bring your own device” environments. Learners can work on ideas and projects at home, save them on a tablet, phone, or laptop, then wirelessly share their content via the projector with the entire class for cooperative work. No special apps or hardware needed, just the projector.

Having a massive screen to share content on greatly enhances engagement, and is a far cry from teachers going around looking at each student’s phone or tablet, which creates a sense of isolation. Like movie theatres vs. TVs, big screens bring everyone together in the classroom.

The wonders of new generation smart wireless projectors extend to their ease of setup and use. They’re even easier to install than a big screen TV, and the whole process takes a few minutes and requires one cable for power. You really don’t need to rely on support from the IT department, nor incur downtime for maintenance.

Once preliminary deciding factors such as display size, location in the classroom, brightness, and throw distance have been settled, the rest is super simple. Nonetheless, should IT support be needed, a projector with a cohesive and well-implemented device management system (DMS) is what you should aim for. Good DMS designs have highly accessible dashboards that help IT team members and school administrators analyse the projector’s performance and troubleshoot any issues should they arise. The DMS should also offer management of multiple devices from one central interface, and support for over the air (OTA) auto updates to make sure the projector has all the latest firmware features.

BenQ smart wireless projectors offer the X-Sign software suite for smart messaging and broadcasting, whether via projectors or interactive displays, or a combination of the two device types. School-wide messaging becomes easy and doesn’t intrude on classes, while the efficient DMS takes care of the heavy lifting to make sure any device you select shows the relevant message, without undue IT complexities.

Illuminating the Future

Cost effective and futureproof, smart wireless projectors support the move towards more nimble, creative, and engaging educational methods. As schools change, so do the tools used within them, and one of the best tools available right now are smart projectors with wireless capabilities. They’re superb for meeting the new needs of modern schools and for helping ensure student success.