Five reasons why you should ditch the cables and go wireless in the classroom

It’s no secret that many of us have taken a liking to wireless gadgets in our personal lives: wireless speakers, vacuum cleaners, headphones, and irons have become common household items over recent years.

So why do we continue to put up with cables in the classroom? Whether you’re teaching in a school or working as a lecturer at a university, there are wireless solutions out there designed to make your life easier and your lessons more engaging.

Here are five quick reasons why you should ditch cables in the classroom and opt for wireless technology.

1. Cables are unsightly and unsafe

Has anyone ever looked at a pile of intertwined, mismatched cables at the front of a classroom and felt good about it? We highly doubt it. It’s important to keep the classroom as clutter-free and tidy as possible, to encourage a sense of order and make it easier for students to focus. Cable clutter doesn’t lend itself well to a calm, productive learning environment.

Not only are cables hanging from projectors and various pieces of hardware unsightly, they’re also unsafe. Students and teachers could easily trip, or hurt themselves trying to disconnect various cables without taking adequate safety precautions.

2. Cables require complex and often costly connections

Depending on the cables being used, they can often be expensive and require replacing regularly. There’s also the added headache of figuring out which cables fit with different pieces of hardware, creating more work for teachers and IT departments.

3. Cables are inefficient

Let’s use the example of sharing a presentation in the classroom. Imagine a scenario where a class is running through their latest history assignment, with each student sharing their individual presentation from their computer onto a larger display at the front of the classroom. To present to the rest of the class, each student must make their way to the front of the classroom where the cable is located and insert the cable properly into their device. When they’re done, they must safely remove the cable and pass it onto the next student presenting. This may not sound like much, but when there are 20+ different students each presenting their assignment, there’s a lot of time spent moving up and down from seats, across the classroom, connecting and disconnecting with cords, and taking away from valuable lesson time.

Wireless alternatives not only remove the hassle of students moving around the classroom, they also allow students to present their work instantly from their own device, without needing to worry about cables.

4. Cables don’t allow freedom of movement

Cables tend to anchor the teacher to the front of the classroom, preventing them from interacting with students who may have questions or require extra 1:1 support.

This can be a problem for a few reasons. If a teacher needs to pause midway through explaining a concept to tend to a student at their desk, it can interrupt the flow of the lesson, and potentially cause some students to lose focus. On the flip side, students may feel self-conscious and be less likely to ask for assistance if they know their question will disrupt the rest of the class.

Wireless technology in the classroom can help both students and teachers. It empowers teachers to roam around the classroom and check-in with students in a more natural way, and it provides students with the opportunity to ask questions and receive tailored 1:1 support, without needing to pause a lesson midway through.

5. Cables aren’t Covid friendly

Unfortunately, Covid has followed us into 2021 and is continuing to impact the way we live, work, learn and teach. It’s essential to take extra precautions when face-to-face classes do go ahead, to reduce the risk of spreading the virus.

Consider the impact of cables being passed from student to teacher or student to student: it doesn’t allow for social distancing and has the potential to make some teachers or students feel unsafe.

With a wireless alternative, there’s no need for teachers or students to physically touch any cables or dongles when presenting to the big screen. They can simply connect from their desk, and disconnect when they’re finished presenting.

It’s time to go wireless

While there are some cables in the classroom that can’t be avoided, it is possible to significantly reduce the volume of cables by replacing outdated technology with wireless solutions. A reduction in cables will result in a tidier and safer classroom environment, and potentially help schools save money they would otherwise spend on replacing old cables and costly connections. It also has the potential to drastically improve the teaching experience for educators and the learning experience for students, allowing teachers to move freely around the classroom and provide students with the 1:1 support they need.

It’s 2021 – time to simplify things by eliminating cables from your classroom and go wireless.

Interested to see how Airtame can help you eliminate cable clutter in the classroom? You can read more about the full solution here.

Interested? Let’s talk.