Week 5 - Experimental Classroom @ HKU - My Thoughts

NOTE: This posting has a lot of pictures! :)

First impressions - upon arriving at the Experimental Classroom for the first time, I was truly blown away by what I saw.

The area has a very ergonomic, ‘curved’ design with a nice ‘white’ feel to it. There are multiple tables each with a laptop and visualiser hooked-up to their own TV monitors. What with limited laptops in the room, it only encourages us to bring our own devices (which is good) and there are plenty of spaces to set-up.

The ceiling has a wonderful design for the lighting, and it works well. The room is amazing. It is certainly not your ‘average IT lab’, but then again it was not designed to be. The room was designed with a specific purpose – to nurture a technological learning space for 21^st century learning adaption. 

For projects involving group work (thanks to the table layout), mobile devices and laptops, this environment is ideal for teaching. I particularly like how each group table has an exclusive set of connectivity options and their own TV monitors. This allows for better collaboration during group work since each TV monitor can act as the group’s exclusive projector.









The TV monitors also act as duplicate screens for the teacher’s computer/main projection. The advantage of this is you can orientate your body in ANY position or direction (you feel comfortable) and still view the projections. 

I also like how the big projector can project a specific laptop’s screen from a chosen group table (remotely-assisted via. special tablet). This is very efficient and helps eliminate the need to carry a laptop back-and-forth from group desk to teacher desk for the sake of ‘plugging in’. 

In terms of room disadvantages, the classroom floor is not entirely ‘flat’ and some group tables are raised slightly with wall barriers around the side. This can cause various group members to not being able to see other classmates, or even the teacher in some cases.  

As to my knowledge, a laptop connected to a group table can only remotely project its image (or ‘VGA signal’). There is, as of yet, no way to remotely project sound since audio cables aren’t present on group tables. 

In addition, the room could be improved if it had its own Wifi access point for our laptops and mobile devices. 

Energy-saving implications need to be considered with a room like this. With a lot of lighting, monitors and electronic devices, are they any issues with energy consumption? 

Last and certainly not least, the room itself is very expensive to initiate and possibly maintain.