Mountain View and Anaheim, CA (PRWEB) October 15, 2013
New web app increases collaboration between students and faculty in classroom in BYOD learning environments.
As part of the latest update to its family of learning space solutions, Tidebreak today announced the availability of its second generation mobile web application for ClassSpot™, ClassSpot PBL™, and TeamSpot™. For almost 10 years, academic institutions have been deploying Tidebreak’s collaborative software solutions in their learning environments. The newest version of the company’s mobile web app allows students to collaborate during class using any tablet or smartphone with full screen control functionality and powerful information sharing capabilities.
Tidebreak’s new technology helps transforms how students use mobile devices to interact with faculty and other students during class, much in the same way that laptop users have done for a decade. Empowering students through their mobile devices allows faculty to focus on establishing a two-way, interactive dialogue between students instead of simply providing a one-way lecture.
The growth of the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) movement by students on campuses has created a huge need for integrating mobile devices into the campus IT infrastructure, however there are many questions emerging about how to best leverage these devices. According to CourseSmart's Third Annual Survey on Education and Technology, in a survey taken by over 500 college students, 78 percent said they own smart phones and 35 percent say they own tablets. This is a significant increase from a 2011 survey when only 47 percent of students said they owned a smartphone and 7 percent reported owning a tablet. As they move to post-secondary institutions, students who have grown up surrounded by technology will expect it in their classrooms and lecture halls. This means that mobile applications will help transform how students learn and help create an entire generation of graduates who understand how to best use collaborative technologies in both personal and professional pursuits.
“Using technology in the classroom can help spur creativity, increase participation, and foster a collaborative environment,” said Andrew J. Milne, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Tidebreak. “The latest version of Tidebreak’s mobile web app allows students to use any tablet or handheld device to share information with the entire class in real-time. By incorporating mobile web apps into devices that students already own, faculty can improve the learning process by creating a more collaborative environment that encourages active participation.”
The mobile web app from Tidebreak has many new features that will help increase student participation in the classroom. New features that have been incorporated into ClassSpot, ClassSpot PBL and TeamSpot include:
- Work “at the board” without getting up – Full keyboard and track pad control from a tablet or phone allows students to collaborate on the large classroom screen in real-time.
- Bridge the physical and digital world – Capture and share photos of whiteboard content, physical objects, or images and then share it on-screen or archive it instantly.
- Surf and share – Search the web for relevant content and then share it to the main screen, the session archive, or to everyone in the group simultaneously.
- Navigate an enhanced design – A great deal of improvement has gone into the user interface which helps generate new ideas among students.
Tidebreak will exhibit at the EDUCAUSE 2013 Annual Conference from October 16-17 at the Anaheim Convention Center. You can learn more about Tidebreak ClassSpot, ClassSpot PBL, TeamSpot and the new mobile applications by visiting us at booth #1653. Tidebreak’s CEO, Andrew Milne, will also participate in the Learning Space Rating System (LSRS) seminar as a past member of the task force that created the LSRS. The seminar will take place on October 17 from 4:30-5:20 p.m. in meeting room 304A/B.
About Tidebreak Inc.
Tidebreak, Inc. is a recognized global leader for interactive workplace technologies that accelerate team performance and fuel innovation in the real-time information workplace. Tidebreak is helping enhance the way people collaborate and learn together by powering interactive collaboration spaces with innovative software products and services. Tidebreak’s ClassSpot, ClassSpot PBL, and TeamSpot products interconnect room-based displays and whiteboards with laptops and mobile devices to support co-creation and discussion of new concepts and ideas. Based on advanced concepts developed at one of the world’s foremost research institutions, Tidebreak's software solutions create dynamic interactive spaces that boost collaborative productivity and increase student engagement. You can learn more about the company at http://www.tidebreak.com.
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