Scientists designing and testing what they hope might become the classroom of the future have found that Star Trek-style multi-touch, multi-user desks can boost children's math skills.
A three-year project with 400 eight-to 10-year-olds found that using interactive "smart" desks can have benefits over doing math on paper, and that pupils are able to improve their fluency and flexibility in math by working together.
"Our aim was to encourage far higher levels of active student engagement, where knowledge is obtained by sharing, problem-solving and creating, rather than by passive listening," said Liz Burd of Britain's Durham University, who led the study.
The research team, whose findings were published in the journal Learning and Instruction, designed software and desks that recognise multiple touches on a desktop using infrared light-vision systems.
The desks help encourage more collaboration, and are networked and linked to a main smartboard. A live feed of the desks goes directly to the teacher, who can intervene quickly to help a pupil while allowing group work to continue.
Burd's team found that 45 per cent of pupils who used a math program on the smart-desk system increased the number of unique mathematical expressions they created, compared with 16 per cent of those doing it on paper.
