The most common question we get in relation to a visualiser is ‘what does it actually do?’. There are so many different answers to the above, especially in the context of helping a teacher daily so here is a breakdown to help.

First and foremost, a visualiser is a bit like an old ‘overhead projector’. These were in schools around 20 years ago where it would display an acetate sheet onto the wall to enlarge the writing so everyone could see in a room. A visualiser is a much more compact piece of equipment that does the same but in a classroom environment. It will connect to your interactive touchscreen and give you the option to show pieces of work/ textbooks to the whole class so everyone can see content at the same time during lesson delivery. Find yourself having to print off 30 copies of a single worksheet? Use a visualiser instead and have a master copy that everyone can see clearly at once saving you time and paper.

It doesn’t JUST have to be pieces of work or textbooks, visualisers have flexible heads, fantastic cameras, and great zoom so you can even show 3D objects too. Doing a physics refraction science experiment? Why not use your visualiser at the front of the class so all the students can see it at the same time from any position you require for key lesson segments? Using Minibeasts? Don’t pass them around and wait until everyone has seen them, use your visualiser and zoom in to show them in all their clarity to everyone, which saves you time and gives you more chance to focus on the key elements of your success criteria.

The most important part of using a visualiser has to be using it with the software it comes with. It’s all well and good using it to display things, however, with the added benefit of teacher-friendly software you can add an extra dimension to your lessons. Annotations in the software give you the ability to live mark during your lessons which leads on to providing front-end feedback too. This is crucial for a student in a classroom environment as it gives them the tools to develop their skills as soon as you have given them instant feedback.

A split-screen feature allows you to WAGOLL (What a Good One Looks Like) easily which ties in with taking pictures. Taking pictures in the software allows you to have a set WAGOLL piece of work on one side and then bring up students’ work to compare. You could even add in working as part of a team to aim to achieve close to the WAGOLL to help with interpersonal skills.

Visualisers allow you to record videos which includes audio too. Why not record lesson segments that are key to the curriculum so you can use them again to save time? Also, why not then share them with your peers to help with their lesson delivery too. Modelling is easily done using the recording feature because you can even play recordings on loop such as handwriting examples, working out equations, and much more.

To add further to all these fantastic benefits to energise your teaching and learning, you can create digital learning records using the visualiser via the photos/videos storage and assign them to each class. You can then refer back to each piece of work you’ve done as evidence and to see student progression over the amount of time you have used the visualiser itself.

All in all, it’s an absolute must for any classroom. The key elements of saving teacher time, improving lesson delivery and providing an extra dimension to pedagogy creates a powerful tool through all key stages/ departments. The ease of use paired with the software elements can really propel you to the next level and help with learning outcomes, success criteria and much more.

If you’d like to find out more about visualisers and just how much they can benefit your classroom, fill out our contact form.