With Windows 10 Connect application, which is automatically installed on Windows 10 PCs, you can create your own free mobile visualiser with the help of any android phone or tablet.
- Simply connect your Android smartphone or tablet to the same wifi as your Windows 10 PC.
- On your Android device, activate the Smart View application. This is pre-installed on most devices.
- On your Windows PC, turn on the Connect application.
- Once your PC recognises your android device, it will now display the android’s screen on your PC.
- Now turn on the camera on your Android device and viola, you now have a wireless visulaiser.
I have my Windows Surface device connected to the overhead projector in class so once I connect an android device, my old Samsung smartphone without a sim card, the class can see whatever I point the smartphone camera toward.
I find this a super easy and quick way to showcase student work as I walk around the classroom. I simply hold the smartphone camera over the student’s work, it then projects on the board, and I might ask the student to explain their work to the class group. I also have an arm, pictured below, that can be used to hold the smartphone in place. This is really useful when I wish for the camera to capture me or a student writing, constructing or making something. I simply clip the arm to the side of a desk and position the phone in the holder above the area I wish to project. This has been invaluable for students demonstrating constructions to the class group.
My own students have verified that they find the live image being projected through the Connect app engaging and they love that the ‘visualisation’ is mobile meaning their work can be showcased from their own desks. In my own context with junior cycle Maths and Coding, I want students to feel more competent and confident about showing the progress of their work to the class group. Some students find the task of writing their ideas/solutions on the board at the top of a room daunting. With the mobile visualiser, many don’t find the idea of sharing their work/progress/solutions so unnerving given they are not taken from their physical comfort zone, and they can have their work already in front of them at their desks. With students being asked to present, showcase, explain etc. their work far more so now at unior cycle, in order to activate the key skills through subject specifications, this is a great method to ease students into presenting to their peers.