Finnish Municipality Kaarina upgrades their schools with CTOUCH Riva
In Finland, local municipalities contribute most of the funding in primary and secondary education. The state’s expenditure covers approx. 25%. The municipality’s department of education is responsible for the teaching curriculum, methods, and materials, which are based on national curriculum. Kaarina may be a small town, but its department of education’s goal to provide the best for their young students is anything but. Keijo Sipilä, Chief Digital Officer at the Municipality Kaarina’s department of education, is passionate about ensuring educational technology advances students’ learning process. In fact, Kaarina was the first municipality in Finland to introduce special learning devices for one-on-one teaching!
Kaarina is currently in a process of renewing many of its school buildings. The first new school building that was taken into use in 2022 was Hovirinta School. Teachers and students already had long experience in using 1:1 iPads, but with a new building it was also time to renew the AV-technology for the new classrooms. Prior experience was limited mostly to using projectors with limited functionalities.
Choosing what’s best for class
Kaarina invited several touchscreen brands to give a demonstration of their models. A hands-on approach was the best to settle once and for all which touchscreen would grace Kaarina’s classrooms. Among these models, the CTOUCH Riva!
On the municipality’s side, Kaarina’s department of education was looking for an all-in-one AV solution that would work effortlessly with students’ and teachers’ devices. It was important for Kaarina to choose one model. One teaching solution model would be much easier for Kaarina to maintain and manage, while teachers needed to be trained for just one model. Naturally, the solution would also have to fit into the municipality’s budget.
The final say however, lay with the ones who would be using the touchscreens. They were invited to test the interactive displays. Afterwards, a feedback panel with the teachers gave them the opportunity to share their thoughts. In the end, the teachers decided which brand/model would be most welcome in their classrooms.
“We looked at the bigger picture: how to improve our teaching methods using the latest education technology. The CTOUCH Riva provided just that, with its native sharing possibilities and the best audio you can get on the market”. - Keijo Sipilä, Chief Digital Officer at the Municipality Kaarina’s department of education.
Natural writing, lifelike audio
Teachers’ verdict? CTOUCH Riva wowed teachers with its writing experience. Writing and touching the panel felt natural and pleasant, ideal for annotating content or writing down notes. The speakers blew away all listeners, they judged the Riva to provide the best audio among all contenders. Riva’s crystal-clear audio would ensure that when watching educational content on the screen, students would have no trouble listening.
Kaarina’s education department closely considered Riva’s security features. IT security is a hot button topic, with Kaarina taking great care to protect student’s data. The CTOUCH Riva meets the highest security standard, being audited by Grant Thornton to ensure it meets our security baseline for all our touchscreen products. For example, it is possible to set a pin code and hide or lock Riva’s ports and settings, including the Android source.
Seamless sharing
Most impressive was just how easy it was for students and teachers to share their device, both wired and wirelessly, with the CTOUCH Riva. Students from the 4th grade up are provided with iPads. Teachers have their own iPad, in addition to a laptop. CTOUCH Riva comes pre-installed with wireless screen sharing app EShare.
With EShare teachers can wirelessly share the touchscreen’s content to student devices, and students are able to wirelessly share their device to the touchscreen. Most convenient for Kaarina, EShare supports AirPlay natively. No need for students to install an extra app on their iPad! This extraordinarily user friendly, seamless compatibility was considered a major decisive factor for Kaarina’s teachers to choose the CTOUCH Riva in the end.
CTOUCH touchscreen training
Our very own Finnish sales manager Olli Rannisto gave training to Kaarina’s teachers to get them acquainted with the CTOUCH Riva.
As primary education teachers were already used to touchscreens, the benefits of touch were already well understood. Olli got them acquainted with EShare and the other applications available in the Riva’s app store.
For secondary education teachers using a touchscreen was quite a change from the non-interactive projector, but Olli taught them how to use the Riva with their own device or with EShare.
How CTOUCH’s education technology benefits learning in Kaarina
It is a tale as old as time: school gets new buildings, new buildings get new classrooms, new classrooms get new equipment. Finnish municipality Kaarina sought the latest in education technology to enhance their teachers’ lesson methods and students’ learning process. CTOUCH Riva, the tale’s hero, dashed into Kaarina’s new classrooms with the power of interactivity!
In primary education, the CTOUCH Riva greatly benefits teachers’ way of working. They can easily share their device to show off their prepared lessons. Students often work on assignments in small groups, before sharing the results in class. By sharing their device on the screen, students are able to show their work to the entire class. The other students and teacher can then weigh in on their work, facilitating interaction in the classroom. This productive back-and-forth discussion greatly encourages critical thinking, a skill they’ll benefit from their entire life.
In secondary education, the teachers mostly share their own device to the CTOUCH Riva with cable. Using HDMI and USB for touch allows them to use all features of the screen, making their lessons more interactive.
In addition, touchscreens are placed wherever they’re needed to convey information. For example, in the lobby area to show announcements, in the cafeteria where the lunch menu is shown, and in the teachers’ conference room. Over 100 CTOUCH Riva touchscreens in total can be found in Kaarina’s school buildings.
Improving students’ learning experience
CTOUCH is honoured to have worked together closely with Keijo Sipilä and the municipality of Kaarina to make the introduction of the CTOUCH Riva into Kaarina’s schools possible. We deeply care about improving students’ learning experience by giving teachers the tools they need to engage and inspire their pupils. Kaarina sets an example for other Finnish municipalities by being on the forefront education technology advancements. It is together that we were able to concretely and directly impact students’ school career for the better.
And we’re not done working together yet! Kaarina is looking into adopting CTOUCH Heartbeat for their CTOUCH Riva’s to make sure their classrooms are ready for 2033. After all, if you deliberately choose one model for your education, it’s ideal for that model to last as long as possible right? CTOUCH Heartbeat Safe extends touchscreens lifetime by providing firmware and security updates. We look forward to implementing Heartbeat and futureproofing their classrooms.