My Screen Doesn’t Work! How to Avoid Interactive Touchscreen Frustration

Are you worried about whether your classroom touchscreen will work correctly when you get back for the start of term?

Interactive touchscreens can be a great tool for the classroom but, unfortunately, they can become a constantly source of frustration for teachers if they are not set up correctly. So, we have come up with a few tips and tricks to help ease your frustration with your classroom interactive touchscreen.

Most modern interactive touchscreens do not need calibration, unlike older interactive whiteboards. The great thing about touchscreens is that they should be ‘plug and play’ so you should just be able to plug your laptop into the screen and go. However, we found that a lot of Teachers have had issues with the calibration so we thought we would help.

This issue is most likely caused by the wrong aspect ratio setting. If your screen looks distorted or you have black lines around the edge, the aspect ratio is definitely set incorrectly on your PC or laptop. This is a really simple fix. We have an easy-to-follow video tutorial on how to change the aspect ratio on our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htYWocfvDG8

If this still doesn’t resolve your issue, we would recommend you contact your screen manufacturer, most of them will offer support over the phone. Alternatively, your I.T. department should be able to help with this.

Sometimes, you might find that the touch is either not smooth or you touch in one corner and it recognised the touch in another. Issues with the touch could be a few different things, but there are a few easy things to try first before writing off your screen.

If you try and draw a straight line but the line then has gaps in, this could be that the screen needs a good clean. Most screens in classrooms are infrared touch so you will need to make sure the inside of the frame of the screen is perfectly clean. Also, ensure the screen is clean as finger marks can often disrupt the touch signal. However, to clean your screen, do not use normal polish. Only use screen cleaner on your interactive screen.

If you touch in one corner and the screen registers the touch somewhere else, make sure you have nothing stuck to the frame of the screen. This can cause interference. We have a useful video to help with intermittent touch issues on our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79hKzOnzI_s

You may also need to update the touch drivers on your PC. We have made a helpful video about how to update these on our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKHiF8rokEk

If you have no touch at all on the screen, this could be the signal from the laptop. Touch is carried from the laptop/PC via the Touch USB cable. Please ensure this is plugged into the correct Touch USB slot on the screen. One other thing to check is, if the screen has built-in Android, switch to this and see if you can use the touch. If the touch is fine on the Android, this means the issue is definitely a cable/setting issue on the PC. If you have no touch on the Android, contact your I.T. provider or manufacturer as this could be a fault.

This can sometimes be as simple as a setting on your PC/laptop as some can default to the internal PC speakers. It is very simple to fix this issue. We have created a step-by-step video about how to change the setting on our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUpi3I21BHk

If this still doesn’t fix your sound issue, it could be an issue with the speakers. If your screen has built-in Android, switch to this and see if you have sound. If not, it could be an issue with your speakers. To test this, plug in some headphones into the slot on the screen (not the laptop). If you have sound out of the headphones then the speakers may have gone and you may want to discuss this with your I.T. department.

Most modern interactive touchscreens will have a ‘freeze’ function which enables you to freeze the image you have on the screen whilst you work on your PC/ laptop. We would recommend you refer to your screen guide or online resources for instructions on how to do this.

Some interactive touchscreens now have screen mirroring/sharing apps pre-loaded so that you can share your tablet onto the screen. Our screens come with this capability but we would recommend you refer to your screen guide to see if you can do this.

So, there it is! Our list of tips and tricks to help you with your interactive touchscreen in your classroom. We hope this article has helped to fix any issues you are having with your screen so you can make the most out of your classroom technology.