Poliba, digital classrooms are coming
They are equipped with multitouch monitors, professional graphics software and mixed reality headsets. Rector Fratino: "A new teaching model for students"
28 January 2026
Today the rector of the Polytechnic University of Bari, Umberto Fratino, presented the new digital classrooms of the university. Chalkboards, projectors and paper handouts are being phased out and replaced by interactive stations with multitouch screen, headsets, software for professional graphics e artificial intelligence systems. The lecturer’s desk is also replaced by a control station, connected to the students’ stations and to an audio-video system with automated direction, for remote connections, videoconferences and real-time sharing of multimedia content.
The new teaching spaces were created on the Campus as part of an initial contract covering four classrooms. The work cost approximately 400,000 euros and was financed with funds from the Territorial Pacts for advanced training of companies, which the Polytechnic has joined and through which it obtained resources to create new laboratories, master’s programmes and purchase teaching equipment. To transform the old classrooms into digital environments, further work was also carried out to upgrade the fire protection system and improve ergonomics, with a new lighting system. Additional contracts are planned to gradually transform all the Polytechnic’s classrooms into digital environments without interrupting the teaching schedule. The first installations, meanwhile, will be operational starting next semester.
"We are delivering to our students an innovative model of university teaching," commented Rector Fratino, "one that significantly raises the level of services and clearly shows what the Polytechnic University of Bari aims to be in the near future. We are in fact dealing with a high-tech world," the rector added, "in which artificial intelligence is spreading across all living and working environments, so we are called upon to understand this complexity, use it in the best possible way and, above all, teach young people, digital natives, a modern and critical approach to new learning methods. More than ever today," Fratino concluded, "we must enhance the primacy of the human being, with their creativity, their ability to design the future and to make good use of new tools, without being dominated by them, for the good of both the individual and the community."
THE TECHNOLOGY
Each station in the new digital classrooms of the Polytechnic University of Bari is equipped with a 27-inch multitouch screen integrated into the desk and connected to a minicomputer, also integrated. There are also stations for disabled users. The lecturer station consists of a 55-inch screen and a workstation designed for the use of artificial intelligence and professional graphics, electronically adjustable in height and inclination. The lecturer station is completed by an 86- inch interactive whiteboard, with smart functions for a second screen, web browsing and on-screen notes.
COME FUNZIONANO
The lecturer station interacts with the students’ stations through an open-source classroom management software that also allows individual control of the stations, sending documents, sharing on-screen content, and managing shutdown and restart of the stations. The classroom management software will be integrated with video streaming software and Safe Exam Browser (SEB) to make the stations secure during exams and tests, managing browsing filtered only to authorized websites and resources.
Upon the instructor’s request, users will be able to access Poliba services with their own credentials and retrieve teaching materials from the cloud. Students will be able to use Meta Quest 2 headsets for mixed reality, featuring high-resolution displays, optimized for smooth 3D rendering and integrated sensors for motion tracking, for practical exercises (simulations of real-world scenarios in a protected and controlled environment), interactive demonstrations (visualization of 3D models and complex concepts that are difficult to reproduce in analog form), experiential learning (use of 360-degree multimedia content).
MULTI-CONNECTION
The multitouch screens are connected to an audio-video system designed to ensure maximum operational flexibility. The teaching station will serve as a control interface for an automated production setup, enabling coordinated management of the capture systems (high-definition cameras capable of autonomously following speakers or framing specific areas of the classroom, as needed) and the audio system (an ecosystem of ambient and directional microphones that ensure clear voice capture while eliminating background noise). The system also allows multiple classrooms to be connected in sequence or simultaneously, making video calls, conferences, and content sharing between different physical environments seamless.
The article Poliba, digital classrooms are coming comes from Poliba Chronicle.
