"The school table however is multi-functional and flexible. The school table can be a space to "ontmoeten" too, where spontaneous discussions emerge." I'm not sure about this... --> this is in line with my previous question about the necessity of having an intention (sylke) - I think the intention is always learning, but the learning that takes place is created by the people around the table, which means it has no clear path nor structure. It depends on the people joining the table, there is space for coincidence. (David)

If the chairs are attached to the tables, to provide freedom of movement for the students, or to give them the personal space they need for their individual activities, then we call them school desks. But desks can become tables, when they are put together, when things are not private. --> I don't really understand this part anymore (sylke)

The dangers for the school table:
The mobile screen privatizes the attention to what is happening on the screen, and if the personal digital screen is on the table, not shared with the others, then the table loses its function. It can't be a space of connection when the screen in present. However if the screens are shared by a projector, accessible to everyone around the table, things becomes different. What does a vertical table do to a horizontal table? Is the projection a way to recreate the table? How do horizon or verticality influence the function of the table?

Bodies are needed around the table. The gathering around the school table cannot be virtual. --> i'm not sure about this anymore... (sylke) The table however can be smart. The smart table de-privatizes the personal screen and makes it public again. Students can gather around the smart screen and work together. They can all direct their gazes to what is happening on the screen simultaneously with their bodies being present. One can turn the smart screen off whenever they wish. Table materializes the connection between the students.
The school table asks for an active participation when bodies are around it. One cannot just be present around the table without adding to what is on the table.
The screen however can cross one out, how come the notebook can't? The empty notebook is different than the screen. The screen, what we call a smart tablet. What are the differences between the tablet and the table?


Tasks:
To visualize different situations in which we can(not) find a school table or different types of the table itself.
To write about tableau and tablet, how they are different and how they can be compared with table.
Look into the etymology of the table, tableau and tablet and see wherefrom the word originates

late 12c., "board, slab, plate," from Old French table "board, square panel, plank; writing table; picture; food, fare" (11c.), and late Old English tabele "writing tablet, gaming table," from Germanic *tabal (source also of Dutch tafel, Danish tavle, Old High German zabel "board, plank," German Tafel). Both the French and Germanic words are from Latin tabula "a board, plank; writing table; list, schedule; picture, painted panel," originally "small flat slab or piece" usually for inscriptions or for games (source also of Spanish tabla, Italian tavola), of uncertain origin, related to Umbrian tafle "on the board."

The sense of "piece of furniture with the flat top and legs" first recorded c. 1300 (the usual Latin word for this was mensa (see mensa); Old English writers used bord (see board (n.1)). Especially the table at which people eat, hence "food placed upon a table" (c. 1400 in English). The meaning "arrangement of numbers or other figures on a tabular surface for convenience" is recorded from late 14c. (as in table of contents, mid-15c.).

Figurative phrase turn the tables (1630s) is from backgammon (in Old and Middle English the game was called tables). Table talk "familiar conversation around a table" is attested from 1560s, translating Latin colloquia mensalis. Table-manners is from 1824. Table-hopping is first recorded 1943. The adjectival phrase under-the-table "hidden from view" is recorded from 1949; to be under the table "passed out from excess drinking" is recorded from 1913. Table tennis "ping-pong" is recorded from 1887. Table-rapping in spiritualism, supposedly an effect of supernatural powers, is from 1853.

mid-15c., "enter into a list, form into a list or catalogue," also "provide with food," from table (n.). In parliamentary sense, 1718, originally "to lay on the (speaker's) table for discussion;" but in U.S. political jargon it has chiefly the sense of "to postpone indefinitely" (1866) via notion of "lay aside for future consideration." Related: Tabled; tabling.