The bright side of learning: A student-led project shining at King's

I’m Tisha, a first-year student studying Digital Media and Culture, and I recently spoke with Physics student Layvonna Hayashi about her student-led Lightboard project.

It’s an approach to teaching that uses light-based display technology to make learning more accessible, and it’s rooted in her own experience. What started as a personal workaround for learning challenges has grown into something with real potential to change how students across different subjects engage with complex ideas.

From personal challenge to innovation

Layvonna, a BSc Physics student, is rethinking how we learn. Having been diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia, she found traditional lectures difficult to keep up with.

“I couldn’t absorb information in the same way as others,” she explains. “So I had to find a different way to learn.”

This led to the Lightboard project, an interactive teaching system designed to make complex ideas more visual and easier to follow. Developed in collaboration with the King’s AV Department, it combines transparent screens and real-time annotation to break topics down into smaller, more manageable steps.

How the Lightboard works

At its core, the Lightboard is a transparent screen that allows teachers to face students while explaining concepts. Instead of turning away to write on a board, they can maintain eye contact while writing, drawing or annotating directly in front of them.

Layvonna and her team are also creating short explainer videos, similar to TikToks or Reels, that condense topics into under a minute.

“For students with ADHD or dyslexia, long lectures can be overwhelming. Breaking things down into short, visual segments makes it easier to focus and actually remember it.”

The importance of being student-led

What makes this project stand out is that it’s student-led. It has been more than just designed for students; it’s been shaped by someone who understands those challenges first-hand.

The ideas behind the Lightboard reflects how many of us already absorb information online: through interactive and on-demand content. Layvonna shows what student co-creation can look like when feedback turns into real involvement in shaping learning.

Balancing the project alongside a Physics degree hasn’t been easy. Layvonna talks about the need to manage her time carefully and push through setbacks, including technical issues and funding challenges.

But for her, the impact makes it worthwhile, saying “When I see students engaging with it, it just motivates me to keep going,”.

Beyond physics: wider use of the Lightboard

Although it started with physics, the Lightboard has potential far beyond STEM. The tool could be used to annotate texts in English, map timelines in History, or break down processes in Biology.

Even in more analytical subjects, it offers a way to work through ideas step by step, making abstract thinking feel more concrete. That flexibility is what makes it relevant across different areas of study.

Looking to the future

So far, the project has moved from an idea to a working prototype, with growing interest from students and collaborators. Layvonna is now looking to expand it further, both within King’s and beyond, including outreach to schools with limited access to this kind of technology.

In the long term, she hopes to develop more advanced holographic systems and build on her understanding of education and psychology to better support different learning needs.

Projects like Layvonna’s show what can happen when students are given the space to experiment and build. This helps us reconsider what learning could look like!