They look like something out of Star Trek, and they might well land in a classroom near you. They're school desks, but not as you know them, say their Durham University designers.

The interactive multi-touch desks look and act like a large version of an Apple iPhone.

"The new desk can be both a screen and a keyboard. It can act like a multi-touch whiteboard and several students can use it at once," said Dr Liz Burd, who led the university's Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) group that developed them.

"It offers fantastic scope for participatory teaching and learning," she said.

The desks, which are networked and linked to a teachers' console, recognise multiple touches on the desktop, using infrared light.

Several students will be able to work together, as the desks allow simultaneous screen contact using fingers or pens.

"You could have 100 sticky fingers and it would work fine," Burd explained. "One possibility is allowing students to define their own space with an icon or avatar that would say 'this is my desk', then sweep that away and save it to go into collaborative mode."

The researchers wanted to create a "natural way" for students to use computers in class. The system encourages collaboration between students and teachers, and moves away from learning centred on the teacher.

"Our system is very similar to the type of interface shown as a vision of the future in the TV series Star Trek."

Adam Greenhill, seven, from Our Lady Queen of Martyrs School, County Durham, tries the new interactive multi-touch desk

The system of interactive classrooms, SynergyNet, will boost equal access in schools, Burd claimed. "In IT, we have found that males have been the dominant actors. Interactive classrooms will encourage more females to take part in lessons.

"It will also enable more disabled students to participate in lessons and allow personalised learning."

Burd, who is director of active learning in computing at Durham, said she hoped that within 10 years every school desk would be interactive.

The expense is prohibitive now because each desk is tailor made and costs £8,000, but researchers hope when it goes into general manufacture the price will be around £1,000.

The interactive desks can be used either as a screen or a keyboard. Students can use them either as an individual work space or as a large collaborative screen, enabling a group to cooperate on a task.

Teachers will have a console allowing them to set work and monitor what each student is doing.

Numeracy tasks could include exercises where pupils have to split a restaurant bill by sliding visual representations of money into a group space.

Teachers will be able to display examples of good work on the main smart whiteboard, while tasks could also be set for individual desks.

"Teachers will be able to look at what's going on at every screen, see whether pupils are having problems and provide support as needed or stand back and not interfere where it's not," Burd said.

The software will be used to link everything together in a fully interactive classroom system of desks and smartboards.

After testing the system with students of all ages, the software will be available to schools for free.

The TEL research study is the largest of its kind looking at multi-touch interactive systems for education.

Durham's researchers have £1.5m to design the system and software, and test it with students from primary and secondary schools, and university students over the next four years.

Dr Andrew Hatch, from TEL, said: "It changes the move-to-use principle: the computer becomes part of the desk. It's a practical change that will provide a creative interface for lifelong learning for all students."