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Goodbye chalk, schools buying interactive white boards [The Capital, Annapolis, Md.]
(Capital (Annapolis) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 11--In a span of just a few years, the number of interactive white boards in county schools has leapt from zero to 1,221.
Priced at between $1,650 and $3,000 a set, the boards and projectors that go with them represent an investment of millions of dollars. Most of that money has come from school system and grant funds, and part of it has come from parent and teacher groups convinced the boards can dramatically improve children's education.
In classrooms, the boards take the place of regular chalkboards and work like giant touch-screen computers. Each is hooked up to a computer and a projector, and teachers use them for everything from showing video clips to playing educational games to taking notes that can be saved in a file and resurrected for later lessons.
Critics of interactive white boards say they often go unused by teachers who aren't computer savvy. But fans say they open opportunities for teaching and grab the attention of students who are far more technological than generations past.
"It's tangible, it's engaging, it's highly motivating," said Diana Strohecker, principal at Nantucket Elementary School in Crofton, which has a board in every classroom, including the gym. "That's what kids are used to. We're aligning more of their world to our instruction practices."
Strohecker began pushing for the boards about three years ago, when she was principal of Millersville Elementary School and visited the United Kingdom on a Fulbright Administrator Exchange fellowship.
In the 30 schools she visited, she found a white board in every classroom. Impressed, she mobilized her staff for a series of fundraisers that ultimately did the same for Millersville.
The rest of the county has been following suit. About two years ago school officials picked one company to buy from -- SMART Technologies -- and developed a plan to systematically buy more boards.
Now, whenever a school gets walls, an addition or a renovation, every classroom gets a board, a mounted projector to go with it, a document camera and an audio system, schools spokesman Bob Mosier said.
The boards cost between $1,100 and $1,700, and the projectors that go with them cost between $550 and $1,300. There are now about 4,300 projectors in the school system. Greg Barlow, chief information officer for county schools, said the bulk of the boards have been purchased in the past two years.
But schools that want the accessories that go with the boards, like remote tablets for teachers or handheld units that students use to answer questions and cast votes, have to carve out money from their own funds.
Eventually, school officials hope to put one of the boards into every classroom in the county. They would have bought more by now, but were stopped by the county's budget crunch, Barlow said.
"If it wasn't for that, we'd be buying tons of SMART boards and putting them in all over," he said.
But the promise of someday being granted technology from the school system hasn't stopped some county schools from buying their own, as Millersville did.
Lothian Elementary School is halfway into a $75,000 campaign to buy SMART boards, projectors, digital cameras, document cameras and other devices.
"We know that at some point the school will get renovated, but we decided it's very important to stay on top of the technology and not wait five years," said Beth Starnes, Lothian's e-coach. "We need to get it here so the teachers can learn, so when we do get the renovation, our teachers will be ready to go."
The key to Lothian's plan is teacher training, Starnes said. There's a learning curve for teachers, and it takes time for them to get good at using the boards.
"You can't just throw this stuff at them," she said. "They really need time to learn it and think about it. It's not just a toy, it's not a game. It's, how are you going to integrate this into your instruction to actively engage the kids?"
Barlow said the school system as a whole also is training teachers to use their SMART boards. For example, officials are posting seven-minute training videos to the school system's internal computer network that teachers can watch on their own time, he said.
And hopefully, that will help all teachers get good use out of their boards.
"Some are used all the time, others not so much, but we're pushing for that," Barlow said.
To see more of The Capital or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.hometownannapolis.com.
Copyright (c) 2009, The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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