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A new way to learnNov 28, 2010 (The Herald-Palladium - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- There's a technological revolution taking place in many Southwest Michigan schools. Newer technologies such as interactive white boards, response clickers and sound enhancement systems are changing the way students learn and the way teachers teach, educators say. What began as a ripple is now escalating into what many school staff and teachers predict will soon become a huge wave as the price of the new devices and systems has dropped to a reasonable level. The interactive white boards are a logical extension of the old-fashioned chalkboards, with a modern twist. They can be used in many ways and can combine stop-motion videos, Internet searches, interactive games and much more. Students can come up to the board and write on them, and teachers can learn immediately how well students are absorbing the material. "It's 21st-century learning, and we have to prepare our kids," said St. Joseph school district Superintendent Al Skibbe. "This is truly a revolution in learning. We don't want our children to be left behind." National research has shown that children with access to the new technology in the classroom learn at a 17 percent faster rate than those without it, Skibbe said. Two years ago the district piloted a Classroom of Today project to equip one classroom in each of the district's five school buildings with new technology. It included interactive white boards and classroom sound enhancement systems. Then, in May, the district's voters approved a $38 million bond issue that included $6 million for technology. Interactive white boards and sound enhancement systems will be in place for the elementary and middle schools by the start of the 2011-12 school year, Skibbe said. "We're still evaluating the various product lines" to be used in the classrooms, he said. The high school technology upgrades will be phased in over three years because the district is also extensively remodeling the high school, he said. District wins with casino The New Buffalo school district, which has been the recipient of generous funding from the Pokagon Fund due to the Four Winds Casino the past few years, has embraced the new technology with gusto. Over the past three year, the New Buffalo School Board made it a priority to get the new technology into all of its schools, board President Lisa Werner said. "There were several of us who had gone to state and national school board conferences, and we saw this technology. They were too expensive initially, and then the cost went down. Six years ago they (the interactive white boards) were like $10,000 or $12,000 each." A white board now costs less than $2,000. The New Buffalo classrooms now also have sound enhancement systems to amplify the teachers' voices through speakers, Werner said. "Clickers," to give teachers immediate class response on questions, are also in use there, she said. New Buffalo Elementary School Principal David Kelly is impressed with the new technology. "I just got done watching one of my teachers go through a lesson. The interaction between the teachers, students and technology is all-encompassing," he said. "It makes it very hands-on and it really brings to life the lesson they are learning. "I think it's something that's going to change the way the kids interact with the content, most definitely," Kelly said. "They don't even need to take out their books! "Kids seem to gravitate naturally toward the video, to anything you put on the screen. With the technology we have today, it's bringing the kids into more of their style of learning environment," he added. Engaging the kids Hartford third-grade teacher Missy Weber recently took part in a demonstration of the interactive white boards for the school board, and her enthusiasm for the new technology was obvious. "I've never had my students so engaged, and all of them. That's priceless," she told the board. Weber said she can lead the class in games designed to make learning fun. And each morning starts with students manually moving their name from the left side of the white board screen -- labeled "at home" -- to the right side, labeled "at school." Hartford High School social studies teacher Steve Galvan also praised the white boards. "I appreciate having it in the classroom. It does great things," Galvan said. "Most students are visual learners, especially with them being used to texting." The Hartford district installed 35 interactive white boards to serve about one-third of all classrooms, at all grade levels, over the summer, Technology Director Gregg Jessup said. "Our teachers are really excited about it," Jessup said. "We're looking at that new kind of paradigm shift. We would definitely like to see them in every classroom. We're very enthusiastic about it." District staff plan to monitor MEAP test scores closely to see if the new technology is boosting student achievement, he said. Some results, such as increased student participation and interaction, are already obvious, Jessup said. Jessup estimates that three-quarters of Michigan's public school districts have at least started experimenting with the new technology. "At one time the chalkboard was a revolution, right?" Hartford Schools Superintendent Mike Hallgren said. "But for us it is a major change, because it's interactive. What I noticed was every kid is engaged. When the teacher said, 'Who wants to come up?'every hand went up. It wasn't like some kids were looking away." Stimulus dollars at work For some districts the trend has emerged over time. Berrien Spring schools now have interactive white boards in many classrooms, and three classrooms in each of the four school buildings have sets of response clickers. Federal stimulus money enabled the district to vault forward with that technology starting with this school year. "It's been a huge difference this school year," said Danny Bartz, Sylvester Elementary principal and the district special education director. "It's changed the way a lot of teachers teach." However, one of the newest technologies, classroom sound enhancement, is actually an old technology for the district, Bartz said. "We have had that for years" in the elementary classrooms, he said. Western Michigan University installed sound enhancement systems in those classrooms about 15 years ago, though these systems were also recently upgraded, Bartz said. "Western used us as a test site for sound enhancement," Bartz explained. "It was because we have the hearing impaired center here for Berrien and Cass counties." 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