Say you’re a teacher going over Native American history. Some of
your students don’t know what a loom is and can’t picture the yarn
weaving through it as described in the book.
Morgan Hill
Say you’re a teacher going over Native American history. Some of your students don’t know what a loom is and can’t picture the yarn weaving through it as described in the book.
For Jackson Elementary School’s fourth and fifth grade classes, this presents no problem: just use your SMART Board to Google “loom,” look it up in the social studies book’s corresponding CD or visit the Discovery Channel online – all via a 4-by-5 foot interactive white board with touch screen abilities that allow users to write notes digitally and save their work. From the board, users can do anything that a regular laptop can do, from surfing the Internet to watching movies to crunching numbers.
Gone are the days of the messy chalkboard for these students. And they say good riddance: when a group of fourth-graders were asked whether they’d prefer learning from a book or from the SMART Board, the group shrieked that it was the SMART Board.
“It’s really cool,” fourth grader David Campbell said. “You just gotta use your finger.”
Principal Garry Dudley said education has to catch up to the digital age to stay relevant.
“These are 21st century kids, and unless we speak to them in their language, which is digital, we’re never going to reach them,” Principal Garry Dudley said.
The teachers, including fourth grade instructor Dana Carney, admit that the new technology, which was brought in at the beginning of the year, is more of a learning curve for them than it is for the students. But learning the new technology is worth it, they say.
“They’re more engaged because it’s more interactive and visual,” fourth grade instructor Judy Parker said.
Fellow fourth grader Allyson Funk said the games that can be played on it are fun. She’s enjoyed learning integers with the touch screen.
“We do a lot of math,” Funk said.
Technophobes, please note: all is not lost. At least one student still prefers a good book to all this technology.
“I like to read,” Kyle Kissinger said. “I read about 1,000 pages a month.”
While Kissinger will take Harry Potter any day, he said he’s still “pretty good at” using the SMART Board.
Each of the nine SMART Boards cost about $4,200 including installation and training from a combination of district and school funds, Dudley said.
