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SMART Boards push district into the future
(by Tina Pappas - October 07, 2008)
WEST PATERSON - The school district has made a thrust forward by getting a technological update with the installation of new interactive screens known as SMART Boards.
"Basically it’s a touch screen and you can even write on it with your finger. I really enjoy working with it. There’s one already set up in Ms. Healy’s classroom up at Charles Olbon School and she tells me that her class really looks forward to working on it. The Smart Board keeps them involved and grasped in learning."
He recently had the task of installing all six of the SMART Boards throughout the entire school district in time for all three back to school nights. Each school now has one located in the media center/library and one in a classroom.
Many district teachers and staff members recently attended a training workshop held at Memorial Middle School. Rosa Grimes, the sixth, seventh and eighth grade language arts teacher instructed the group. In addition, Ms. Hernandez and Ms. Wittig, also Memorial Middle School teachers, gave demonstrations of using the SMART Board with each of their academic subject areas.
Schools Superintendent Scott Rixford would eventually like to see one in every classroom in the district.
"I would like to see if we can have each of these installed in every class within the next two years and I know it’s very ambitious," he said. "They cost about $3,500 and they’re obviously not cheap. I believe we can do it through our own budget rather than rely on grants or corporate sponsors but we need to ask ourselves some tough questions and make some tough decisions as to what our priorities are."
Rixford believes that it’s pertinent for school districts to acclimatize towards technologically advancing classrooms. He believes that investing in items such as SMART Boards is a sounder financial investment than a district purchasing text and workbooks alone.
"Spending money on one SMART Board offsets somewhat the cost of ordering textbooks for a particular grade level," he said. "I’m not saying not ordering any books but it just makes more sense to invest in technology that makes information more readily accessible. It was just like when the first computers and the onset of the Internet came out. You had a world of information at your fingertips and it enabled you to look up information on anything instead of locating it from a book. What you also see at local libraries these days are less and less books and many more computers."
Rixford believes the average costs for SMART Boards will go down with time just like computers have. It also helps when students have fewer books to carry and it lessens the average weight of a backpack.
"Students also don’t have to worry about forgetting their books for homework at school because this technology allows them to access the information they need at home. Investing in educational technology is a win-win scenario on many levels."
"SMART Boards is a teaching tool that is changing the way students are learning," said Chris Gander, technology coordinator. "Kids today are very hooked on being technologically interactive with their ‘DSs’ and ‘PSPs.’ What this system allows them to do is to participate electronically just like they do with their video games, aside from just flipping through textbooks."
The notebook software allows teachers to download interactive activities to develop lesson plans, he said. It’s very user friendly because it combines the simplicity of a whiteboard with the power of a computer.
"It’s the coolest thing since sliced bread," Gander said.
Founded in 1987 by David Martin and Nancy Knowlton, SMART began as the Canadian distributor for a U.S. projector company. Revenue generated through projector sales was directed toward the research and development of the SMART Board interactive whiteboard that enabled groups to communicate and share information with people in the same room or around the world, according to the company’s Web site. The company’s first SMART Board interactive whiteboard in 1991 and holds the claim to be the first interactive whiteboard to provide touch control of computer applications over standard Microsoft Windows applications. Intel Corporation has been a minority investor in the company since 1992.
"Learning is a lot different that when I was growing up," added Gander. "Students are learning a lot different than when we were young. Students can do all the things that they did conventionally, like dissecting a frog, but without having to experience then unpleasant smell of it. Basically every subject can be covered with the SMART Boards. It can connect to a PC or a Mac computer and the interactivity possibilities are limitless."
Gander explained the touch-sensitive display connects to any computer and digital projector to show an image. Computer controlled applications directly link up from the display, which enables someone to write notes in digital ink.
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