The New Business of Education – PBS Nightly Business Report

http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/features/special/new-business-of-education_home/

[download wmv] [transcript]

Promethean Planet

From Jessica Price…

This is the website for Promethean Planet, the maker of ACTIVboards. ACTIVboard is the type of interactive whiteboard I have in my class. I need to find an article next that discusses the major differences between white boards because I don’t know how my board is different from others. Anyway… this site provides teachers with ACTIVboards a wide variety of resources and training. It has a large collection of flipcharts for all ages and subjects and provides tips for using the board effectively. They even host contests to promote flipchart contributions. Best of all – it’s free! You just have to register.

Promethean Planet Website

Teacher Feature: Brian Crosby

Teacher Feature: Brian Crosby
Agnes Risley Elementary School, Sparks, NV
ACTIV since 2006

“The Activboard really helps me do all of the things I was instructed to do when I was learning how to be a teacher. Through sight, sound, touch and movement, my students have the opportunity to learn the way that best suits them. Anything you can do on a computer, you can bring into an Activstudio lesson.”

Promethean Planet Salutes Brian Crosby, This Month’s Featured Teacher!

Brian Crosby, a 5th grade teacher from Agnes Risley Elementary in Sparks, NV, supplements his lessons with distance learning opportunities and solidifies concepts by allowing his students to keep blogs. Through the use of a personal blog, which Brian uses as a communication tool for parents and educators, his students maintain their own blogs as a means of documenting and sharing their daily experiences within his class. To view Brian’s blog, visit www.learningismessy.com/blog.

A Visit to Ben Smith High School

Nearly 80 Guilford County Schools math classrooms leapt into the 21st century in December. That’s when the Promethean Activboards were installed.

These state-of-the-art instructional tools are not simply whiteboards or even smartboards. They’re giant, interactive computer screens that you can write on with an electronic stylus. They interface with laptop computers that store the teacher’s lesson plans and Powerpoint presentations. And they connect wirelessly to the Internet, where Promethean teachers around the globe share strategies and techniques and tools to help students learn.

Guilford’s initial Promethean boards went to the Mission Possible schools, the nine campuses with the most at-risk students. Action Greensboro paid for the technology, which is just part of a huge push to improve student learning in math.

No one says that technology alone is going to improve student performance. That’s up to dedicated teachers and motivated students. But at least one teacher thinks these high-tech boards are a step in the right direction.