Digital screens may replace blackboards

In Round Rock, old-fashioned blackboards are slowly giving way to large digital screens; educators say the technology is expensive but worth the price.

By Bob Banta

ROUND ROCK — The old-fashioned classroom blackboard with its eraser dust and chalked lessons on how to spell “c-a-t” or add 2+2 is slowly giving way to digital screens.

The devices — 49 inches tall by 66 inches wide and less than 2 inches thick — look like large computer screens. They can take students on virtual tours of foreign countries, explain math processes, present scientific concepts and display how much each student has learned that day.

“This new technology is great for all students — regardless of whether they learn best by touch, seeing or listening — because it is so interactive,” said Andre Underwood, a third-grade teacher at Callison Elementary School. “It makes students want to participate in discussions and activities.”

[Read entire article here]

Watch it now at CNN.com:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2009/01/07/kloss.goodbye.chalkboard.ketv?iref=videosearch

Brainy board fires up students in Pendleton

By KATHY ANEY, The (Pendleton) East Oregonian

WCESC will provide training on white board technology

Wood County Educational Service Center is in the process of installing two state-of-the-art interactive white boards, enabling it to serve as a site for professional training and development within the county and also Northwest Ohio.

Dr. Douglas Garman, ESC superintendent, hopes it results in teachers with white boards in their classroom asking “what more” they can do with them. Garman noted many local school districts have interactive white boards in classrooms, but the majority of teachers do not have the expertise to use them to their fullest potential.

“Teachers who have the time or interest in using the white boards are only using a fraction of what these boards will do,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Garman described the two Promethean interactive white boards which WCESC is installing as state-of-the-art because of “their interactive, data driven, aggregate information system that can also have interaction with other classrooms live during use. Nothing is more advanced than these boards.”

While attending a recent symposium in England on interactive technology in education, Garman saw a demonstration of live classroom interaction using white boards. The educational secretary of state in the United Kingdom talked with students in Montgomery School in Minneapolis, Minn.

“They saw us. We saw them,” he said, adding that the students were excited to be part of an international symposium.

“They were demonstrating what they’d been doing with white boards, their learning, their excitement.”

[Read the entire article at the Ohio Sentinel-Tribune]

By Heather Darenberg

WINDER – Eighth-graders at Westside Middle School watched as Greg Book, a senior research scientist at Georgia Tech, used an electron microscope to look at a bee’s stinger.

“That’s a nasty little dagger that bee has, isn’t it?” Book asked.

The students didn’t travel to the institution’s Microelectronics Research Center for the demonstration. Nor has the Barrow County school acquired the $1 million piece of equipment.

Instead, the demonstration took place via a video conference students watched on a high-definition TV in their Advanced Broadband Learning Environment (ABLE) classroom.

Barrow County Schools officials on Tuesday showcased the district’s Direct-to-Discovery Initiative within the ABLE classroom, created through the school system’s partnership with institutions and organizations such as Georgia Tech, Promethean and Safari Montage.

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From Scholastic.com:

Mark Robinson–Promethean’s Global Education Head

Mark Robinson head of Promethean’s global head of education product strategy took some time out to speak with me and get The Royal Treatment before heading back to the U.K. He has been with Promethean about 5 years and and bridges the R & D and marketing departments. He travels a lot and gets to meet customers as well. Robinson was a U. K. primary grades teacher until about eight years ago, so his leadership fits right in with Promethean’s game plan to zero in on teachers, professional development, lessons and educator sharing. Mark still brags about his teacher Web site in Northern England and proud of his work in the area of Internet safety. “I’ve been in educational technology ever since I was a teacher,” says Robinson. “I think one of the big differentiators is that many—about 40 percent of Promethean’s staff have been teachers and it gives us sort of a conscience around what we are doing.” Robinson gives a lot of credit to founder and former chairman Tony Cann for this and the legacy he wants to leave. Cann started the company as Terminal Display Systems in the early 70s. “There’s a lot of feel good confidence when Promethean approaches the market.

[Read the entire story]

Greenville, SC – Deborah Seyffert calls the class her “Tiny Tech Team.” This class of five-year-olds gets music from iTunes, uses the Promethean Board for the Everyday Math Calendar, and keeps a class journal on a daily blog so parents can see what their children have learned each day.

Integrating cutting-edge technology into the classroom has earned Mrs. Seyffert, a kindergarten teacher at Slater-Marietta Elementary, the Technology Innovation Program award from the South Carolina Association for Educational Technology.

“Students in my classroom use technology every day. We start off the day singing “Good Morning,” and students read the lyrics on the Promethean Board,” Seyffert explained. “Throughout the day, students are using a document camera, laptops, and even a flip camera to record and post their work.”

Mrs. Seyffert developed the program with Erica Plessinger, her teaching assistant. They discuss student progress and develop plans for improvement with each child. Two first grade teachers, Laura Moody and Carol Isbell, bring their students together with the kindergartners so students at both grade levels can learn new skills. Media specialist Linda Bunch provides access to the same technology in the library to support classroom learning.

Using technology, Mrs. Seyffert can check students’ reading comprehension and phonology skills using the Activote Answer system, where students’ responses are instantly viewed, shared and analyzed on the Promethean Board using bar graphs and pie charts.

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For the next two weeks, classes using Promethean’s Activote Student Response System can participate in “Cast Your Vote: Decision 2008.” This online activity lets classrooms from around the world choose the next US president. Each participating classroom has been assigned a US state. Teachers are provided with flipchart templates to use in their classroom (which can be found online). The class will then use Activotes to vote for the president.

[Read about it at Techlearning.com]

Blair adjusts to Promethean Activboards
New technology aims to engage more students and improve learning

Blair has received 82 Promethean Activboards and will receive four more in an initiative to install these boards in two-thirds of all Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) middle and high schools. The initiative is designed to engage more students in school by enhancing the learning process, according to Michael Cady, Director of the Department of Financial Operations for MCPS.

MCPS has invested $13.5 million to purchase and install 3,000 boards in schools across the county, according to Cady. The boards were purchased at a 17 percent discount using money from the Fiscal Year 2009 Capital Budget, he said.

Blair teachers learned about the new technology during the summer and were able to request a board. Most teachers who requested a board received one, according to Magnet Coordinator Dennis Heidler. “There were a couple where we had to prioritize,” Heidler said. “Just a few people didn’t get them.”

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Zhanseit Tuymebayev, Minister of Education, Kazakhstan, with Jim Knight, Minister of State for Schools and Learners, UK

This week we are in London to support the ITiE Symposium, a gathering of education leaders from around the globe (over 30 countries represented) which focuses in great depth on the issues that are currently affecting the educational environment globally.

Last night Britain’s Minister of State for Schools, Jim Knight, addressed over 200 international delegates (including several dozen from the USA) and used an Activboard to link up with a middle school classroom in Montgomery County (Metro Washington, DC) and quiz middle school students in maths and reading comprehension. Following the dinner, the Minister of Education for Kazakhstan presented Knight with a medal and award, honoring the collaboration between nations.

We find the sight of so many people coming together… all of them working to make changes at once – all over the globe – to be incredibly inspiring.

The following speakers are presenting…

Professor Sir Geoff HamptonPro Vice Chancellor, University of Wolverhampton
Sir Geoff Hampton was the first school principal in England to be knighted for his distinguished service to education, having turned a failing school (Northicote) into a success story. Read more

Yong Zhao, Ph. D.University Distinguished Professor
Yong’s research interests include computer gaming and education, diffusion of innovations, teacher adoption of technology, computer-assisted language learning, globalization and education, and international and comparative education. Read more