Gwinnet Daily Post: Barrow Co. schools showcase new technology classrooms

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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Scholastic Interview with Mark Robinson

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.

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“Tiny Tech Team” Earns Greenville County Teacher the Technology Innovation Program Award

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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Decision 2008 on Promethean Planet

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]