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Echos of squeals and squeaks from chalk marking the surface of an old classroom blackboard are fading farther and farther into the past.
White marker boards have become the standard over recent years, but their eraser has already arrived.
Interactive whiteboards, seemingly straight out of a science fiction story are appearing on the horizon and at the Wellington school district, they are already here.
Yesterday at Wellington Middle School, district Technology Director Kay Tibbs demonstrated one of the interactive classroom boards to members of the USD 353 Board of Education.
"An interactive whiteboard is very much like a computer screen...The board is connected to the computer and the board works as the monitor," Tibbs explained. "The cool thing is you can touch the board to manipulate the screen."
The board and the computer interact. A special pen is used to touch the whiteboard, it is the whiteboard’s mouse.
There are two brands of interactive boards in the district, Promethean and Smart Board. Two Promethean boards are at the middle school, two are at Lincoln Elementary, and two are at the high school. Eisenhower has a Smart Board, the high school has some that brand too. The two brands are very similar to each other.
"Teachers who have them love them," Tibbs said. "In fact I know two of the elementary teachers, one has a Promethean one has a Smart Board and both of them said if the board got taken away they would quit teaching."
More teachers and students at Wellington will have an opportunity to work with the interactive boards if government technology grants come through.
"The grant was written to purchase 40 of them," Tibbs said. "It's a Federal Government grant, the money has been appropriated for us but I still have to finish the application process."
Paper work to finalize the process has yet to arrive. Teachers will not be forced to use the new technology. Tibbs said teachers who would like an interactive board in their class room must fill out a Technology Request Form which can be found on the district web page.
Just as Tibbs pointed out, the teachers that already have the boards like what the new tool brings to the classroom. High school social studies teacher Karla DeFour says there are so many features she feels like Inspector Gadget.
"Kids today are more visually stimulated," DeFour said. "...Anything you can add to their visual sense is just and addition and this being interactive actually gets them involved."
The district technology director hopes that the teachers currently using this new class room tool will be able to teach the next wave of users through professional development. The learning curve is steep at first, but Tibbs said if a person knows how to put together a Microsoft Powerpoint, they could grasp the interactive board technology.
"Professional development is the key to any implementation," Tibbs said. "One of the reasons I jumped the gun and bought the six boards was so I had my gurus."
Those gurus are ready for the tasks ahead of them.
"I think that's the biggest learning process is when you get in a group of people that are really wanting to learn how to do something..." DeFour said. "And that will help me teach them also."
The social studies teacher also pointed out the more time a teachers spends with the interactive board, more is learned about it.
All six Promethean boards were installed in a matter of two days during the Summer. The boards are bought in bulk at a discount, individually they cost around $3500. That price includes a projector, board, computer and installation. Tibbs said the boards can be a great tool for the now more digitally savvy students and even decrease discipline problems.
"It's extremely engaging to our students who are digital natives," Tibbs added. They've never known life without the Internet ... We need to teach to those guys, that's who we have in our classrooms."
Echos of squeals and squeaks from chalk marking the surface of an old classroom blackboard are fading farther and farther into the past.
White marker boards have become the standard over recent years, but their eraser has already arrived.
Interactive whiteboards, seemingly straight out of a science fiction story are appearing on the horizon and at the Wellington school district, they are already here.
Yesterday at Wellington Middle School, district Technology Director Kay Tibbs demonstrated one of the interactive classroom boards to members of the USD 353 Board of Education.
"An interactive whiteboard is very much like a computer screen...The board is connected to the computer and the board works as the monitor," Tibbs explained. "The cool thing is you can touch the board to manipulate the screen."
The board and the computer interact. A special pen is used to touch the whiteboard, it is the whiteboard’s mouse.
There are two brands of interactive boards in the district, Promethean and Smart Board. Two Promethean boards are at the middle school, two are at Lincoln Elementary, and two are at the high school. Eisenhower has a Smart Board, the high school has some that brand too. The two brands are very similar to each other.
"Teachers who have them love them," Tibbs said. "In fact I know two of the elementary teachers, one has a Promethean one has a Smart Board and both of them said if the board got taken away they would quit teaching."
More teachers and students at Wellington will have an opportunity to work with the interactive boards if government technology grants come through.
"The grant was written to purchase 40 of them," Tibbs said. "It's a Federal Government grant, the money has been appropriated for us but I still have to finish the application process."
Paper work to finalize the process has yet to arrive. Teachers will not be forced to use the new technology. Tibbs said teachers who would like an interactive board in their class room must fill out a Technology Request Form which can be found on the district web page.
Just as Tibbs pointed out, the teachers that already have the boards like what the new tool brings to the classroom. High school social studies teacher Karla DeFour says there are so many features she feels like Inspector Gadget.
"Kids today are more visually stimulated," DeFour said. "...Anything you can add to their visual sense is just and addition and this being interactive actually gets them involved."
The district technology director hopes that the teachers currently using this new class room tool will be able to teach the next wave of users through professional development. The learning curve is steep at first, but Tibbs said if a person knows how to put together a Microsoft Powerpoint, they could grasp the interactive board technology.
"Professional development is the key to any implementation," Tibbs said. "One of the reasons I jumped the gun and bought the six boards was so I had my gurus."
Those gurus are ready for the tasks ahead of them.
"I think that's the biggest learning process is when you get in a group of people that are really wanting to learn how to do something..." DeFour said. "And that will help me teach them also."
The social studies teacher also pointed out the more time a teachers spends with the interactive board, more is learned about it.
All six Promethean boards were installed in a matter of two days during the Summer. The boards are bought in bulk at a discount, individually they cost around $3500. That price includes a projector, board, computer and installation. Tibbs said the boards can be a great tool for the now more digitally savvy students and even decrease discipline problems.
"It's extremely engaging to our students who are digital natives," Tibbs added. They've never known life without the Internet ... We need to teach to those guys, that's who we have in our classrooms."
