Teachers Back in the Classroom Learning About New Technology

By Dan Bellerose

The Sault Star

One week after elementary school students raced out the door to begin a two-month summer break, more than a dozen of their instructors find themselves back in the classroom.

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario three-day 2011 Summer Academy opened Wednesday at Queen Elizabeth Public School, participants learning the capabilities of SMARTboard technology — the interactive classroom blackboard of the 21st Century.

Put away the chalk and chalk brushes. We’re talking about a relatively new tool for teaching and communicating to a generation of children that has grown up glued to computer screens.

“It’s the new way of teaching,” said Jeanne LePage, ETFO representative at the professional development workshop for Algoma District School Board instructors.

She says holding the attention of today’s technology-savvy children is a challenge for educators, but “the interactive approach (of SMARTboard) keeps the kids glued and engaged.”

The technology, introduced 20 years ago, involves the linking of three pieces of equipment — a basic computer, a basic projector and a touch-sensitive interactive whiteboard screen.

“We’re trying to prepare educators, and upgrade others, on the opportunity to motivate and engage the classroom of today,” said Warren Collins, workshop instructor.

LePage was unable to confirm the number of interactive SMARTboards deployed throughout ADSB, nor were superintendents available to confirm numbers, but the ETFO representative did say such screens were in the majority of ADSB schools.

The boards are “in high demand,” she said, and because of the cost, usually beginning in the $2,000 range, says Collins, teachers must make submissions to a review committee to get consideration.

The majority of ADSB classrooms, says LePage, have at least one laptop computer, and SMART software, as well as a projector and whiteboard screen — the bonus comes if the whiteboard screen is interactive.

The school board, she said, is attempting to increase its inventory of SMARTboards annually.

Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board officials, in a story earlier this year in The Sault Star, claimed it had more than 100 such touch screens in its classrooms.

The beauty of the technology, says the workshop instructor, along with its flexibility, including the ability to create and record lessons using video and sound, as well as its Internet and document connection, is that “it can adapt to different learning abilities.”

The technology comes with writing tools, as well as an eraser, for the interactive whiteboard, which also has the ability to store and pull up images and charts.

The technology removes the need to have large groups of students huddled around a single computer screen.

The professional development workshop, one of dozens being offered this summer by the ETFO, is supported by the Ministry of Education.

This week’s workshop at Queen Elizabeth will have participants learning how to hook up the system and use the suggested software to build visual and interactive lessons.

SMART Technologies, a Calgary-based leading provider of collaboration solutions, sold its first interactive whiteboard unit 20 years ago, in 1991, needed 17 years to install one million such boards, according to its website, and another three years after that to install its second million units.

SMARTboards are used from kindergarten through post-secondary school and, according to independent consultants, 8% of global classrooms have some form of interactive whiteboard.

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