Why Smartboards and not chalkboards?

Nothing beats holding a piece of chalk in your hand…..especially for those of us who remember burning through a box of chalk a week writing notes on the board…aahh the good ole’ days…

Fast forward to the present where industry specialists estimate that one in every seven classrooms in the world will have an interactive whiteboard in 1-2 years.  Why?…it is because they do so much more for the learner than a static board.  For example, on these boards students could watch the inauguration, have a video conference with a foreign classroom, tour the ancient ruins of Rome, and still take written notes from the teacher  ….

We are going to continue to use the Smartboard solution. This was first introduced to Fairport schools about 4 years ago.  They have been used throughout Monroe County schools and have been supported both technically and pedagogically through Monroe #1 BOCES Model Schools.  There are lots of interactive boards to choose from…Polyvision…Mimio….Promethean...we have decided that the differences between these boards are mitigated by today’s economic climate.

These economic reasons include that Fairport already has a large number of Smartboards and there has been a significant investment in intellectual capital.  Teachers have been trained for several years on these boards who in turn could assist their colleagues in learning this technology.

A second reason is that we only have 7 technicians for all the schools.   A second brand of interactive boards would require additional personnel to be hired to support them.   It simply would be cost prohibitive to start from scratch to train teachers and technicians on another system.

The third reason is that Fairport is required to buy this equipment through Monroe #1 BOCES who in turn services this equipment through their AV repair service. They have a solid history for supporting this board.  They are very restrictive on the types of interactive boards they can support.

Check out this page of Interactive activities on the Smartboard for an illustration of of the types of things that can occur on a Smartboard.

To see a visual illustration of the technical system click on this link and select the Smartboard 600 series.

Tags: smartboards