Over the Spring Break, some electronic white boards were permanently installed in a few classrooms in my son's school.
I do not know if these boards were bought by LCPS or by the PTA, so I will gloss over whether this was a good use of money.
I'm not even going to talk right now about whether this is a good use of technology in the classroom.
What I will talk about is my reaction to their actual installation:
The permanent boards are larger than the temporary boards that were flitting from class to class during the year. They take up less floor space (though they take over a foot deep of floorspace), because the projectors are mounted above them, but they take up more wall space than the teachers expected. In fact, the board takes up a substantial amount of space in the front of the class where there used to be room on a regular marker board.
Another regular marker board has been installed on one of the side walls, but it's not a convenient location for writing and it would have probably been a better place for the electronic white board to be installed instead.
The focal-point of the classroom before was the regular marker board. The marker board is magnetic, so it also held displays of the students' work from time to time. Kids and teachers could write on it, and it was not distracting if they stood in front of it to teach or to present reports.
Now the electronic white board is the focal-point of the room. I haven't seen it in use yet, but where it sits makes it the thing that the kids are focusing on all. day. long.
I don't WANT my son focussing on an electronic screen all day long (says the blogger, and computer tech worker). We work pretty hard at my house about limiting what we call screen-time. Our son plays his DS when we bring him along to meetings, but otherwise his DS is limited to an hour on weekends. TV time is limited, too. As is playing Wii games.
Limiting screen-time is why this blog goes so quiet on the weekends. I'm spending time with my son looking at stuff other than a screen, although sometimes we're looking at screen together.
School should not be a place where the focus is on a screen all day. Computers at the sides and back of a room? Sure. A TV mounted at the back of the room? Sure. But a computer monitor the size of a projector screen mounted permanently in the front of the classrom? Emphasizing the importance of what appears on a screen? I'm not so sure about that. I'm feeling very uncomfortable with it.
I will be writing more about what changes the board brings to the classroom, if any, and I promise that I will try to keep an open mind about it.
As a teacher I thought the way you do now at first. But 3 years into the e-board I can assure you they are a wonderful tool if teachers make time to plan and prepare for them. Lessons, lectures, interaction, active voters, etc are all enhanced. Give the e-board a chance. I think you will be pleased with what teachers all over LCPS have done with them.
ReplyDeleteChange and growth are often difficult to deal with - - especially in the field of education. It is hard to look beyond the immediate cost of an item when trying to evaluate long term value. Remember how hard Columbus had to work to find funding for his voyages – Why would anyone waste that kind of money for a doomed voyage? I remember my father saying a PC was a waste of money in the 1980's "Why would we spend so much money to have a fancy calculator in the house?" I am personally thankful that LCPS is proactive with the vision to see the need for bringing 21st century tools into today's classrooms. As an adult we may see a giant TV screen when looking at a Promethean board. It is hard to see the world of tomorrow through the eyes of today. Thanks to Loudoun County Public Schools for seeing what many members of the public are unable to visualize by providing our students today with tools they can use to help shape tomorrow.
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