Smart Board

In a recent article published in "Edutopia", a periodical published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, "Smart Boards" are described as one of the best things to happen to classroom technology in the last twenty years. 

What is a Smart Board?  Smart Board is the brand name of the interactive whiteboard which is growing in popularity in classrooms around the country.  The whiteboard is essentially a large, touch-sensitive screen, which is connected via a standard USB plug, to a computer and a digital projector.  The computer's screen image is then displayed on the white board.  Software enables the computer to be controlled from the whiteboard by a hand or by special pens.  Work done on the board can be saved on the computer and emailed, which, over the course of the school year, can mean a significant reduction in paper handouts. 

Interactive whiteboards were first introduced to the business world in 1991 and quickly became a huge success.  Educators are now beginning to discover what the business community is raving about.  One of the benefits of the interactive whiteboard is, all students can easily see the images, enabling the lesson to become an engaging group activity.  The whiteboard "brings the information alive" to the students.  Each lesson using the whiteboard becomes "an interactive one, and students are very motivated to learn."  The whiteboard can be used daily, often in conjunction with the Internet in all subjects: reading, writing, math, science, health, and social studies. 

Currenty, Sope Creek has six portable Smart Boards.  One is assigned to each grade level and trained teachers sign up to have the Smart Board in their classroom for a day at a time.  The Smart Boards are busy every day and as more of the staff becomes trained, they are in increasing demand.

The Sope Creek Foundation kicked off the SmartKid Fundraiser at the beginning of October with the goal to raise enough money to permanently mount one Smart Board and an LCD projector in each classroom.  The cost for that equipment to mounted plus the wiring and an automatic student response system for every classroom is approximately $3500. 

This is a great goal for equipping our classrooms with cutting edge technology which will prepare our students for the 21st century.