mykawartha.com
Date: 2007-09-07
Author: Lauren Gilchrist
There's no dusty piece of chalk.
No notes.
No paper.
No fuss.
Today's classroom is like something out of a sci-fi movie. Garth Scott, head of math at Crestwood Secondary School, stands at the front of his classroom touching a large screen, called a SMART Board. On the board is a graph big enough for all students to see, even those tucked away at the back of the room. As Mr. Scott taps the screen the students follow along with a handout.
“G is seven left and zero up. H is zero over and three down,” he says.
The SMART Board is really the modern version of the chalkboard and is only one of many high-tech tools now used in the classroom. What the board means for teachers is that they no longer have to spend precious time writing out all the notes on the chalkboard, or trying to create a graph with chalk.
“It does save time...it's pretty powerful actually,” says Chris Burns, math teacher.
“If a student wasn't here they can click on the (school's) site and see the whole lesson. It allows a student to access it from home or at the library or at lunch. I think it's great. It offers a lot of advantages.”
What the SMART Board means for students is the ability to focus more on the lesson and what the teacher is saying, rather then frantically trying to scribble down all the notes. Using the high-tech board also means teachers can instantly pull up information from the Internet and do so right in front of the class. In Ross Davies' math class, each of the students work off a graphing calculator linked to the SMART Board. This allows Mr. Davies to see how a student is working out a problem, and even pull up their work onto the SMART Board for the rest of the class to see.
Schools are going high-tech at lightening speed. Anyone that graduated from high school even as recently as 2000 would be shocked see the technological advancements that have been made. Even the high school yearbook is now electronic, although the old-fashioned hard copy is still available.
“Technology in all high schools, but especially for us, is really, really increasing at an exponential pace,” says Steve Masters, technology contact teacher and teacher librarian at Crestwood.
“As technology has become part of everyday life, students learn how to get any information from the Internet, our job is to teach them how to do it properly.” He notes eight years ago Crestwood had a total of five computers in the library, now there are five computer labs scattered throughout the school and along with five SMART Boards. Crestwood's first SMART Board was only installed a year and a half ago.
Teachers and students are all having to catch up real fast with the technology, and that means a big learning curve for everyone.
On Thursday (Sept. 6), Alan Boase, who teaches a number of courses including design, was trying out the SMART Board for the first time.
“The SMART Board is brand new to me,” he says, trying to demonstrate how it can be used in his class.
“I'm still learning of course. It will be a few more weeks yet until I'm comfortable with it.”
Things are happening just as quickly for the students. Grade 12 student Jessica Goodridge remembers what things were like when she was in Grade 9 at Crestwood—there were no SMART Boards.
“I think the SMART Boards are the coolest things ever,” she says.
Grade 12 student Chiffon Fallis agrees.
“It makes life a lot easier. It's quicker. No notes.”
SMART Boards are only one piece of technology being used. Over in the history department Carolyn Scott is using PowerPoint for her lesson.
“The history department tries to use them quite a bit,” she says. Just this week alone Ms Scott has used PowerPoint in her class three times. Up on the screen in her classroom is a picture of John A. Macdonald.
“I find the advantages of it is that you can show them a lot more images they can analyze. It gives me a chance to do more of a discussion than writing,” she says. Shari Fox, head of Canadian and World Studies, created a series of PowerPoint presentations for the history and geography department.
“It can be time consuming in the set up, but it pays off in the long run,” she explains.
“I think in particular it's great for visual learners. It doesn't replace the use of a textbook or the lecture style. But variety is the spice of life, trying out different ways for students to pick up the information.” The geography department is also going high-tech using Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) technology in the classroom and out in the field.
“The learning curve has been really steep, but I think we've met the challenge here,” says Shawn Hughes, geography teacher.
Crestwood also has a detailed website designed by French teacher Andrew Carr. Teachers, students and parents can check out the site for a list of upcoming events, homework assignments, marks and find a book in their school library, or the Peterborough Public Library. There is also links to the weather, and an extensive data base of journals that would have previously cost the school library thousands of dollars to buy a hard copies, plus find the room to store the journals.
A group of students stand in the hallway outside the co-operative education office. Just feet away a large screen television hangs from the ceiling listing upcoming events, like junior basketball tryouts, the Terry Fox Run and the school dance.
While technology is increasing in schools, it doesn't mean anything goes. On any of the school computers students are not allowed to use things like instant messaging, visit You Tube, or FaceBook.
“I think part of it is staying on top of what they (students) are doing, where we can guide the process and guide what they are searching,” says Wilf Gray, principal of Crestwood.
Mr. Gray doesn't see the blackboard, or textbooks, or even chalk becoming obsolete.
“No piece of technology is going to solve every students problem,” he notes.
“There's all kinds of exciting things going on right now in education with technology.”
http://www.mykawartha.com/article/17661
