I just finished reading the attached article on Smart Boards in the latest edition of Digital Directions. We purchased Promethean Boards for each of our classrooms several years ago. While some teachers have made effective use of the boards, I’m starting to question our judgment. In our defense, the purchase made sense at the time. Having those same funds available today, we would likely look to purchase additional IPods and IPads to increase the scope of our one-to-one mobile initiatives. My biggest issue with the Smart Board is the fact only one person can be “driving” at a time. Not surprisingly, the teacher is usually in the driver’s seat. Even when a student is at the board, all of his or her peers are pretty much in the back seat. We need to provide our children with numerous opportunities to “drive”. The most logical way to do this is through one-to-one mobile computing. More and more folks are coming to the same realization. We need to continue to focus on providing our students the same technology experiences we have every day. Access is everything. I encourage you to go back to my last post and read the two pages of my kid’s comments about their mobile computing experiences. Let’s stop moving so cautiously and focus on where we need to be going, especially if we truly want to prepare our kids for the future.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/06/15/35mm-whiteboards.h30.html?tkn=QNCHGHOtI817meTf3DmDhLU5VbQj9%2FHRywtT&cmp=clp-sb-ascd
I was trolling through your posts and I saw this about Smart Boards. I agree that their time has come and gone. I had one in my room and I told my principal to give it to someone else because I wasn't using it anymore - just a fancy projector screen.
ReplyDelete