Corrected and updated April 17, 2009
I was a serious skeptic. For the past year or so I had been hearing the words “smart board,” but I had only the vaguest idea what they meant. A few months ago I read that the schools want to purchase more of these boards because the technology is incredibly useful for teaching. I’m ashamed to say that without knowing anything more, I was opposed. I figured this is some new technology gimmick that isn’t really essential to kids’ learning; kids don’t need Smart Boards if they have good teachers. I’m even more ashamed to admit that I had a bit of the what-was-good-enough-for-me-is-good-enough-for-them attitude, a fuddy-duddy response to which I had vowed I would never succumb. Armed with my ignorance and bias, I asked to meet with the principals of the elementary and high schools.
Katie Seavy-Walker solves a geometry problem on a SMART Board in Mr. Cullinane’s third-grade classroom last spring. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
Bromfield’s Principal Jim O’Shea defined a SMART Board™ as an interactive white board, the size of a blackboard panel, which is actually a computer screen. It comes with a variety of software programs and has a vast number of capabilities. At present the science department has two boards, and the math and social studies departments have one each. O’Shea said his policy is not to force the boards on teachers but to try to get additional boards as teachers become interested. He noted that the boards are not a different approach to teaching, just a tool. “As new technology emerged, educators saw ways to make education better,” he said. Not only do the boards make lessons come alive, he added, but they also provide valuable lessons in and of themselves, teaching computer and research skills.
O’Shea took me to the room of Gary Menin, a science teacher who had kindly agreed to give me a demonstration. I watched in fascination as he touched the screen and cloned airplanes, which he then moved around to show the effects of different forces. As he operated the board from different places in the room, he said it is fun and easy and he really likes interacting electronically with the students and the board. Menin said that for him the biggest asset is that he can save notes from class and post them on the web. This is useful if a student has been absent or just wants to check the accuracy of his own notes. Software provides a huge help in homework, where kids can use their computers to, for example, do multiple problems to enforce learning in ninth-grade physics. Students get instant feedback on their homework, and the computer allows them more than one chance to work through a problem. Menin said he likes that kids are doing their homework on the computer—”their natural habitat.”
Both Menin and social studies teacher Bryce Mattie, who had also graciously given up her time to talk to me, agreed that the SMART Board offers several advantages to a teacher. Instead of spending time between classes madly erasing the board or running around pulling down big sheets of paper, a teacher can, with one click, save and clear the work of the previous class so the incoming group isn’t influenced in its thinking. These important minutes can be spent in greeting individual students as they enter the classroom. If the teacher has given notes, these can simply be called up and do not have to be re-created for the next class.
Mattie expressed gratitude at being free of the hassle of old equipment. She said she loves the fact that maps, pictures, and political cartoons can be put up so readily for the students. She can overlay text and also draw right on the map. During a PowerPoint presentation, which the students can later access on the web, she can go to various links for additional information and, just as important, model research skills. When students create a product in small-group work, the groups present on the SMART Board and other students listen and take notes.
Mattie made it clear that the SMART Board did not change her philosophy of teaching. “I knew how I taught and I wondered how I could fit in technology,” she said. She feels that the board has expedited things for her and enhanced her teaching and creativity. She believes the boards address the district goal of teaching to different learning styles. Not only do the boards appeal to visual learners, but they also appeal to hands-on learners and increase focus for all students.
Mary Beth Banios, principal at Harvard Elementary School, said all of the teachers there are anxious for a board. She said that SMART Technologies, the company that manufactures the boards, and has been making interactive whiteboards since 1991, continues to upgrade software and offers free upgrades and lessons. Through the Shaw Trust, the Harvard Schools Trust, and the PTO, the elementary school has one board at each grade level. Teachers who had a board in their classrooms went to training and brought back the knowledge to their grade levels. Now, as new boards go in, there is an expert at each grade level and there are existing lessons to be shared.
Banios believes that the boards reflect the world in which the students live. She pointed out that their lives are colorful and animated and the SMART Board’s vivid, moveable graphics echo what their world is and will continue to be. “The classroom is hooked up—just as their world is,” she said. She observed that an increasing number of children lack attention and focus and that this technology helps to focus attention and promote “physical learning.”
Third-grade veteran teacher Rob Cullinane commented, “The SMART Board has dramatically changed the way I approach teaching. It has offered me the opportunity to develop hands-on, engaging interactive lessons that spark the interest of my students. The possibility for developing lessons is limitless. It has also provided some amazing resources for me with regard to organization and tracking student progress.”
A less dramatic but equally important feature of the SMART Board is that it saves on paper and teacher supplies. Cullinane remarked, “The sheer lack of paper, markers, and chalk is astounding.” The virtual learning can substitute for expensive science equipment and experiment material.
I emerged a convert. As a former teacher, I can appreciate the way in which a SMART Board relieves teachers of hassle and stress. Yes, I decided, you can teach the “old way” but it’s a bit like using a manual typewriter and a mimeograph machine when a computer is available. Teachers deserve to be freed from all the “stuff” of teaching so they can focus on what they really want to do—facilitate direct instruction for kids, using a variety of approaches. Let the technology take care of the logistics. To say the students can learn just as well without a SMART Board, I realized, is to say they could just as well call their friends on the land line or go without the Internet. Yes, of course they could. But why deny the reality of their world? Why not provide them with the technology that will continue to define their lives in the 21st century? I’m glad I found out more about this “gimmick.” Becoming an avid supporter of the SMART Board releases me, at least temporarily, from being a fuddy-duddy.
Editor’s note: This article has been corrected and updated. In the photo in the original article, third-grader Katie Seavy-Walker was misidentified as Maddie Steele.
