Metro Detroit Schools Use Computerized Lessons

By Doug Guthrie
The Detroit News
March 2, 2007 

Throw out the chalk, teaching goes high-tech

"I'm looking at these kids as they use this technology, and I realize they will have jobs that haven't been invented yet."  Maureen Zambonififth-Teacher-University Liggett School.

 Metro Detroit schools use computerized lessons, complete with interactive games and wireless devices.

GROSSE POINTE WOODS -- Students and teachers in a handful of Metro Detroit schools are shaking off the chalk dust to drag and click their way through computerized lessons.

The chalkboard has gone high-tech with wireless technology freeing teachers to prowl at the front of the classroom and capture students' attention the old-fashioned way -- all while engaging imaginations with modern, interactive techniques.

"I'll take 'Lab Stuff' for 30," fifth-grader Tony Giorgio told University Liggett School science teacher Kristie Jones this week.

A Jeopardy-like game show board projected on a Promethean Board at the front of the class opened to a complicated question about magnetism. Every student in class selected from a slate of multiple-choice answers using individual wireless devices at their desks.

Jones clicked a pointer-pen against a slate she held in her hand and the laptop computer nearby projected the correct answer on a screen along with a game show-like bar chart that showed only 20 percent of the students got the answer right.

"This is where the discussion begins," Jones said. "By the end of next week, we will all get that one."

Earlier computer projector systems trapped teachers at a desk or off to the side where they tapped on computer keys to make images appear. Wireless interactive systems are putting the teacher back in front of the class.