Whiteboards In, Chalkboards Out

By CRAIG T. NEISES 
The Hawk Eye 
February 26, 2007  

Chalkboards are Becoming Endangered Species in Area Classrooms. 

 

The venerable chalkboard may soon go the way of the dinosaurs.

Also on the path to scholastic extinction may be overhead projectors, more modern dry erase boards and film projectors. Even televisions and VCRs could become endangered species in area classrooms, all to be replaced by electronic whiteboard systems that can do the job of all those things and more.

"We have taught students with chalkboards since the beginning of time," said Sally Lindgren, technology coordinator at Great River Area Education Agency 16, who is helping teachers in five Great River Region middle schools learn how to operate and best use the systems in their lessons. "Whiteboards are still chalkboard technology. Now we have a digital version."

"It changes the whole chalkboard paradigm of what teachers can do in the classroom."

With a portion of the money from a federal Title II grant applied for by the AEA on behalf of area school districts, Promethean Activeboard systems are now in use in the area. Oak Street and James Madison middle schools in Burlington use them as do the Central Lee, Mount Pleasant and New London middle schools.

The AEA has one, too, for training purposes.

In math classrooms in each of those schools, where a lesson plan might have once involved doing math problems on the board or overhead, class time can now include video from textbook companion CDs or material from the Internet right alongside more traditional types of learning activities.

"This isn't providing the content," Lindgren said. "This empowers the teacher with multimedia and tools that engage kids. And if we can engage students in the content, more learning takes place.

"And that's what's exciting about this."

Students who have been exposed to the system say they have enjoyed having it in class.

"It makes it a lot more fun," said David Crawley, 11, a sixth-grader in Jeff Kristensen's class at James Madison Middle School.

On the teaching side, Kristensen said he believes the additional tools have made his lessons more effective.