Students love learning with computerized 'whiteboards'

Interest in the boards has exploded during the past three years, said Jeanine Gendron, the Broward public school district's director of instructional technology.

UP TO $1,500 EACH

Schools can use their own funds, apply for a grant or raise money through parent groups, as Fox Trail Elementary did. South Florida schools use boards manufactured by Promethean, SMART Technologies and Interwrite Learning. At sizes that range from a few feet wide by a couple feet high to seven feet wide by four feet high, they can easily cost $1,000 to $1,500 each, and a package of accessories boosts the price even higher.

All that money is good for nothing if educators don't use the tools to their full potential, according to a school technology expert.

''There is a downside possible, and that would be if teachers use this high-tech, expensive SMART Board the way they would use a noninteractive whiteboard. It's a waste of money,'' said Kara Dawson, an associate professor of educational technology at the University of Florida. "One of the things that leads to learning is engagement and motivation.''

Sara Brodsky, a fifth-grade teacher at South Hialeah Elementary School, 265 E. Fifth St., has found that to be true.

''They think it's just like a huge video game,'' Brodsky said. "It's fun for them. They can't wait to get up and press the board or write on the board. It's great how enthusiastic they are, opposed to the old whiteboard and pen.''

SAVING LESSONS

Educators can use a host of tools to set timers, cover answers and color-code notes. Several websites offer learning games and lesson plans that instructors can incorporate. And if a lesson is successful, the teacher can save every step to use in the future.

''It's much easier to be attracted to it, 'cause it's more fun,'' said Fox Trail fifth-grader Jamie Greenberger.

Donna Sacco's first-graders at Broward Estates Elementary, 411 NW 35th Ave., Lauderhill, have wireless devices that they can use to answer a question in class. Their responses let Sacco know right away which kids understand the subject and which are struggling.

''These children need to have something in their hands in order to learn,'' Sacco said. "They cannot be lectured to. We are away from that stage where you stand up in front of a classroom and you lecture.''

Earlier this school year, second-grade teacher Kim Jurczak was leading students at Fox Trail through a math lesson disguised as a baseball game. When they answered a question correctly on the board, their baseball player went up to bat.

''Now that I have it, I don't remember what I did without it,'' Jurczak said. "It changed the way I taught.''

Larry Treadwell, a history teacher at Fort Lauderdale High School, 1600 NE Fourth Ave., has used an Activboard, made by Promethean, since February. Now he teaches other educators how to use them.

''It has become such an integral part of everything that I do that, to me, if I don't have that, it's like losing my right arm,'' Treadwell said.

He said the board allows him to create maps that move, or go online immediately to find an example if a student asks a question.

''I refer to this group of kids as the MTV generation,'' he said. "They want to be entertained. A good teacher is an actor on a stage for 180 days.''