Just chalk it up to innovation

By Jen Waters 
October 22, 2007

 Hillary Thorpe uses Promethean Boards to teach her third grade class at Millersville Elementary School in Millersville, Md. The white boards become interactive through games and lessons via computers and the internet and allow the students to interact at the same time.

Third-grade teacher Hillary Thorpe rarely uses the blackboard or an overhead projector in her classroom. In fact, she says, they are almost obsolete at her school, Millersville Elementary School in Millersville, Md.

Instead, the teachers there have been using interactive whiteboards to teach their students. A whiteboard has a large screen that is connected to a computer and a projector. Miss Thorpe's classroom first received a whiteboard last fall.

"It allows for a creative presentation of material," Miss Thorpe says. "It allows me to keep the students engaged regardless of the subject matter."

Interactive whiteboards are one of today's cutting-edge educational tools. The technology allows teachers to create presentations with students, Miss Thorpe says. Anything on the computer screen can appear on the board, including pictures, video clips and graphs. Students can even answer questions using hand-held remote devices.

Using a pen attached to the board, teachers and students can write, highlight, draw and erase words, she says. It also has a calculator, protractor and ruler, and music can be played through the whiteboard.

Promethean, the company that makes the whiteboards used at Millersville Elementary, offers online lesson plans and "flip charts" for teachers using the boards. Teachers can post their own lessons to share with other educational professionals.

Even the classroom's file cabinet has been revolutionized by the whiteboards, she says. Now everything can be saved on a thumb drive, and any worksheet can be transformed to a whiteboard presentation.