New program bridges education gap

In Pete Coggi’s kindergarten class at Dr. Lonnie Green Elementary, students bounce at the opportunity to answer questions using his Activboard.

From a cadre of items pooled at the bottom of the screen, students approach the board one-by-one and using a stylus, drag items into their respective category – people, places or things.

“This has been awesome in getting kids motivated … the best thing I’ve seen in 20 years,” said Coggi, who also instructs other teachers on the use of the equipment.

As an instructor, Coggi’s classroom is fully equipped with all four stages of technology, including a laptop and hand-held answering devices his students call “eggs” because of their oval shape.

By pressing buttons on the “egg”, students in Coggi’s class can answer questions displayed on the Activboard.

A list of student names at the top of the board lets Coggi know who has answered and when the assignment is complete.

Weaver said another benefit to the system is that teachers can get immediate results on how students fared on exercises.

“The teacher gets immediate feedback on how students are doing in a particular lesson,” said Weaver. “Instead of waiting until the end of the week test, teachers can tell right away if a lesson needs further review.”

After Coggi’s students answered 12 questions, Coggi put their answers into the form of a spreadsheet, enabling him to see where students were having difficulty.

At a cost of around $6,000 for a complete technological classroom set up, funding for the program is also a challenge, but Weaver believes he’s found a solution.

All those under-utilized computers are no longer being replaced, making financial room for advanced equipment without hurting the district’s budget.

Weaver said the longer the program goes on, the more teachers become interested – even if they do lose some personal time.

“Once teachers began seeing this equipment in other classrooms they started saying ‘hey, I want that, too’,” said Weaver.

The ultimate goal, Weaver said, is to have the technology available to every teacher in the district – with proper training of course.