When technology projects were slashed from the school budget two years ago, PTAs and the Wilton Educational Foundation stepped forward and tried to help keep the momentum moving towards bringing 21st Century technology to all of the district’s classrooms.
That benchmark is embodied in the SMART Board, which is more than an digitized blackboard or animated white board. More than a single tool, it is a toolbox full of resources that draw students into subject material in ways that have left teachers feeling hamstrung, and students feeling cheated without it.
To make the point, Natt Hepfer, Wilton School District’s director of technology, gave the Board of Education a comprehensive overview of where technology stands. Appropriately enough, he did it on a SMART Board at the board’s monthly meeting.
The presentation included videotaped testimonials from teachers throughout the school system.
One kindergarten teacher at Miller Driscoll said that when she heard they were getting SMART Boards last year, she was at first worried because she is not tech-savvy. Now she depends on it. Another teacher said she “loved how you can bring the world into the classroom,” referring to the ability to surf the Web.
Instead of just showing a still photo of a famous building, the class may visit the site via Webcam and take a virtual tour. “Children are so excited to see different places in the world, where they are on the map, what the building looks like, people walking around it.”
“I really don’t know what I would do without it,” said another teacher.
Lessons may be not only saved and picked up where left off, they may be recorded and played back for students who are home sick, have special learning needs, or want to review. Teachers may make movie clips and save them on their Web sites where students may go to review.
“It makes school accessible to everybody,” Mr. Hepfer said. “You think about the students who need a little bit more time, they can relive their lessons. The students who need to see something — you’ve got the visual. The students who need to touch something — they can come up and touch the screen.”
A SMART Board by itself runs about $1,300. Add in cabling, a stand or wall mounting, projector, the full set up can run about $3,000 fully installed.
The only school that is close to having a SMART Board in every room is Miller-Driscoll, with 41 out of 47 rooms equipped with SMART Boards, or 87% of their goal. Cider Mill is at 50% of its goal; Middlebrook is 26% and the high school is at 39%, with 33 SMART Boards and a goal of 72.
Mr. Hepfer said the district needs 133 more SMART Boards to reach its goal and the lump sum cost to get there would be between $375,000 and $400,000. But, he adds, if they were to go shopping for an order that big, they would be able to negotiate a much better price.
SMART Boards initially went in as a pilot program, teachers wanted to try them out. Typically, at the middle and high school level, that has been in math, social studies and science. But, Mr. Hepfer said, SMART Boards have proved good tools for art class, where students may visit great museums, call up works of artists and even practice drawing techniques.
“When you are a social studies teacher, you can take your whole class on a virtual tour of the Alamo,” he said.
A seventh grade math teacher said she used the SMART Board to play numbers games with students that reinforced the day’s lessons.
Mr. Hepfer said SMART Boards are no longer a pilot. “This is what teachers are using,” he said. “When I talk to parents they get frustrated if in third grade they have a teacher who is using this and the kids are really engaged in the lesson, and they go on to the fourth grade and the teacher doesn’t have it. The kids really feel that and the parents tell me that.
“The technology is being used,” he added. “It’s not wasted money. You can see how powerful it is. And it really has changed the way people teach.”
Mr. Hepfer said the smarttech.com Web site shows all of the technologies that interconnect with SMART Boards.
