Whiteboards aid high-tech teaching at Ryon

Friday, May 19, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff Photo by Gary Smith J.P. Ryon Elementary School fourth-grade student Michelle McIntire calculates a warmup math problem and prepares to key her answer into the computer with her personal response unit. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

But it isn’t just a common whiteboard — it’s an interactive whiteboard that coupled with her computer can capture writing, assess the students’ answers quickly and provide her with a variety of ways to present her information.

‘‘I like this because it gives me automatic feedback,” she said. ‘‘It helps me see where they are before I move on.”

Barnes is one of two teachers at Ryon touting the benefits of the interactive whiteboards, which were donated to the school by GTCO CalComp.

Barnes and Christa Witmer, another teacher at Ryon, have been using the whiteboards for the past four months. Witmer said the technology has helped her teaching immensely.

‘‘It would be very hard to go back,” she said.

The whiteboard and electronic pen are similar to a mouse pointer on a computer screen. The difference is Barnes moves the cursor across the screen by moving the pen across the whiteboard in front of the class. In other words, Barnes has access to everything on her computer from the whiteboard and uses the electronic pen as the mouse cursor. Even after she backs out of the whiteboard software, Barnes can open an Internet browser to access the World Wide Web to type into a word processor through a visual representation of a keyboard that appears on the screen.

By using the software that comes with the whiteboard, teachers have access to a number of tools that allow them to visualize their lessons.

‘‘What I like best is the tools it has,” Barnes said. ‘‘You can pull things onto the screen from all different subject areas.”

For the purposes of her math instruction, Barnes can pull up different visual aids like shapes and blocks or a grid to mirror graphing paper.

Witmer recently used the whiteboard to teach a lesson in geography.

‘‘I pulled up a map of Antarctica,” she said, ‘‘and pulled up pictures of the animals, and the kids could place them where they belong. The kids were able to pick the penguins and name them and put them on the map. The more you personalize it and make it their own, the more they learn.”

The other way students interact with the whiteboard is through the use of the personal response system, which is simply a number of handheld remote controls the children use to answer questions.

For example, when a student has completed a multiple-choice math problem on paper, he or she enters the answer on the remote control. Each student’s name has a block at the bottom of the whiteboard that turns a different color to notify that teacher that he or she has logged an answer.

When the teacher is ready, he or she can get the percentage of students who answer correctly for each answer.

‘‘As you teach, you are constantly assessing the kids’ needs,” Barnes said. ‘‘This is constant feedback during class. It’s instantaneous.”

Witmer applauded the personal response system but cautioned against using it too much.

‘‘I think it revolutionizes teaching, but they still have to be able to take the written test,” she said. ‘‘Parents still want to see the sheets go home.”

On top of assessing the students daily, teachers can keep a log of the students’ work throughout the year and are able to create reports based on the individual performance.

The new technology retails at about $9,400 and was donated by GTCO CalComp through one of the company’s trainers, Marion Johnson, a former Ryon teacher.

Johnson taught at Ryon from 1999 to 2004 before becoming a trainer at GTCO CalComp. She now travels across the county teaching people how to use the interactive whiteboards and their accessories.

‘‘I was talking to my boss over lunch one day, and he asked me if I still thought about my kids,” Johnson said. ‘‘And I said, ‘Sure.’ Then he told me they were transitioning some equipment out and asked if we would like to donate it.”

Aside from getting the equipment to the school, Johnson also trained teachers on how to use it.

‘‘The response overall has been phenomenal,” she said.

E-mail Ian Blyth at iblyth@somdnews.com.