Saturday's Internet Edition, May 17, 2008.
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An implementation plan, presented by Dr. Linda Bost, special projects director, and Butch Rooney, director of technology, at the school board meeting last week, will have all classrooms in the county outfitted with SmartBoards by the end of the year.
Other features of the plan include video conferencing at six sites and three staff positions to support the technology.
Thanks to a $1 million pledge by county commissioners last month, Bost is ready to move forward.
“We want every classroom in every school to be interactive because of the results we are seeing in student achievement. Our teachers are doing an excellent job of using this technology to engage and motivate students in new and exciting ways.
“The interactive classroom is in many ways the perfect instructional environment; teachers are continually acquiring new skills to deliver the curriculum, and students are learning in classrooms which more resemble the media/technology rich settings they are becoming accustomed to in the 21st Century,” Bost said.
Classrooms in grades 6-12 have SmartBoards, which are interactive white boards that have made chalkboards and overhead projectors virtually obsolete.
The first SmartBoards were installed in summer 2005. Cooleemee has the most, with 39, followed by Pinebrook, with 21. Money from the Mebane Foundation was used to provide those and the 58 others that are scattered around the elementary schools. Bost said at least 88 more are needed, but she is asking for 90.
Shady Grove and William R. Davie have, between them, 13 Promethean boards, which are similar to SmartBoards, but are simply a different brand, Bost said. Initially, schools wanted those, but when the deci sion was made to standardize, SmartBoards were chosen. The Promethean boards will be replaced with SmartBoards and will be sent to the preschools for ... subscribe to the Davie County Enterprise Record, P.O. Box 99, Mocksville, N.C. 27028.