Educators strive to make learning cool

By Andy Brown

Published: August 1, 2008

This isn’t your grandfather’s classroom.
For that matter it’s not your father’s classroom or even your older brother’s classroom.
Unless one of those guys happens to be Star Trek’s Capt. Kirk.
Chalkboards have been replaced by SMART Boards.
Overhead projectors and transparencies have been replaced by LCD projectors hanging from the ceiling and bulky desktop computers that once filled computer labs have been replaced by wireless computer labs featuring sleek laptops that can be moved from classroom to classroom.
“This is the technology age,” Eufaula High School principal Steve Hawkins said. “These students grew up with Game Boys. They’re Nintendo this and Wii that.  Technology is what they know, so we have to find ways to use technology in our teaching.
“If we can put something in their hand that makes a subject more real to them or more interesting to them then they are more apt to learn and retain the information.”
Eufaula Elementary School principal Reeivice Girtman agrees.
“Kids don’t learn the same way in 2008 that kids did in 1908,” he said. “Kids today move at a fast pace. Technology in the classroom allows us as educators to keep up and to hold the kids’ attention spans, which can be pretty short. The new technology lets us challenge them in different ways, and if we can make learning cool for them, they will enjoy learning and want to come to school. That’s going to benefit us as a society down the road.”
That means staying on the cutting edge of technology in the classroom.
“Our technology committee does a great job of staying on top of things,” Hawkins said. “They keep an eye on the new trends, equipment and software and how those things can help us do a better job of instructing our students. The days of just using a standard chalkboard are gone. To be as effective as possible we’ve got to embrace new technology.”
At Eufaula High School and Eufaula Elementary School, most classrooms have an LCD projector installed in the ceiling. The projectors are wired into the teacher’s computers, allowing teachers to project PowerPoint or DVD’s off of their computers replacing the need to haul overhead projectors around the school on carts. At Eufaula Elementary School, each teacher will also have an Interwrite Pad, which will allow teachers to write on the pad and project that image through the LCD projector and onto the board.
“That kind of technology gives the teacher a lot of freedom,” Girtman said. “He or she doesn’t have to just stand at the board. He or she can move around the classroom and interact more with the students and still get the information that needs to be on the board up there.”
Even the boards, a staple of classrooms from the very beginning, are becoming increasingly high-tech.
SMART Boards and Promethean Boards are interactive white boards that “combine the simplicity of a white board with the power of a computer.” The display connects to a computer and digital projector to show the computer image. The teacher can then control computer applications directly from the display, write notes in digital ink and save their work to share later.
“It’s all about engaging the students,” Hawkins said. “The SMART Boards are so much more interactive than the standard chalkboard. Again, it goes back to using technology to capture a students’ attention and help them grasp the information we’re trying to communicate.”
Both Eufaula High School and Eufaula Elementary School utilize these boards.
Having an instructor standing at the board has long been a part of the classroom experience. That’s changing – at least in some classrooms.
Eufaula High School’s ACCESS Distance Learning lab is one such classroom.
ACCESS (Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide) Distance Learning is an education initiative of the Alabama Department of Education. It provides opportunities and options for Alabama public high school students to engage in Advanced Placement (AP), electives, and other courses to which they may not otherwise have access.
Last year, Eufaula High School “exported” an AP history class. By the fall of 2009, EHS will be “importing” classes.
“One of the requirements with the new diploma options is that starting in the fall of 2009 students will have to take one distance learning course,” Hawkins said. “That means we’re going to have to begin importing classes and not just exporting them. Classrooms are changing. The goal is still the same, but the means for accomplishing that goal are changing and will continue to change as technology changes.”