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School boasts high-tech tool for teaching
By Karl Henkel
NORTH LIMA
The new South Range Local Schools building, 31000 Columbiana-Canfield Road, opened back in September with many new bells and whistles.
Among them were SMART Boards — interactive, touch-screen, computer-based boards — that give teachers a tech-savvy way to instruct their classes.
The SMART Board, originally introduced 20 years ago by SMART Technologies, Inc., looks like a white board, acts like a projector, works like an iPad and is hooked up to a stereo system. South Range Superintendent Dennis Dunham said every classroom in the facility — all 76 — is equipped with one.
One teacher using the boards for the first time this year is French and German instructor Sam Landry. Landry, who has taught at South Range for 21 years, uses his SMART Board during his fourth-period German 3 class.
One special aspect he uses is the microphone system; Landry mics two students and has them speak to each other in their second language.
“It’s like everyone has a front-row seat,” he said.
Landry said the all-in-one device, the SB680 version at a cost of roughly $1,800 each, saves time and offers additional options when it comes to class assignments.
“Instead of saying, ‘I’m going to get the AV cart for this day; I’ve got to reserve the AV cart,’ I’ve got everything right here,” he said. “I really have everything at the touch of a button.”
That includes the Internet, where Landry can browse interactive audio translators so his students learn the correct pronunciation of words.
The SMART Board also saves paper, as Landry said he can easily scan a document, e-mail it to himself and pull it up on the board during class.
Though the students in Landry’s class said not all teachers have started using the SMART Board, they did enjoy its teaching capabilities.
“It’s easier if you have to show something on your computer,” said Alex Snow, 17, an eleventh-grader at South Range. “It’s a lot more visual than a projector.”
The new technology, used in more than 1.5 million K-12 classrooms according to SMART Technologies, is still a work-in-progress. Landry said he sometimes asks students for help if he can’t figure out the board.
“I’m at the point where I need to use more of the presets and the animation things to help with things we do in German and French,” Landry said. “So we’re just kind of learning about that right now.”
Landry said there’s no substitute for good teaching, but the use of the SMART Board definitely helps.
“I think it enhances good teaching,” he said. “Things that I normally would have done, I can do them in a way that maybe engages the kids a little bit more.”