NEIGHBORS > Columnist

Smart move at WLC improves learning

Published: Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Courtesy photo Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative history teacher Elise Driscoll is shown with her new smart board.

Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative has recently experienced an exciting new surge of technology known as the smart board.

The futuristic idea of an interactive whiteboard that enhances standard curriculum with both an auditory and visual multimedia experience is now reality at the school.

Thanks to a federal grant affiliated with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a federal law that regulates how states provide special education to children with disabilities, WLC has obtained four Promethean smart boards.

The Promethean interactive whiteboard is a large display that connects to a computer. It provides a unique opportunity for students in that they can combine the vast capabilities of a computer with the simplicity of a classic whiteboard.

Using a smart board, students are able to fully immerse themselves in subjects, as well as use vector-based graphics that increase understanding, access educational Web sites and save their work in convenient, easily accessible files.

The collaborative educational experience provided by a smart board is intended to help the progress of special education students especially. A goal of the IDEA stimulus package is to pump money into special education programs to ensure that all students are given an equal opportunity to learn. However, the grant responsible for funding the integration of smart boards into classrooms supports not only this special education progress, but technology for all students.

It also pays for training for the teachers who have taken the job of pioneers in this technological advancement.

The four teachers at WLC who have received smart boards – high school history teacher Elise Driscoll, high school science teacher Nick Kovaliv and middle school math teachers Diana Sinisi and David Shelsky – were chosen after careful consideration of proposals they wrote regarding how an interactive whiteboard would benefit their students’ classroom experience.

“History tends to be facts and terms, but integrating this technology into the curriculum encourages students to become more active in their own learning,” Driscoll said. “Therefore, the topics become more interesting.”

Principal John Ingram believes that in the modern day, technology in schools provides a great advantage to students, especially those planning on attending colleges where it’s prevalent. He considers technological advancement to enhance education a priority, and says that if WLC’s four new smart boards prove successful, he would like to add more to the school’s regular budget in the future.

“It will take time, like any introduction of new technology,” Ingram said. “There isn’t a comfort level yet, but if teachers really push themselves and students take the time to learn how to use the boards, WLC can move into the 21st century and truly integrate technology into the classroom.”

Shelby Newsted is a senior at Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative High School.