DECATUR — From kindergarten through senior high, the Decatur School District has used American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to bringing the latest technology to the classroom.

On Thursday, Jennifer Kinder’s second grade class at Decatur’s Northside Elementary School gathered around her feet for a review of their geometry lesson. Instead of an old fashioned drill, quiz or lecture, the review consisted of a game of jeopardy using the classrooms SMART Board, a computerized interactive white board. Children divided into teams and selected a category, then were asked questions to earn points as part of a fun and interactive game.

Kinder is able to create the questions for the game show to fit whatever the children are studying. The interactive form of study keeps kids much more engaged than a quiz or worksheet, according to special programs coordinator Dawn Stewart.

First grade teacher Kayla Ellison said she uses her SMART Board all the time. Last week she was using it to teach her students the continents and oceans. The SMART Board gave Ellison access to the online interactive maps - some of the best available. Ellison can ask students where a continent is located and they can touch it on the map.

“They love the interactive maps,” she said.

SMART Boards are used in every classroom in the district, as well as the schools' two libraries, but they are just one example of the latest classroom technology for students of all ages being used in Decatur schools.

“We have a lot (of technology)that people don’t know about,” said superintendent Larry Ben.

Elementary School

Elementary school principal Leslie Sharp recently applied for and received a $16,500 school improvement grant that was used to buy Imagine Learning software, Stewart said.

The interactive software assesses students, and then gives them one-on-one instructions in the individualized areas they need help with.

Third grade student Linleigh Brown was working on the program on Thursday. Brown was wearing earphones and reading a story on the screen into a microphone attached to the computer. Brown read the story into the microphone and then got to hear herself read.

“It’s really cool,” said Brown, “It helps that I can hear myself read.”

“I was brought into the computer age kicking and screaming … but all in all, it‘s a big improvement because the kids cando it,” said third grade teacher Bill Weidemann, who has taught for 13 years.

Weidemann regularly uses the SMART Board, document camera and two computers in her classroom and is looking forward to using a Mobi board that will allow her to project images from a hand-held tablet onto the screen at the front of the classroom. A big advantage of the of the Mobi Board is that students can work problems from their desks without having to face getting up in front of the class. Weidemann said she sees a lot of quiet kids get involved in class discussion thanks to the new technology.

New touch screen computers are especially helpful for kindergarten teacher Leslie Thompson’s young students. Many kindergarten students don’t know how to use a mouse or a keyboard yet, but they can easily use the touch screen computers. The computers were handed down from the school’s prekindergarten classes that have outside funding sources, Thompson said.

“Generally kids are growing up in a far more technological world than we did. It’s amazing to see their enthusiasm for it,” Stewart said.

Middle and High School

Tracy Howard uses a Classroom Performance System to teach seventh and eighth grade science, math and language arts. The CPS system includes a hand-held remote for each student to enter answers to problems, quizzes and even tests.

The CPS transponders give teachers immediate feedback, Stewart explained. If a teacher is presenting a skill, she can put a problem on the board and immediately know whether 90 percent of the students understood the question or if only 10 percent understood it and the class needs to review the concept, Stewart explained.

A lot of colleges are requiring students to have transponders and some even use them to take attendance, Stewart said.

Another advantage is that students have anonymity, so they don’t have to feel self-conscience about working a problem in front of the class or worry about getting the wrong answer.

“It allows us tap into the technology they’re excited about and use every day and use it in the classroom,” Howard said.

The CPS system was paid for with state funds the middle school received as a reward for scoring well on the Gains Index, Stewart said.

Howard also uses Explore-Learning Gizmo, a software program developed by the Arkansas Department of Education for math and science. The interactive math and science program allows students to do virtual experiments.

An example is an elapsed time experiment that shows the difference between plants grown in a sunny windowsill and plants grown in the dark in minutes instead of weeks.

The Gizmo software also has a library of resources for teachers, such as graph paper, and allows teachers to create graphs at the touch of a button.

Presi, a new version of presentation software similar to PowerPoint, allows foreign language teacher Monica Smith to take students on 360 tours of historic sights and plug into YouTube videos.

“Fore some reason, in this format, they are much more engaged than clicking through PowerPoint slides,” she said.

Students have also used the program to create their own presentations for class projects.

“It’s just another way to increase their technology literacy,” Stewart said.

Mobi Boards, tablets that allow teachers to project what they are writing onto the whiteboard at the front of the class, are also used at the high school level. Amy Steele uses her Mobi Board to teach Geometry and Algebra I, along with a CPS System so that students can work problems in real time.

Also new to the high school are ten Entourage Edge e-readers. The readers are similar to Amazon’s Kindle, but have the added benefit of a tablet.

The e-readers use an Android operating system for the touch pad computer, according to technology coordinator Garrett Reeves. Colleges are increasingly using e-readers for textbooks and study guides, and the tablets allow students to take notes right alongside the corresponding page in the textbook.

Any teacher can check the new e-readers out and use them in their classroom, Reeves said.

The school acquired a portable computer lab with 30 Netbooks packed inside a cart with built-in wireless Internet. Teachers can check out the portable lab for class projects or online tests. Reeves said he is working on readying another cart with 25 Netbooks.

District-wide

Technology is a tool, just like tools that are used to build a house, according to Ben. It can provide the school with tools to help improve academics, but it is not the total answer, he explained.

Professional development to help teachers utilize the new technology will be important, Ben said. Three professional development nights are planned over the next semester so teachers can sit down and work with instructors on the areas they are interested in.

“From what I can see through the media - what’s advertised for sale and in the workplace - technology is where we are going,” Ben said.

Even though its hard to predict what will happen in 5 to 10 years, it’s important that kids become familiar with technology now, Ben explained.

“I think if you don’t stay on top if it, you will be left behind pretty quickly,” Ben said.

News, Pages 1 on 02/02/2011