Teachers in Hartland, Michigan, recently began training on interactive whiteboards, a tool the district integrated into classrooms system-wide during the summer, allowing teachers to access the web, send email and play multimedia on what is essentially a giant tablet computer, according to the Hartland Patch.
A classroom with an interactive whiteboard, a document camera or an HDMI projector puts students at an advantage, catering to a range of different learning styles and encouraging research rather than simply training students in a traditional lecture environment.
"Kids are much more media savvy," Hartland High School history teacher Paul Scheidler told the source. "If you just stand there and talk like something out of Ferris Bueller, that's going to kill them, so the more interactive it is, the better it is."
The source noted that the interactive white board installation is part of a larger, $28 million bond project designed to update the school district's technology across the board. Eventually, officials hope to provide students and teachers unilateral access to computers, classroom projectors and an advanced wireless network.
Although the technology can provide unparalleled advantages for students, teachers and administrators caution that the integration of new technology is only as good as the educators' comfort and ability to implement the resources into lesson plans effectively.
