ASHTABULA TOWNSHIP — At least a dozen Buckeye Local Schools classrooms will have 21st-century teaching technology waiting for students when they return Tuesday.
At the Tuesday evening board of education meeting, Ken Veon, technology and curriculum supervisor for the Ashtabula County Educational Service Center, demonstrated one of the new mimio Interactive touch-board systems the district purchased with federal grant money. Superintendent Nancy Williams said the mimio wand, which attaches to a white board, and the video projector combination costs $1,180 each. The district had enough funding to purchase 12 units. An incentive provided by Mimio also allowed the district to get three notebook computers at no cost.
The systems were allocated among the district’s five buildings so each building has at least two mimio wands and projectors. Overall, the district owns 14 of the packages. However, Williams said that in new schools in the area, most classrooms have been equipped with electronic touch-board technology as part of their overall technology package.
Williams said the district posted a notice offering training for teachers who had an interest in implementing the mimio Interactive systems in their classrooms this year. Nearly three dozen showed an interest, and 15 of those teachers were selected for the training, which was led by Veon and a company representative last week.
Mimio inputs include the Internet, computer software screens and mimio lesson plans, which teachers can customize. One of the features of the software is that the teacher can install it on a laptop and use it at home to develop lesson plans. The teacher even can record a presentation as a video file, then replay it for the next class or post the video to the Internet for review.
“Some kids don’t get it in 40 minutes or 80 minutes,” Veon said. “At home, they can watch that video again.”
Veon said that when a teacher is attempting to instruct from a textbook, students don’t always end up on the same page. With the projected image, however, the entire class is looking at the same material.
The boards are extremely interactive. Students can find solutions to math puzzles by tapping on an action point, and characters written on the board by students are interpreted by the software and displayed in standard computer fonts for legibility.
Because the system is connected to the Internet, a constant stream of updated information is available. Veon demonstrated how Google Earth can be used to help students see pictures of places they are studying, even if the building is halfway around the globe.
Williams said the technology is one more step in the evolution of the chalkboard.
“This is the how,” she said of instruction.
The district’s goal is to get 14 to 18 teachers very proficient with using the technology, then expand it to more teachers and classrooms with additional purchases.
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