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At this school, chalkboards are ancient history

FIONA MORROW

Globe and Mail Update

Latest comment posted at 2:02 PM EDT 25/03/08

Even the five-year-olds are wired at David Livingstone Elementary, where there's an interactive whiteboard in every class ...Read the full article

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  1. Rain Couver from Canada writes: Very exciting technology until someone realizes the price tag. This will be slow in reaching all classrooms.
  2. David Demner from Vancouver, BC, Canada writes: Gordon, I really really hope you don't teach in any of the schools my children will go to.

    Rain, I don't think $900 per classroom is unreasonable! That's only $30 per student.

    I think the problem big problem with adoption is the teachers not wanting to learn new skills or being scared of the technology.
  3. Michael Motorcycle from Thunder Bay, Canada writes: I'm a teacher, and I wish every school still had chalk boards. It's so simple and some things don't need to change 'cause they just work. It breaks my heart when I walk into a classroom and see plastic, artificial products like whiteboards and markers (which will just be discarded in time) replacing simple slate and chalk. It's just another example of packaging and flash replacing good, old-fashioned substance.
  4. Michael Motorcycle from Thunder Bay, Canada writes: Gordon- lay off the crack.
  5. Craig White from hosertown, Canada writes: Technology is a wonderful thing. I have many digital gadgets myself. However, pen, paper, and chalkboards don't need batteries. They also don't require license fees, or dedicated and certificated technicians trained by some large corporation. They also don't go obsolete. Socrates or Archimedes could squat and draw pics in the sand to learn something or teach someone. Technology is just one more teaching tool.
  6. Rain Couver from Canada writes: Michael Motorcycle from Thunder Bay, Canada writes: I'm a teacher, and I wish every school still had chalk boards.

    >>While you lament the good old days, there are children with allergies to dust that will not have to worry about wether they can breathe. When the chalk boards were replaced with white boards in my class, there was a huge difference in the students reaction from reduced runny noses and sniffles to people having less asthma attacks. I know some educators resent progress, but as Laszlo alluded to when discussing his hierarchy of needs, a better learning environment allows students to be better learners, even if it is as trivial as chalk boards.
  7. Nature Lover from Two Hills, Canada writes: Regretably, most people who are out of school don't even know how these things work! I sure didn't 1 month ago. Since then, I have been in three classrooms where teachers are using them on a daily basis. It is important that teachers teach to the type of student they have. Kids come to them in many ways already wired, thinking and learning in certain way. It really helps to rise to their challenges, and smart boards do that. Much more efficient to have them in each classroom, rather than having them rolling around on trolleys and only being used for special occasions. It does up the costs for the schools to provide them tho. That's education: the kind our kids need in the 21st century.
  8. Lane Myers from Canada writes: Michael Motorcycle from Thunder Bay..... and I bet you pine for the return of the one room school. Gotta love those good old days!
  9. J M from Realityville, Canada writes: In Alberta we can't even afford chalk for our classrooms, the kids have to bring it themselves. At least I think it's the underfunding but it might be the right wing rejection of modern technology like chalk.
  10. Rollo Tomasi from Belgium writes: My son cannot write legibly and quickly, but can keyboard 50wpm with 99.9% accuracy. He utilizes a tablet in the classroom, but all exams have to be written with pens on paper.
  11. D. Clearwater from Lethbridge, AB, Canada writes: What happens when the electricity goes out? Or when the company goes out of business and no longer supports the product? Or (more likely), when the company stops producing that model in two years and forces the schools to adopt the newer, 'better,' (and more expensive) model? Who is going to pay for all the re-training of teachers and the hiring of new technicians?

    These things are tools like any other but since they are more complex and expensive, they tend to introduce a whole host of new or, at least, slightly different problems. I am not saying we need to be luddites but we have to recognize that these are complex and expensive and the results are not going to be guaranteed.
  12. r b from Calgary, Canada writes: As with most things, complicated is always best.

    And when you couple it with increased cost, well, you have a combo that just cannot be beat.

    For example, if you can take notes with a $1.49 scribbler and a $0.75 Bic pen, wouldn't it be better on a $1200 laptop?

    This reminds me of an exciting approach taken by the newest highschool to open in south Calgary a few years back.

    To say it was state of the art, well "lawdy, lawdy," computers and monitors everywhere!

    However, while on a school open house tour a few months after its opening, when we visited the library, we noticed that there was "something" missing.

    The books.

    They hadn't "arrived" yet. But by golly you could Wikipedia to your heart's content

    Yesiree folks, a bookless library.

    This new learning amazes me.
  13. Another Option canada from Canada writes: Must be nice to get a job where you come up with one course plan and dust it off every year to teach again. Then 3 months off in the summer.. yes the Baby sitter part sucks and the prepentious parrents. But the rest of the world is moving ahead and I have had the wonderful opertunity of seeing this very same smart board equipment installed in my local school, great stuff.. Kids like it teachers resist at first.. But now love it.. The local French emersion school now wants the parent association buy the boards for only the teachers that are interested, the other Ludites teachers want to stick to the dusty old chaulk boards and hand-outs. So the kids in their classes don't get the same caliber of teaching as the others. The future is coming and no one can stop it.. Note even the teachers can keep it out of the Class Room for ever.
  14. Hugh Draper from Vancouver, Canada writes: From the story, it seems the advantages have yet to be verified but the technology has already been sold.

    The 'World is Flat' is a loud but unenlightened prognosis.
  15. Nassar Ben Houdja from Canada writes: The world is flat and Toronto is the center of it.
  16. guy tozer from Saskatoon, Canada writes: Todays school kids can't do math and write now. It's just pathetic to watch some of these students "try" to make change on a purchase . They're totally lost. And has anyone seen application forms, filled out by these "graduates"? It's sickening. Ya, you let the school boards destroy learning and achievement, and the parents are to blame. So here we go with another unthinking process.
  17. Golden Crumb from Canada writes: nice comments guys... it's nice to know that you aren't at all afraid of technology, or progression. no wonder why Canada has such issues being competitive on the world stage in terms of technological advances.

    given how wired up i am today (i run an online business that requires a lot of media/internet literacy skills) being introduced to technology as a part of classroom curriculum would have made things more interesting for me as a student, and would have given me some valuable skills. like it or not, technology is here to stay, and we may as well embrace it... or be left behind!

    also, pen and paper are great and very practical. but you can't beat the portability and convenience of a laptop with wifi access. i can work from anywhere (i recently travelled for a year, where i combined work and vacation... i was only able to afford to do this BECAUSE of technology). i can take classes and enhance my knowledge from anywhere. i find this concept appealing. i'm not interested in sitting at home, in an office, or in a cubicle all day pushing a pen around and shuffling papers. viva la technologie!
  18. Akbar M from Regina, Canada writes: This won't be just slow reaching some classrooms it will just simply not reach some classrooms. The brave new world of teaching using these kinds of technologies is quite interesting to read about but I'd be interested in whether it actually improves the education. New technology is not bad but it may just be an expensive version of the same old. So instead of kids using chalk to write their answers on the board the use a keyboard. This is essentially the same activity along the lines of using French instead of English. Is it better? I don't see it.

    As to the remark that a child can type 50 WPM with 99.9% accuracy but can't write legibly is amazing. I'm not surprised that he can't write legibly or that he can type 50 WPM but I would be very surprised if he could type at 99% accuracy (although he may be some kind of savant). The likelihood that internet and tech junkie kids can type accurately is quickly dispelled by simply looking online or reading their messages to each other.
  19. Gavin Nettlefold from Canada writes: The kind of funding required for this is prohibitive. Not all boards and districts are funded equally; rural schools will again get the shaft in favour of funding urban schools. Just stick with the old fashioned method and use the money to bridge the massive funding gap between urban and rural schools.
  20. Hugh Draper from Vancouver, Canada writes: I had a teacher who threw chalk at you if you weren't paying attention; that's pretty interactive.
  21. i. ignatius from Mount Pleasant, Canada writes: ever try to learn from a lousy teacher who does nothing but throw PowerPoint slides up on a projector day in and day out? Many teachers who "embrace" technology also become slaves to that same technology, in that they cannot think on their feet and come up with alternative material to satisfy the needs of students who can't follow PowerPoint drivel ...

    Prior to technology, teachers would need to be 100% proficient with their curriculum, as they'd be recreating their notes and materials EVERY DAY in the classroom on the boards, rather than having everything sitting in an electronic gizmo of sorts.

    as a professor of software engineering at a local community college, we train our students to embrace all of the latest technologies all the time. As a teacher, i try my best to avoid being dependent on any one technology. During a recent fire drill, while standing outside with my students waiting to be let back in after the drill, i was able to continue conducting my lecture for a few minutes by using a snowbank as a "whiteboard".

    i felt like Plato temporarily :-)
  22. D Andrew from Calgary, Canada writes: Some thoughts: 1. As the above post points out, some educators are lazy. When that is the case, technology hardly matters. A teacher can deliver lousy lessons just as easily with a chalkboard and some paper handouts. The difference there isn't the teaching medium, it's the quality of the teacher. 2. No one is doubting the value of pen against paper, but to make the argument that these technology tools have no use is both backwards, and oddly ironic. Yes Socrates drew pictures in the sand - because that was the common media of the day. Just as we graduated from that standard to chalkboards and paper. We're seeing another shift today. How many people work in pen and paper only environments where everything is stored in giant filing cabinets anymore? Not many. Most communication and interactive takes place with a computer - including this very forum - there a reason we're all writing here and not writing a letter instead. What needs to be understood is that children today are growing up already familar with technology - it's the language they speak. Delivering lessons through this language not only engages them better, but speaks to skills they will actually need in today's society - proficiency and familiarity with computers, software and the Internet. The goal is to get them learning, and forcing a medium that doesn't match their everyday experience isn't productive. If you're throwing a piece of chalk at a students, you're obviously not getting through to them - and the act of throwing chalk isn't for their benefit - it's for the thrower to feel recognized. 3. Romanticizing chalkboards is odd since they replaced another medium. I don't understand the pervasive attitude of "because it's older it's better." We're not all riding horse carriages to work? Why is that? Plus, a whiteboard can do everything a chalkboard can so to say you are losing something in the translation seems odd. You can write and erase on both so where's the lost value?
  23. Devil's Advocate from Canada writes: I think technology in the classroom is a great idea. How many students don't put up their hands because they are shy or embarassed? If the teacher posed a question and the students could enter their answers digitally and a bar graph appeared with the answers the teacher has an idea of exactly how many of their students are understanding.

    Guy Tozer: by "kids today" do you mean the folks under 40? I agree that most people behind a cash register can't do the math if you hand them a quarter after the fact, but that goes for both the 16 and 36 yr olds.

    Another Opinion: What have you got against teachers? I'm assuming you never liked them and consequently never paid attention in class judging by your spelling mistakes.

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