I've decided to talk about the development of technology in the classroom through the evolution of "the board." I can remember back to kindergarten when all that my elementary school had were chalkboards. One of the jobs of the helper of the day was go to out and clap the erasers at the end of the day. Now, I'm not really a big fan of chalkboards - they make your hands gross, and the dust is less than appetizing, so I was happy when my school moved on and got whiteboards. Back in the day I thought they were the coolest thing. I couldn't wait to be a teacher so I could choose what fun color to write on the board with! I had whiteboards all the way through high school, but around my junior year my high school did invest in a few Smart Boards for the math and science classes. This new technology almost blew my mind. You could basically run the computer on the projector board, plus there were a bunch of cool new programs to play with! I got to mess around with them every once in a while, but they were treasured items in the school, so not many students got to mess with them.
This year, when I got to college, there were these crazy boards that looked like Smart Boards in some of the classrooms, but that seemed way "smarter" than the Smart Board. When I arrived at my field experience at the elementary school, I noticed they had the same things -
Promethean Boards. It blew my mind at how much the elementary kids knew how to use these. I had never used one before, but after observing in the 3rd grade class seeing the students and teacher use the board for everything, I've decided that they are definitely the future of all classrooms. They can do so many things that many of us never thought would be possible to do with younger learners, and they are a great way to incorporate new projects and activities into the classroom. I am definitely looking forward to creating fun and interactive projects for my future students to use on Promethean Boards...or whatever the latest technology is when I start teaching!
(Image used with permission from iClipart for Schools)
