By: Dan Calabrese
Students at Kentwood’s Explorer Elementary School are interacting with their learning material in a new and modern way – thanks to an anonymous donor and a Steelcase-owned, Georgia-based company that produces high-tech educational tools.
The interactive whiteboards from PolyVision
have been a hit with Explorer students, especially – but not limited to
– the boys, according to Evan Hordyk, the district's executive director
of instruction and technology.
“They engage students in their own learning,” Hordyk says. “Students
that are coming into school these days are what we call digital
natives. This is something that’s a normal piece of their lives.”
Explorer acquired 23 PolyVision boards that are spread throughout
the school, and the school district has six other PolyVision boards in
use. The boards allow users to perform a variety of high-tech
functions, including presentation projection, advancing slides,
navigating to web sites, writing and revising notes, highlighting,
sending e-mails and saving and reloading sessions.
“When I was a kid, teaching was teacher-led,” Hordyk says. “The
teacher presented the information. That’s not the case anymore, in our
classrooms in Kentwood at least. We try to engage students in what
they’re doing. So this technology allows students to go up and
manipulate media and make changes.”
For example, students studying physics can use a projection
simulating gravity that can be adjusted to different levels, so they
can observe the changes of varying gravity fields when they drop an
object on the screen, Hordyk says.
He describes the interactive expectations of current-generation
students as a dramatic break from those of the generation just past.
“I didn’t have all of this technology when I was in fourth grade,”
Hordyk said. “It wasn’t a normal piece of my life. But for these
digital natives, it engages them in their own learning.”
Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.