From the archives: 'Smart' boards may soon erase chalk

This story was originally published in Newsday on Dec. 16, 2003

Someday in the future, the squeak of chalk against a blackboard could sound as obsolete as the snap of a buggywhip.

Giant computerized screens could take the place of blackboards altogether. Erasures would be done instantly at the touch of a fingertip, and scribbled notes would convert electronically into easy-to-read type.

In Tony Fiorelli's classroom, the future is now.

"Isn't this a great map?" the veteran teacher tells his 10th-grade global history class at Mount Sinai High School.

Fiorelli's class, like many others, is engaged in a study of 19th-century colonialism, which is part of the state's world history curriculum. One teen has produced a particularly vivid map, showing the impact of the imperialist movement in Africa between 1850 and 1914.

In this class, no one has to strain his or her eyes to make out the map's details. The map has been flashed electronically upon a 4-by-6-foot screen, after being produced on a computer embedded in the student's desk.

In Mount Sinai, a middle-class district on Brookhaven Town's north coast, this high-tech combination of computers and other instructional gear is known as a SmartRoom. At its center is an electronic screen that, quite literally, replaces the chalkboard to which it is attached.

Limited numbers of these screens, or "smart" boards, have been installed in recent years in more than a dozen public and parochial schools across Long Island, as well as on college campuses. Most of these electronic units are manufactured by SMART Technologies Inc., a Canadian firm that has sold about 100,000 boards since starting the product line in 1991.

Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School in Oyster Bay bought its first board two years ago, and another this fall. Keith Harrison, the school's technology specialist, recently used one screen to show second-graders how to gather information on the solar system from a Web site, then turn that information into a multimedia slide show.

"I think it's here to stay," he says.

Other instructional experts aren't quite so sure, recalling how previous classroom gadgets such as closed-circuit TVs wound up gathering dust.

Still, there's no questioning the potential of the new big boards.

Teachers, for example, can change images displayed on one of these electronic boards simply by touching it. That's similar to what happens when someone taps an electronic mouse to order up fresh images on a computer screen.

What this means is that a teacher pursuing a lesson, say, on the Italian Renaissance, has the power to summon up images of virtually any famous artwork from that period. By using a special electronic pencil, the teacher also can write out notes on the board regarding each painting or sculpture, then convert those notes to type and print out copies for distribution.

It's the sort of high-tech razzle-dazzle guaranteed to impress visitors on Parents Night. But some academic researchers see even greater potential in the way "smart" classrooms allow teachers and students to share their work - as Fiorelli did when he displayed the student's map.

"The thing that excites me about smart boards is the way they allow you to make public the students' work, put things side by side and share that electronically," says Katerine Bielaczyc, an assistant professor and technology expert at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education.

"The technology is never the key piece - it's what teachers and students do with it," she said.

Mount Sinai staffers would say "amen" to that. Their district is considered a regional leader in high-tech instruction, with four SmartRooms operating at the local high school and three more at the middle school. More than 40 other districts have sent representatives to Mount Sinai in recent years to see how its various technology projects work.

Robert Petrilak, who is Mount Sinai's technology specialist, stresses the importance of backup systems and on-the-spot maintenance to guard against computer malfunctions. Also vital, he says, is training designed to make teachers comfortable with their new $45,000 SmartRooms.

"I've seen too many districts go out with $18 million bond issues, where everything's still in closets," Petrilak says.

And what of the impact on students?

Mount Sinai has looked into whether computerized instruction could help raise scores on state Regents exams. Results have proved inconclusive so far, though modest gains have been recorded in the number of teens achieving "mastery"-level scores of 85 and better.

Ask students what they think, and reaction is mostly positive. Sure, they'll say, high-tech learning can be time-consuming in a sense - for example, when they're trying to use computer palettes to color in maps rather than simply using felt markers. On the other hand, using computers to do the job is a way of picking up technical skills, while also getting a lesson in geography.

Then, too, this eliminates lots of chalk dust.

"It's a lot neater," says Ryan Nicklas, a ninth-grader, "and you can usually read the teacher's handwriting."