The Magical ActivBoard

Used with permission from iclipart.com

 I distinctly remember a time when overheads and chalkboards were two of the only, and best, ways to place material in front of the entire class. This was how I was taught, and though I found it fun to write on the overhead, after a while it became boring. Now the world of technology in the classroom is evolving rapidly and even projectors are becoming old school. During my field experience in the Waterloo School District, I discovered that nearly every classroom in the district has an innovative piece of technology called a Promethean ActivBoard. These interactive, durable whiteboards are mounted on the wall and connected to the computer. Not only does the ActivBoard act like a white board and display webpages like a projector, many interactive programs exist for both students and teachers to you, and you are even able to write on the the pages or highlight the text on the screen! For example, during my field experience in the second grade classroom, the teacher placed an eBook, of the social studies textbook, on the screen. While the students followed along in their own textbooks, she highlighted the important information and had students come up to the ActivBoard to circle important words. Another program that was used in this classroom allowed students to "pop" virtual balloons on the screen. Behind the balloons were numbers and students were able to make their own addition and subtraction sentences to solve. The students not only found this resembling a fun game, but they were also encouraged to learn.  Many more programs are available to download here.

Here’s a short video that demonstrates one way to use the ActivBoard: