SMART Boards are the latest high tech tool to hit some classrooms in Norwalk.  Never heard of a Smart Board?  Think: chalkboard + computer + Internet.   
When a major earthquake hit Chile last month, Keith Morey, a fifth grade teacher at Brookside Elementary School, used his SMART Board and Google Earth to show his class where Chile is located.  The class then charted the path of a tsunami that could have hit Hawaii. Later that day, the class studied the phases of the moon on the interactive electronic whiteboard, using their fingers to drag and drop the phases to the correct positions.

Morey uses his SMART Board throughout the day, for all subjects.  He shows short videos on a large screen and and communicates with a class across town using Skype, a video conferencing program.“If we are talking about something in class and someone asks a question, we can research it together on the spot,” he says. Fifth grader Ben MacNamara says they use it to study for tests and read articles together on the Internet. “And it’s big enough for everyone to see.”

Brookside has six of the SMART Boards so far. Teachers with an interest in technology got first dibs on having them in their classrooms. The school held a lottery to distribute the rest.

SMART Boards have been popping up in classrooms throughout Norwalk, although not all schools have the same number. In some schools, PTOs have raised money to buy the new technology, which costs approximately $3,500.  Others schools bought them with government and grant funding. "The goal is to have a SMART Board in every classroom in Norwalk, but it will take time," says Robert Polselli, Director of IT for the Norwalk Public Schools. He likes the boards because they help motivate students to learn.  Nevertheless, “budgets are tight," he says. "It will take a few years before we see them everywhere.  We’ll need to look for grant funding and money from the capital budget.” It looks as if most of our children will be using DUMB Boards for a while.