Are the SMART Boards All That Smart?

Written by Noah Groonwald
Photo by Greta Chabot

After half a year of the new smartboards, there have been mixed reviews. While one might be tempted to think that newer smartboards would be beneficial to the learning environment, plenty of people have given less than favorable reviews. People have mentioned various glitches, including the smartboards randomly disconnecting from the internet.

The teachers received training before the start of the school year on how to use these new smartboards, and have been working harder than ever with them. Teacher Heather Young states, “I like the easy, quick hookup. I plug in one cord into my computer and it’s ready to go. I like the fact that when you write on it, it writes very easily, and it doesn’t freeze on me, it works all day, and that’s what I like about this board.” This is very useful for students who can learn easily without interruptions.

While these smartboards are much more advanced than the previous ones, some difficulties have been pointed out. Young also says that “When I first started using it, I did not know that there was a freeze button, so when I tried to take attendance, I could never take attendance and have students working at the same time.”

Not all teachers have given a positive view of the smartboards. When asked about the new smartboards, teacher Rachel Keiser states, “Overall, I dislike them.” She pointed out the fact that most of the time audio and video have failed to play in her classes successfully.

Some students have found these tech issues make learning more difficult. Student Hubert Nguyen says that overall the new Smartboards have too many tech issues to be considered good. He said “One time in my class, the internet for the smartboard just like went out completely and my teacher could not use it that day.” Overall, this makes the learning environment worse because tech issues can make a lesson even more frustrating when learning a difficult topicg.

While teachers may disagree over whether or not these smartboards are suitable for the classroom, we can be certain that our staff will be able to persist through technical difficulties and ultimately provide a positive learning experience for the East Ridge students.