Tim Tanner '91 (M.A.T. '94) + Emily ELLIOTT '01
Drill and kill.
It's a phrase that repulses Emily Elliott '01 and Tim Tanner '91 (M.A.T. '94). It means sticking kids in front of a computer and letting them crunch numbers until the bell rings. It's for killing time, or, as Elliott says, killing the student's spirit and desire to learn. It's exactly what computers in the classroom are not meant for.
What are they meant for? Elliott and Tanner would love to show you. They do it for a living, in fact, for the Charleston County School District's Department of Educational Technology, instructing teachers and administrators on how to effectively use technology in the classroom. Their work includes developing a "Walk and Read" program in which students with low literacy levels exercise while listening to an audio recording of a book on an MP3 player. It also includes delivering iPods into classrooms for students to view video clips.
Their biggest project, though, is getting interactive digital devices called SMART Boards installed in every classroom in Charleston County by October 2010 and training teachers to use them. In case you've been out of grade school for a while and don't have children, you should know that the SMART Board puts its predecessors - the chalkboard and dry-erase board - to shame. Instead of screeching chalk and noxious markers, you have pens drawing lines of clean, quiet "digital ink" across a screen. You also have an array of functions available to wow sleepy students, including tools that convert a teacher's handwriting on the board to neat type and make sloppily-drawn shapes square and round - as well as an on-screen protractor and games that allow students to stand at the board and sort animals into appropriate categories, such as reptiles and mammals, by touching a picture of the organism and dragging their hand across the screen to the correct barrel. That's just the tip of the iceberg, though, and Elliott and Tanner are keen on telling teachers about all the other functions they can use to engage students already equipped with cell phones, iPods and hand-held video games.
"It completely changes the way you teach," says Elliott, a former elementary school teacher. "The students think it's magic, especially the little ones."
While SMART Boards will be one of the most widely used devices across Charleston County schools, their office also encourages the use of a variety of other gadgets. Tanner says that it's imperative to integrate technology into lesson plans because today's children have been conditioned to expect information to come at them fast and furious.
"Students nowadays are multitaskers. They want it quickly. They want it now," says Tanner, also a former elementary school teacher.
He notes that today's classroom technology has come a long way since his high school days, when he learned keyboarding and basic programming language on computers with one-color monitors: "Back then, we were excited if we could program the computers so our names would scroll back and forth down the screen."
While students are eager to embrace new technology, Elliott and Tanner say, some teachers resist new ways to transmit tried and true lesson plans.
"It can be very intimidating," says Elliott, "especially after you've taught one way for your entire career."
When faced with a holdout, Elliott and Tanner endeavor to understand why a teacher may be reluctant to use a SMART Board or other gadgets. Then they try to explain how new tools can enhance a classroom presentation.
Recently, after being given a demonstration, one technology-hostile teacher was amazed at what she found she could do with a SMART Board.
"We always say to teachers, 'You're reacting like this, so will your students,'" says Tanner. "They will pay attention better." 