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Miami-Dade To Give Teachers 18 Months of Interactive Whiteboard Training
Miami-Dade County Public Schools
plans to implement interactive whiteboards in more than 10,000 classrooms and
will provide teachers with an 18-month professional development program designed
to help them integrate the technology into their classrooms effectively.
The district has selected
ActivBoard Touch interactive whiteboards from
Promethean, and the company will
collaborate with the district to provide the customized professional
development.
"The school district is doing more than just purchasing cutting edge
technology," wrote Morten Brante, senior vice president, Services Division for
Promethean, in an e-mail. "They want to ensure that the technology is properly
used in the classroom to motivate their students and engage them in the
curriculum. Most people will agree that without proper training an interactive
whiteboard is just an expensive projector."
According to Brante, the district and Promethean together will invest in a
dedicated full-time professional development team local to the Miami area. "This
team will provide the school district with ongoing customized training and
continuous education to ensure teaching is driving technology, not technology
driving teaching," wrote Brante. "We go beyond training the educators on how to
use the technology; we teach innovative techniques in how to incorporate the
technology into the curriculum."
The ActivBoard Touch lets two people at a time write on the board using
either the ActivPen stylus or a finger, so two students can work on the board
simultaneously, or a teacher and student can work together. According to the
company's site, the boards also include Promethean
ActivInspire Professional Edition software, which lets teachers create
interactive lessons for use on the whiteboard. Teachers can also search, view
and download prepared lessons or other digital learning resources from
Promethean Planet, the company's
online repository containing more than 93,000 free teacher resources.
The district will begin installing the ActivBoards later this month and all
of the boards are expected to be installed before the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at leilameyer@gmail.com.