As big Promethean smart boards continue to get wheeled into Berkeley High School classrooms, it seems as though the days of whiteboards and markers are coming to an end. The widespread rollout of the boards began around 2021. Today, BHS hosts around 50 to 70 Promethean smart boards, and the plan is for this number to increase. While the boards have primarily been installed based on teacher applications and the needs for teaching specific subjects, there are cases where the technology was not requested.
“As a teacher, my environment is really important for myself and my students, and so I like to make it really accessible for everybody. For me, having a Promethean screen that takes a space in an art studio was not what I wanted,” said Candiss Youngblood, the AP/IB Studio Art teacher. “I never signed up to have one in my classroom, and when my projector started going out, I was just told that I was gonna get a Promethean board, and I was against that ... I ended up having to barter with another teacher to get their projector placed into my classroom ... I feel like teachers should be allowed to choose the technology that best suits themselves and their students’ needs.”
Angela Coppola, the AC History and World of Media teacher noted the visual benefits of smart boards. “It makes some things easier and other things harder. In World of Media, students can come up and find parts of a video they need to reference,” Coppola said. At the same time, the board has posed some drawbacks. “Not every student can see the entire board. I made a request and the board was lifted up two inches, which was the best they could do,” Coppola said.
The rollout of these Promethean smart boards has not been exclusive to BHS classes and has occurred across the entire district. A large portion of this funding comes from bonds that are voted for in local elections.
Matt Albinson, a BHS computer science teacher who was key in the implementation of the boards, noted their benefits. “Everyday students really can walk into a classroom and all of a sudden your teacher has this new tool that can help you kind of visualize things,” said Albinson.
However, whether Promethean Boards truly improve learning is a subject of debate. “I feel like normally a whiteboard does just fine and also doesn’t have as much glare,” Sadie Byrnes, a BHS junior, said, “Often I notice a decent glare which is kind of annoying if you’re in the wrong part of the room ... The only case where I feel like it is quite useful is when the teacher is like, showing students work.”
BHS junior Lily Collins holds similar sentiments. Collins thinks Prometheans are not a detriment to the classroom, but it is unclear if they add anything new.
“I feel like it kind of depends on the subject, like if it’s something that it is needed to annotate on or show multiple different slides or something, it is helpful, but in general, I think projectors work just as well,” Collins said.
Ultimately, the utility of the Prometheans seems to depend on the subjects being taught. Richard Conn, who teaches AP Art History has found that the boards integrate well into a class where visuals and physical analysis are so essential.
“I have a larger projection screen, but when I use it, it blocks all my white board space. I have found that I love annotating images in art history. Jumping from presentation to whiteboard (mode) is really easy, so sometimes I use that instead of my actual whiteboard,” Conn said.
Albinson has been working to incorporate the technology in a way that benefits students’ learning.
“We know from the research that screens (do not) equal learning,” Albinson said, “I’m certainly not under the illusion that just by adding this technology to the classroom, students are learning more, it’s really about how the teacher uses it, and that’s why that’s part of my job is to work with teachers to help them use it effective ways.”