Friday, October 2, 2009

Connected Classroom

On Wednesday night, Sydney, Jevan, and I attended a meeting at Lytton Elementary School.  The meeting was all about the "Connected Classroom" and it was really interesting.  LES has joined Ashcroft and Lillooet in a partnership to tie the classrooms together using software and broadband.

While we were there all three classrooms were connected and we were introduced on the big screen.  Top left: Aschroft, top right: Lytton (the three of us are in the bottom right corner), and bottom left: Cayoosh (Lillooet).

Three Schools

Miss Downs, principal of Ashcroft Elementary, spoke in length about the technology and I can see this leading to great things.  Although the picture was a bit pixilated the quality of the live streaming was actually quite good.  Mrs Haller, Sydney's teacher, told us the only other place that is currently doing this is in Quebec so it's a real honour that Lytton was chosen.  The kids designed a banner and Sydney described the meanings to the other classrooms while we were there.

Connected Classroom banner

Sydney was also issued a laptop and was proud to show me :)  My oh my, times have changed since I was in school!

Sydney and her laptop

Another interesting thing was the "Smart Board."  You can use your finger or a pen and draw right on it.  Eventually I believe the smart boards will be connected to the other classrooms so each class can see what students are writing.

Smart Board
Technology has certainly hit Lytton School and it's great that Sydney is right in the thick of it.  :)
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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

How wonderful. I hated those old blackboards and the dirty chalk I guess they don't buy text books either with the laptops being the biggest book of knowledge in the world. I don't see what benefit is in connecting schools. Maybe one teacher at one class for all three schools eh!!!!!ab

Little Ol' Liz said...

All those new school tools are really the cutting edge in classrooms these days. I know my kids reap the benefits. Wait until they have it set up so the entire class can take a test and each student has their own answering "remote". And there are 100+1 uses! Exciting!

Moonshadow said...

How far we've come! My husband attended one of the last one room schools in Kansas. My grandson was also issued a computer similar to the one pictured for school work. Have Sydney keep us informed on how the three schools work together with the new technology.

Jackie said...

Very cool! Technology can be really wonderful.

Anonymous said...

Smart boards have been in shools for quite a while now but I like this linking with ohter schools. You should check out Elluminate which is the next step in synchronised elearning...can you tell I just completed my Masters in Online and Distance Education!!
Tracey (Northernlass1)

David T. Macknet said...

Truly awesome stuff, she's got! That's a higher quality (and quantity) of equipment than I've got at my university!

Anonymous said...

Good stuff!! really cool :)

Old She dragon said...

That is very impressive. Nice to see the girls being given a voice in technology too not just the boys.
I think it will be some years before those techniques cross over to the UK education system ,if they ever do. I am guessing the distance between schools makes it hugely beneficial in a big country like Canada.