New Technology for the New School Year

Blackboards have gone the way of typewriters and Walkmans.

Today’s elementary school classrooms have SMARTBoards, and by November of this year, third-graders in Darien may have another electronic toy to play with: AirLiner Slates.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, the Board of Education approved a grant proposal for the implementation of AirLiner Slate technology in the elementary schools. The AirLiner works with Bluetooth in conjunction with the SMARTBoard, an interactive white board that allows teachers to project everything from textbook pages to notes onto a large screen. Unlike the SMARTBoard, which is mounted on the wall, the AirLiner is small like a laptop, and can be used from any position in the program.

With a price tag of $400 per slate, the cost of purchasing Airliner Slates for all elementary school classrooms is steep. Considering this, the proposal was made for a pilot project, which would distribute 25 Airliner slates among the third grade. Administration will submit a grant application to the Darien Technology and Community Foundation for $10,000 in funding. Installation by each school’s technology department, and training for staff will take place in October.

Judith Pandolfo, the Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education, presented the proposal to the Board.

“If it’s anything like the SMARTBoard, popularity of the AirLiner Slate will spread like wildfire, “ said Pandolfo. “The kindergartners can’t get enough of it. They need almost no training, in fact they’re sometimes the best teachers.”

The value of the AirLiner Slate is its small size, said Pandolfo. Teachers can face the class and move around the room while they present a lesson, and they can take the Slate directly to students’ desks. That is particularly helpful for students who are too shy to stand in front of the class, or too small in stature to reach the board, Pandolfo added.

“This would be very helpful for children with special physical and learning needs,” said Board of Education Secretary Clara Sartori.

Nataha Torre-Heffron, the Instructional Specialist at Holmes School, worked with Luke Forshaw, the K-12 Instructional Technology Specialst, to develop the proposal.

“There are so many different styles of learning,” said Torre-Heffon. “The Airliner Slates target each type.”

The only major concern expressed by the Board was the battery life. After six hours of charging, an AirLiner Slate battery will last for 30 hours.

“That’s for a new battery,” said Sartori. “I’m wondering how realistic that is given the amount of use.”

The administration will have a year to test the waters, before submitting a grant application to the DT&CF for the implementation of AirLiner Slates in all elementary school classrooms in Darien.