RHOLMES 8/15/08 Lansdowne is cqBy Mike Silvestri
Examiner Staff Writer
Schools in Baltimore County this year are hoping to close the technological gap.
While students are tapping into iPhones, Facebook and text messages to gather information, their parents are often left behind and their teachers miss ways to more efficiently reach their kids.
“Kids can think quickly, and they get information by volume — it’s not bits and pieces,” Baltimore County Schools Superintendent Joe Hairston said. “One way to make sure you equal that volume and speed of information is technology. Our kids are used to it.”
Incorporating and improving technology in the classroom is Hairston’s top priority this school year. At an annual meeting with principals, teachers and other school system staff at Loch Raven High School in Towson Friday morning, Hairston challenged the educators to use technology to better reach their students.
Video games are one way to include technology, Hairston said. Games don’t have to be recreational — while they can help engage students, the correct types also can teach them, he said.
And by taking advantage of advanced neurological research, teachers can better find how their students’ brains function and discover the best methods to teach according to their learning processes, said Hairston, who is entering his ninth year as superintendent, the second-longest tenure in the school system’s history.
He pointed to this year’s county teacher of the year, John Billingslea, an advanced placement psychology teacher at Franklin High in Reisterstown. Billingslea uses an iClicker device in his classroom that allows students to simultaneously buzz in on hand-held controllers and post answers to questions on a projection screen in the front of the room.
“The traditional classroom with teachers in the front and the dittos passed out — it’s old, it’s outdated,” Billingslea said. “The beauty of technology is it gives you instant feedback. What better way to correct yourself?”
Hairston also announced that four middle schools — Dundalk, Lansdowne, Southwest and Woodlawn — will begin using Advancement Via Individual Determination, the school system’s program designed to boost underachieving students’ performance in preparation for college.
Attendance has jumped, participation in upper-level classes has grown and passing rates on the High School Assessment have increased in the three years county high schools have used the program. Last year, 99 percent of the 170 AVID students were accepted into college.
“The gap between scientists and education is closing rapidly,” Billingslea said. “It used to be the future was 20 years from now. The future is next week.”
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