Horry County teachers return to class

As students continue to enjoy the last gasps of summer, some enterprising teachers took the initiative to go back to school and get a head start for their upcoming classes.

Horry County Schools held Technology Week 2010 at Black Water Middle School July 21-22 and 26-27. About 350 teachers signed up for various classes to learn more about the latest technology available to them in the classroom.

While the school district has always provided technology training, Technology Week, as well as an earlier Web Week, has been held for two summers, said Ashley Gasperson, coordinator of digital communications for HCS.

Three-hour sessions were offered in areas such as the use of Smart Board interactivewhiteboards, Windows Movie Maker, Interwrite Pads, flip cameras, iPods as instructional tools and other computer programs. Gasperson said teachers attended on a volunteer basis and signed up for as many or as few courses as they deemed necessary.

"The bulk of the Smart Board instruction is taken by elementary school teachers because of the initiative" to have Smart Boards in all elementary school classes this year, Gasperson said. "We have had several high school teachers who have [Smart Boards] and want the next step in training."

A Smart Board is a whiteboard that, when hooked to a computer, allows for a large video display for a class. The surface of the board basically becomes a huge touch screen that can be written on and can control the computer for a completely interactive lesson.

Gasperson said the training is different every year because the technology changes. This year's offerings included some free programs that anyone can access from the Internet.

Classes introduced GIMP, a graphics tool for editing, retouching and creating basic animated images, as well as Scratch, a mathematical and computation-based software for animation that Gasperson likens to online greeting cards that feature sound and music.

"It can be taught at an elementary level, and it gets kids engaged," Gasperson said. "If you Google Scratch, it'll take you to a home page. You can find samples and demos, and kids can post stuff up there and share."

On Monday, Ben Coy, technology aide at Burgess Elementary School, was teaching a session on Windows Movie Maker, a program for editing video into digital movies. Coy said like any technology, how much it is used is up to the teacher, but that it's a simple tool that can compile things ranging from classroom field trips to student vacations.

"It depends on the person," said Coy, noting that the program is used at Burgess for the fourth- and fifth-grade gifted and talented students. "It's certainly very useful."

Gasperson said the level of expertise differs for teachers, with some having used the programs for a while and others who are brand new to them. She said with the Smart Boards, even without the device to manipulate, teachers can now get the software and start building lessons for their upcoming classes.

"Technology simply opens a gateway, and it allows a greater use of tools and different methods for students to learn," said Teal Britton, HCS spokeswoman. "Whether grown-ups are comfortable with technology, the kids are. It is a method in which students want to learn. It isn't to change the face of education but to open up avenues and make things dynamic in a way they once could not be."

Dell Gerrald, a career counselor at Forestbrook Middle School and St. James High School, was in Coy's class, learning the aesthetics of Movie Maker.

"We have a career day at Forestbrook Middle where 75 to 100 business partners and parents come in and do two to four sessions," Gerrald said. "With this, I'll be able to help showcase our business partners, parents and students, and for sharing and networking."

Gerrald said she is also a Junior Beta Club sponsor, and she'll be able to showcase those students at the state and national level.

Along with Movie Maker, she had a session on web design and GIMP, which she said was like Adobe Photoshop, but free.

"It's a great tool for teachers and for me," Gerrald said.

Gasperson said teachers have really taken to the program, with many signing up for as many courses as they can.

"We're trying to show teachers a different way to do the things they've always done, and they love it, they really do," she said.

"I think it's very relaxed and laid back, and we have a good time. The sessions are three hours long, and it does seem like a long time, but it's all hands on, it gives them time to play, talk and share ideas, collaborate and work together."

In the past, many purchases, such as Smart Boards, had to be made with special funds such as grants and money from school fundraisers, Britton said, but "this expenditure, right at a half-a-million dollars, was paid for with capital funds, so it's the penny at work."