By Ben Shifrin ’13, Staff Writer

Newark Academy is a school that prides itself on its varied and creative uses of technology as a teaching tool. Our vast resources have been utilized to provide the faculty and student body with the pinnacle of learning technology. But as it stands right now, the usefulness of our tech assets has not yet been universally embraced, with some teachers truly stretching our tech boundaries, and others shying away from the gadget revolution altogether.

Those among the faculty who have harnessed the power of technology couldn’t speak enough about how monumentally technological advances have made teaching more interesting and learning more interactive. Mrs. Pursell, who has welcomed the slew of changes in the past decade with vigor, believes her access to a SmartBoard has both made her geometry classes more innovative and also genuinely increased student understanding. “All of the basic geometric shapes are loaded into the SmartBoard software so I end up saving a lot of class time, and my students find it easier to visualize different concepts when they’re displayed in a clearer way,” she said. The availability of a computerized calculator and the teacher’s ability to upload notes to the class page (where students can then download them) has transformed the math department from pencil-and-paper limited to tech-centric.

The positives of our tech resources aren’t just seen by the math department.Ms. Dixler, the digital art teacher, agrees that SmartBoards in the classroom are useful, and also comments on the school’s surprising choice to buy thirteen iPads this fall. The devices have been submitted to a select few teachers on an experimental basis, with plans to expand the network to students next fall based around the lessons learned from initial faculty input.Most teachers are reluctant to use the iPads in class, but she embraces them. “We need to look at them in a certain way. They aren’t computers or just big iPhones, but something completely different and unique, with abilities that need to be both explored and respected,” she said. For her class, Ms. Dixler believes they should be treated as “a digital sketchpad” that you can carry with you anywhere you go.

Interestingly, for every tech-enthused Mrs. Pursell or Ms. Dixler there is a faculty member who does not quite buy into the hoopla surrounding our new computerized resources. Dr. Schafler, a Spanish teacher, sees little advantage in using a Smartboard over a regular chalkboard, and even believes the more advanced technology in classrooms can distract students from the lesson plans. Furthermore, the English department has yet to find consistent ways to use SmartBoards and laptops in class that make the cost of the resources worthwhile.

Students are generally very attuned to technology in the classroom, but as Halley Young ‘13 points out, “tech really depends on the teacher using it.” Chantelle Westlock ’12 says that “since most of our teachers don’t really use the full potential of the SmartBoards, they are no more useful to her than any other whiteboard in the school.”

Thankfully, the pool of teachers not only using SmartBoards, but also discovering and utilizing their innate abilities, is expanding, and there is hope that soon almost every teacher will be taking advantage of these excellent learning tools. The boundaries of technological education are only starting to be pushed, and hopefully, as the school grows, we will continue to innovate as we have in the past.