St. Gregory the Great School Gets StarBoard Whiteboards
Dec 19, 2007 12:00 PM
Underscoring the dynamic capabilities of interactive presentation technologies in the classroom environment, St. Gregory the Great School in Hamilton Square, N.J., has seen increased student participation since adopting the Hitachi Software FX-77 StarBoard interactive whiteboards in its K-8 educational facility. St. Gregory the Great School administrators first learned about the benefits of interactive whiteboard technology at a recent convention, and when it came time to purchase the technology for their own institution, they chose Hitachi Software StarBoard interactive whiteboards for their durability, versatility, and ease of use.
Touchboards.com, a distributor of Hitachi Software products, provided a total of 10 Hitachi Software StarBoard FX-77 interactive whiteboards to St. Gregory the Great School. According to Vice Principal Jason C. Briggs, the FX Series boards have been installed in math and science classrooms throughout the school and were quickly adopted by the teaching staff. “The StarBoard FX-77 whiteboards are very intuitive and simple to learn,” Briggs says. “Not only did our teaching staff become quickly proficient and able to incorporate the units into their instruction, but the students have responded in the same dynamic manner—eager to come up to the board, use the stylus, and demonstrate a math or science problem in front of the class.”
St. Gregory the Great School installed five FX-77 StarBoard whiteboards at the beginning of the summer and encouraged school faculty to come in and familiarize themselves with the new equipment and software. “Over the summer months, we received a great response from the teaching staff on how they planned to invigorate their lesson plans using the StarBoard whiteboards,” Briggs says. “When school started on Sept. 4, we hit the ground running and by the second week of September, we had ordered another five units. The students’ positive response to the interactive technology has been immediate.”
Educators at St. Gregory the Great School have also been pleased with the time-saving elements of the StarBoard software such as the print screen feature. Capturing whiteboard-written notes made on any Word, Excel or PowerPoint application, StarBoard software enables teachers to print all the notes made during the lesson, providing valuable take-home notes to students immediately following the classroom session.
Hitachi Software’s FX Series interactive whiteboards includes the FX-63, FX-77 and FX-82 models (63in., 77in., and 82in., respectively). The FX Series is ultra-durable compared to other whiteboard technologies because the board itself does not contain any operational electronics. All electronics for FX Series functionality are contained in a field serviceable pod located at the top corner of the board. This means that the board remains fully functional even with dents, scrapes, or punctures to the board’s surface area—a valuable durability feature in school facilities where unintentional damage can occur.
