Tech Forum

Our ward librarian has a family/friend in another area who just got a building remodel. She said that they put smart boards in all the classrooms and the library has pretty much been eliminated; it's now just a place to check out TVs and projectors (the projectors for the smart boards are not a permanent ceiling mount; you bring them to the classroom and plug them in).

Has anyone heard of this? Is it an experiment, or the new way of the church?

If this is the case, I'm sad to see things like pictures going away. Our librarian already tells us that she can't get very big pictures (5x7 inches is the largest size of many of the pictures she can get, which isn't great in a large class).

While it's encouraging that the church would be experimenting with new technology, I'm surprised that the church would put smart boards in the classrooms. My experience is that "nice" things in church buildings get destroyed. This usually isn't malicious, it's more a combination of lack of knowing how to use things and a lack of care/concern for taking care of expensive items and occasional theft/vandalism.

That is very similar to what I posted here:
https://tech.lds.org/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 94#p113594

Are you sure these are "smart boards" instead of regular white boards? (They tend to look the same when the projector is turned off.) It makes perfect sense to get rid of chalk boards during a remodel in favor of white boards. You can write on them with dry erase markers (potentially much cleaner than using chalk, which is becoming quite rare today anyway) and they can double as screens for your projector.

Smart boards, however, are a different story. Each one would need its own computer while in use. If the computer and the projector were not permanently installed in the room it would likely take an experienced person at least 5-10 minutes to set the system up every Sunday. An average teacher would find the setup process too complicated anyway and the smart boards would never be used. Also, does the church intend to start providing PowerPoint presentations for each lesson that a teacher could easily download to use on Sundays? Most teachers wouldn't want to spend the extra time creating their own presentations to use with a smart board. Other things you could do with a smart board (like writing on the board with an electronic device instead of a marker) seem pointless compared to just using a white board. Plus, you wouldn't want people to accidentally use real markers on a smart board.

I'm just going on what I was told that it's a smart board. I didn't get a chance to check it out first hand to see what it is/does. I thought I'd post here to see if anyone is aware of this and what they're doing. They got rid of all pictures, etc. in favor of projecting them on the screen.

Most church buildings I've been in don't even get white boards...it's a standard chalk board. My guess on that is that the white boards get damaged more easily than chalk boards.

Some kind of "digital slide projector" seems to make more sense than what I know of as a "smart board". The smart boards I've seen are useful only when trying to draw pictures on a graphic, or for recording the notes. Neither seems to be a good fit for the church.

Our building has white boards. While they CAN be used as projection screens, I find they tend to have a lot of glare for the folks sitting in the middle. A real screen wouldn't have the glare and would be brighter for those sitting along the side.

I think the smart board in the classrooms (at least in the main auxiliary ones to start) is a great idea, and I'm not a bit surprised that new buildings would be moving that direction. We're being encouraged to use all these wonderful, edifying, and effective media resources so it seems natural that our buildings would be equipped to do so.

I currently teach in YWs and find it very difficult to present all the multimedia resources we're encouraged to use because my personal tablet is too small and my laptop is bulky and heavy to bring to church. The sound on both devices isn't ideal either. Since our building has stairs using the TVs located across the building is a pain as well. The pictures in the library are SO old (probably older than me) and we have no copies of any newer pictures. I worked in the library for 3 years before this current calling and not once did I see a single new picture or video come in. Besides a handful of DVDs, our library is still full of VHS's! Yet the lesson plans have at least one video of some sort recommended or as a option. Our gospel doctrine teacher now creates a power point of his lesson with the quotes, the videos, the questions, the scriptures we'll be looking up, etc. I'm sure it's not much more if any additional work for him than when he used to just write them down for himself. I wish I could do that in my classroom but all I have is a chalk board.

As far as the concern that things get damaged... that's legitimate. However kids today have smart boards in their classrooms and know all about them. My kids know more about them than I do because I've only been in their presence a handful of times. And kids learn early on about touch screens, computers, etc and learn not to color on them. So I bet the incidence of damage would end up being less than you'd think. Especially if they're just found in the main auxiliary rooms which are almost always being used/occupied.

ste01001 wrote:I worked in the library for 3 years before this current calling and not once did I see a single new picture or video come in. Besides a handful of DVDs, our library is still full of VHS's!

I believe it's up to the librarians to decide what to order and when to order it. Except when a new building is set up, nothing is shipped or supplied automatically.

russellhltn wrote:I believe it's up to the librarians to decide what to order and when to order it. Except when a new building is set up, nothing is shipped or supplied automatically.

I would suspect that a smart board in a classroom would come under the purview of the Facilities Management group, although it would probably not happen without a request first from the stake Physical Facilities Representative (a high councilor).