KYLE STURROCKStaff Writer

This year, the school has seen the installment of many smart-boards into classrooms. The smart-boards have been brought in as a new avenue of teaching to help stu-dents learn effectively. However, there has been much controversy over whether the costly smart-boards have been necessary addi-tions to Westhill.

Some have said that they have made little to no impact on the school’s learning environment, and have not been used to their poten-tial. In most of my own classes, the smartboards have usually just been used as a projection screen, and nothing more. However, in my opinion, the introduction of the new technology was less about the short term than it was about the long term effects.

Now in the 21st century, tech-nology is more revolutionary than ever, and is having a larger impact on life than ever before. In a tech-filled world, it is necessary to keep up with the times and be able to function with new inventions and breakthroughs. Smartboards are an example of this new technology. In my opinion, they are undoubtedly the future of education, and have been introduced in many schools around the world. Westhill needed to add these boards to keep up with the times, and supply both students and teachers alike with the tools

necessary to succeed in today’s world. If the boards had not been introduced, Westhill would have quickly fallen behind in keeping up with the new technology.

“Smartboards are a beneficial addition to our classrooms because they bring an interactive dynamic, from allowing us to complete our lessons faster by using a power-point to giving teachers the ability to show us things previously unob-tainable, like the Internet,” sopho-more Tucker Jepsen said.

In my opinion, the glaring is-sue is that the smartboards really haven’t been used anywhere near to their full potential. They have not been neglected, but teachers have not taken advantage of all they can be used for. “I have a few teachers that actually use their smartboards a lot…but most of my teachers just use them as a projector and don’t really write on them,” junior Caitie McCafferty said. In some classes, the touch screen pens rarely ever get taken out of their holders, and sometimes the projectors attached to the ceilings aren’t even turned on. It’s obviously a concern, but I don’t see it as a reason to disagree with the addition of the smartboards. When you think about it, the major-ity of the teachers at Westhill have only been using the smartboards for a year.

“I think teachers should [learn how to use the smartboards bet-ter] because I know some teachers who have them and just use them

for PowerPoints, or not even at all…teachers need to know how to use the entire smartboard, in-stead of just for viewing movies or powerpoints,” sophomore Jamie Felderman said. The majority of the boards were added to the rooms at scattered times throughout the first half of the year. For such a radically new teaching tool, a year or less is really not enough time to be com-fortable with using it to its fullest potential. You can’t expect teach-ers to be able to wield the potential right away.

The solution to the smartboard dilemma is really quite simple. New technology needs time to be-come accustomed to, just like one needs time to learn how to navi-gate a new computer or iPod. I also think that the learning curve of the smartboards could be significantly shortened if more teacher train-ing was offered. They have gotten some training, but it has failed to really pay off.

This shows that the teach-ers are in dire need of additional training. If students and teachers alike are willing to be patient, and more training is introduced, I be-lieve Westhill will quickly see an increase in the correct usage of the smartboards.

While they have not been a very effective way of helping teach-ing in the last two years, the smart-boards offer the potential of really benefiting the teaching methods in future years at Westhill.

Examining smartboard usage

You have been NAILED Norvartis, the drug company that recently received a verdict against it in a sex discrimination suit. The suit ruled that the company had discriminated against its female employees in terms of job promo-tion and wage. The company has to pay $3.36 million to the 12 women that testified against it. Also, over 5,500 other female employees can apply to the court for a payment. In total, the company could have to pay over $200 million to its fe-male employees.

This story brings to the fore-front of society the issue that women are still widely discrimi-nated against in the workplace. According to the National Wom-en’s Law Center, a woman makes only 77 cents for every dollar a man makes.

When will we change? The story of Norvartis has brought up the issue of Congress’ lack of ac-tion taken to guarantee equal pay f or women in the workplace.

The New York Times related this case to the story of the Pay-check Fairness Act, which was written well over a year ago to prevent occurrences of this nature from happening. It was passed swiftly in the House of Represen-tatives in January of 2009, yet has been stuck in the Senate ever since it was in committee. It is meant to cover loopholes in the 1963 Equal Pay Act, which was the first step in creating fairness in the workplace for both genders.

In 1963, according to law.com, women earned 59 cents for every dollar a man earned. While it was certainly terrible that there was such discrimination in the workplace at that time, in near-

ly 50 years, how have we only progressed to 18 more cents for women?

It is difficult to say if we will come to a point where women will earn the exact same amount as men, a dollar for a dollar, in a time close to now. But even if we are not close to this point, it is shame-ful that as a society we have only moved forward to this level in al-most 50 years.

It is time for us to move for-ward and assure women complete equal rights and protection in the workplace.

Women are equally able to perform their jobs and should be compensated in the exact same way as men who perform the same jobs are.

Recently, the issue of equal rights has come up many times. Rand Paul, the GOP’s pick to run for Senator of Kentucky, re-cently said that he did not agree with the part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that deals with eradi-

cating discrimination in private institutions. While I understand Paul believes that the government should stay out of the private sec-tor, we have to make sure discrimi-nation is completely illegal, espe-cially considering our country’s past failure to secure civil rights.

We need to ensure equal rights for all genders, races, and ethnici-ties, and in the first term of our first African-American president, it is not time to back down on support-ing these equal rights. We have seen what providing equal oppor-tunity and rights for everyone does for society, and Congress and the citizens of America need to work hard to maintain and protect these rights.

Nailed!Column

by Zac

Krowitz

We need to ensure equal rights for all genders, races, and ethnicities, and in the first term of our first African-American president, it is not time to back down on supporting these equal rights.

TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY Students give a Powerpoint presentation using the classroom’s smartboard. Some students feel that without the proper training, teachers aren’t able to utilize this resource to its full potential.

13ViewpointJune 2010