Blackboards and chalk have been consigned to the history books with the arrival of the first computerised white boards in a York school.

Huntington School pupils Helena David, left, and Laura Docherty try out the computer white board

The two boards, which can act as both computer monitors and traditional white boards at the same time, have been installed in Huntington School, York, for use by teachers across the city.

Barry Smith, information and communications technology manager at Huntington, said the boards were the most effective way yet in which computers could be used in the classroom.

Instead of a group of pupils working individually on terminals, facing into their screens, the board could be used to teach traditionally with pupils looking at the teacher and learning together.

"Children are not contending with ICT skills while they are doing subject learning," said Barry.

"Teachers can keep the group together and get their attention, asking pupils to come and write on the board."

Teachers or pupils could use their fingers to act as a mouse on the screen, "clicking" on what they wanted to do.

Using special pens, or even their fingers, they could write on the boards in different colours and could print out the contents of each "screen".

The boards could also play CD Roms.

He said teachers who had used the boards so far were very enthusiastic about them.

One board is being used for classes at Huntington, the other is being used in a room open to other teachers in York.

The boards were paid for by a combination of the Technology College Trust initiative, Huntington School's ICT centre and the City of York Council's Schools Learning Together project.

A display day to demonstrate the potential of the boards will be held for teachers next Wednesday, September 22.

For more education stories see our Education section

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