Flat panels have taken over Tahoma schools, becoming a part of every classroom. And what has it been like? What are teachers’ opinions? Well, there is only one way to find out. Let’s look at four teachers who all have flat panels. First, we have Ms. Young, a traveling teacher. She got her first flat panel on Sep 6. When asked if she liked it she said
“Yes and no I think that it is nice to have the interactive side especially after it was set up correctly to use like a tablet instead of using it as another screen”
A big reason that she likes to use it as more of a tablet is the fact that she moves rooms, and the tablet mode makes it faster and easier. The internet has been an issue for her, restarting seems to fix it. Young didn’t go to the district training as she didn’t have a panel installed in her rooms yet. But when she was later forced to work with one, she had to figure it out through trial and error. She did wish she had more of a direction at the start though. Young likes the flat panels but can see that there is much to learn. Mr. Hesson is next, as an original panel tester he has had his since March last year. From his time using it, he found that
“There are a lot of elements that I do love, there are also a lot of things that have held me back, for example, I don’t have a cord that will let me use the touch screen so currently waiting on that… It will improve my functionality. but I do like it, there are a lot of great elements to it that you didn’t have with the whiteboard.”
From what he said the touch screen working is a main factor in his opinion. Another issue was using the clever app according to Hesson. Streaming and transferring doesn’t work too well but using HDMI, he said, works much better. His only other issue is that he can’t use the sound system. After having the panel for such a long time, it seems that Hesson has mostly figured it out. Third is Mr. Simmons who got his flat panel three weeks ago. He seemed to like it as when asked he said
“I do. I like it a lot, yes.”
Which surprised him as he thought he wouldn’t. His only problem was the connection which he fixed with a longer cord. He even found the learning process easy because of his technical competence. Mr. Simmons seemed the most prepared to learn so far. Last is Ms. Hutchinson she got her flat panel around April 2023.
She found that she “has some parts of the flat panel that I like, such as the clarity when compared to the projector, but I don’t like the inconsistency.” She continued saying it could freeze or even close, and in general it was slow. Hutchinson didn’t have a preference between the panel and projector because they both have their problems such as clarity for the projector or consistency for the panel. She didn’t find the training helpful because there were too many people and there was no time to get personal help. She did go to a second training and found that smaller groups worked better. She would go back to her projector though only because she knew how to work with it but the many problems that it had made that choice hard. Hutchinson seems to prefer the projector though that may come from the fact that she is still learning the panels. Ultimately flat panels seem as if they have a few problems, but they should be able to figure them out. It is of course the first year that they are really being used and they seem to understand that throughout the teachers. they all seem to be liking it and finding ways to get around the problems that they have at this point. Will it improve? Let’s hope it does.
