Case Study: Thomasville City Schools

Hitting Every Child's Learning Style

"Together teachers and students are discovering the rewards of using the multi-dimensional Promethean’s Activclassroom System. Students are rapidly becoming more engaged and teachers praise its interactive abilities."

Chris Cobitz, Director of Technology, Accountability and Media, Thomasville City Schools

Challenges and Goals

Fundamental notions on how learning takes place are changing. And that was never more apparent than in the spring of 2003, when work began on renovating a 50-year old section of Liberty Drive Elementary.

As a precursor to the restoration, the administrative staff and teaching faculty spent a great deal of time sharing their views and discussing their desire to create an enhanced educational environment in the new wing. They envisioned an integrated technology model that would address a burgeoning barrier, that is, capturing and retaining students’ attention in the classroom.

“To address the participation and attention issues in the classroom tomorrow requires that we redesign how we teach today,” said Cobitz. “And so, for our students to become better learners in the future means we have to give teachers the best technology now.”

Cobitz and Liberty Elementary administrators began researching various technologies that would fit the specific goals they had identified to address their school’s educational challenges. First, any product selected needed to be highly durable – kids are hard on everything. Second, the teachers voiced their need to increase mobility in the classroom without losing control. Finally, they were looking for the “x” factor – as in “excitement” on the part of their students.