Cherokee Ridge Elementary principal Lori Vann assembled $30,000 during the current budget year to invest in the latest technology for her school because she heard about it on Twitter – a playground.
“I have about 50 educators from all over the world who I interact with on Twitter who are my professional learning community,” said Vann, who is in her 20th year at the Walker County school and her 13th as principal. “People from Washington, Michigan and New Jersey were talking about the playground and I saw it at the Georgia Educational Technology Conference last year. I decided it would help my kids.”
The LU Interactive Playground is like the AV technology used in large event venues and churches that feature systems with enhanced lighting and sound. A computerized system mounted on the ceiling creates the “playground” on the wall. A laptop runs the program and userscan control activities – in this case educational games – with a handheld device.
Vann said Cherokee Ridge is one of the first schools in Georgia to install the virtual playground, the benefit of which is “50-50 between engaging the students physically and engaging them mentally.” Age-appropriate games that reinforce basic skills in math, reading and science are played out through games on a 14-by-10-foot screen.
The system, developed by Nisewonger Audio and Visual based in Lawrenceville, Georgia, costs about $30,000 installed, she said.
“The playground works with the curriculum but not in isolation from the curriculum,” said Vann.
In any given hour of the school day, 40-50 students ages 5-10 will descend on instructor Bobby Watson, who will oversee students running from one end of the gym to the other in order to answer the question on the screen, earning points for his or her relay team.
“They’re competing, they’re learning and having fun,” Watson said.
Cherokee Ridge has 593 students, 67% of whom are on free and reduced-price lunch. Vann cobbled together the $30,000 using Title I funds (given to schools with high percentages of low-income families), school and instructional funds.
She expects the return on that investment to begin showing up on test scores next year and eventually in high school graduation rates.
“We are talking about parents who didn’t graduate from high school and grandparents who didn’t graduate, so kids grow up thinking ‘If they didn’t finish, why should I?'” said Vann, who will evaluate adding a floor component to the playground next year. “Many of these kids will be the first member of their families to graduate. We start talking to students about graduating in pre-K.”
Email Davis Lundy at davislundy@aol.com.