Parents 'Click' with Technology Night at Arbutus Elementary

This isn't your father's elementary school. Mimeographs and overhead projectors are long gone. Today they're using video viewers that project onto a large screen, and record lessons to post on YouTube.

That's just one of the new technologies being incorporated into the learning environment today, along with interactive screens and hand-held devices that allow teachers to survey the knowledge of students on the fly.

"What we hope to do is show you what the 21st Century classroom is all about," Arbutus Elementary School Principal Brent C. Grabill told the assembled parents while welcoming them to Technology Night.

Having cut their teach on double-clicking, today's elementary school students are already technologically savvy. It's up to the schools, Grabill said, to use the technology to engage students to learn.

"Our kids are ready when they come to us," he said. "We have to get ready for them."

"The Internet was new when I was in high school," said Krista Wallman, the mother of a kindergartener and a second-grader at Arbutus Elementary. "To think that my kid might be instant messaging to her teacher in the classroom, that's amazing."