My rough draft is by all means a "rough" draft. It is very un-organized and not finished. My thoughts and I have not been devoted to this paper as it should have been. My fiance and I found out this weekend that his mom has cancer and chemo-therapy is not an option. My rough draft needs a lot of work, and I cannot concentrate on it at all.

Technology in the Classroom
Over the past two years, many school districts, such as Fort Worth ISD have installed new technology and have upgraded their teacher eduaction programs to include the Promethian Board. The Promethian Board incorporates the benefits of a white board, an overhead projector, an audio/visual system, and incorporates the infinetely adaptable technologies of the computer. Promethian Boards are poised to change the future of education as we know it. The incorporation of this technology enables educators to create, customize and integrate text, images, quizzes, tests, web, video, and audio content, so they can more easily enthrall students and inspire them to both pay attention and participate more readily in their own educations. It also makes it easier to accommodate several different learning styles. Though, as I have experienced as a substitute teacher, there are positive features of the Promethian Board, and drawbacks. Nonetheless, the Promethian Board allows educators to meet their students’ technological capabilities, and the curriculum standards, while meeting students’ individual learning needs.
The Promethian Board differs from teaching in a traditional classroom by creating a computerized, technology-based classroom. “The change-a potentially more social, collaborative environment,” requires teachers to adapt to a more collaborative pedagogy in their classroom. “Much more frequenlty, scholar’s note ways in which collaboratve pedagogy levels the teacher-student hierarchy. When teachers are no longer dispensing knowledge in lectures but are guiding students in the collaborative process of discovering and constructing knowledge, students are empowered” (Howard 57). The Promethian Board enables more students’ engagement through the integration of technology in the classroom. Students are able to not only work on the board, but explain to their classmates what they did on the Promethian and why they did it. I have noticed that they enjoyed what they were doing and it was appropriately challenging for them. The students reflected on what they were doing and suddenly understood on their own and from their peer’s problematic issues they were faced with. The Promethean Board is a wonderful asset in a classroom where the teacher's goal is to produce students who are meaningfully engaged in their learning throughout the day. With its various accessories, the possibilities for collaboration, communication, and interaction among students is endless. The Activclassroom makes learning come alive, encourages students to embrace technology, provides immediate feedback on student comprehension (through the use of Activotes and Activexpressions), and gives a new dimension of interactivity to lessons. The Activclassroom assists in students by providing flexible ways to access and display lesson content, opportunities for active student participation in complex interactive activities, and engaging ways to obtain immediate feedback.
The Promethian Board’s interactive applications work well for involving all students in the learning process.The Promethian Board accomodates different learning styles. Tactile learners benefit from touching and using the Activpen to mark on the board. Audio learners take advantage of videos and podcasts, and visual learners see what is taking place as it develops on the board. The visual learner is able to watch as the teacher or student manipulates images, shapes, colors, and words. The sound system allows the most distant student in the classroom to use his audio learning capabilities to full effect. Though, even with all the benefits of this system, integration in classrooms is not taking advantage of the full capabilities of the board. This is primarily due to available resources for preparing teachers to use this educational technology system in their classroom. “Technology has the potential for educational harm as well as good, teachers and administrators must plan ahead as they implement computerization” (Sidler, Morris and Smith 234). Rebecca Howard Moore believes that, “collaboration offers the benefit of discover; students learn more by working together” (Howard 63). I have seen that students in a computer-based classroom are focused on what is being taught at hand, rather than social issues. “In only one category of interaction-student contact with teachers outside of class-did the traditional classrooms have higher levels of contact than the computer classrooms. Yet this may stem less from reluctance on the part of students in the computer classrooms to seek out their teachers outside of class than from a sense that they didn’t need to do so” (Sidler, morris and Smith 259).
“Most students have a good initial reaction to the computer and feel that it can help them in their work, though some users, especially older students, may be uncomfortable with the technology or may even be “computerphobic” (Sidler, Morris and Smith 405). I have personally experienced this “computerphobia” in many students. Several students find the board intimidating and want nothing to do with it. They view the board as challenging by the technology it offers and scared of change in the traditional classroom they have been accustomed to for so many years. The Promethiann Board promotes collaboration by the students working together, and some may be against this type of learning. Some students feel they are better prepared to accomplish their assignments independently and struggle with working with others.
My own experience with the Promethian Board has been amazing. I was astounded at the ease of the system. A simple point and click interface and I was creating pictures and graphs with the Activpen. The projection system allowed me to show images to my audience from the Internet as I surfed for valuable information, and the impressive sound system kept the class entertained as I played music during downtime. The Promethian Board is the future of education. The large collection of the premade and teacher made lesson plans and activities for the ActivStudio software make the ActivBoard very versatile and convenient to use in a wide variety of classroom and applications.