Nine math classes across Naperville Central and North started the 2024-25 school year with new V7 interactive displays. The displays replace old SMART Boards, which were around a decade old.
The interactive displays use Android technology to provide 50 touch points and access to the Google Play Store (allowing teachers to download apps like Desmos), among other features.
“The SMART fleet was aging, so we were looking for a new technology to put in the classrooms,” said Art Andersen, Director of IT Infrastructure for District 203. “We understood that the math and science classes heavily [use] the boards, so we wanted to find an upgraded technology to help teachers engage students in the classroom.”
The new displays don’t use projectors and have a unique operating system separate from teachers’ computers, which allows them to use the display directly rather than work from their computer.
“This system, with its own operating system, allows integrated tools that are already in the board to help teachers with various things they want to do,” Andersen said. “It gives a teacher a lot more freedom and a lot more tools to work with an onboard operating system.”
However, the new operating system has caused difficulties for some teachers using the new displays, including math teacher Tom Gebbie.
“The learning curve has been steeper than usual,” Gebbie said. “There’s a lot of things that they are putting [in place] when they deploy new firmware that could make things a little bit easier.”
The displays will continue to receive firmware updates during the eight years that they’re expected to be in use, according to Andersen.
“If you’re going to use this board, you have to use a different software platform,” Gebbie said. “Teachers can [also] plug into it and then just kind of run what they did in the past.”
Both Gebbie and Andersen are “excited” about the new displays, which they consider an upgrade from the old SMART boards.
“I’m super excited because I think students are going to have a lot of fun in the classroom with all the cool tools,” Andersen said. “I think they’re going to notice the difference in the classroom with the new functionality.”
Teachers gave feedback on a group of five displays considered by District 203, narrowing them down to their top two. V7 was then chosen for being the cheaper of the two finalists.
