Teachers at Brooklyn Tech — the largest math and science themed school in the city — are getting schooled in, well, technology.
The school’s alumni recently installed a state-of-the-art technology center to bring the school’s 200-plus teachers up to speed on the latest technological advances — from the elementary (e-mail) to more-advanced techniques, like the use of so-called “SMART boards,” which allow teachers to project digital images onto enormous touch-sensitive whiteboards at the front of the classroom (cool!).
About 20 of the school’s 120 classrooms have the capacity to use the software, according to Michael Mandery, a former Brooklyn Tech principal, an alumnus, and the CEO of the Brooklyn Tech Alumni Foundation.
The center’s other two rooms will be used for “research and development” and video editing, among other things.
“You’d have to go to a university to see anything comparable to this center,” said Mandery, whose Foundation obtained $1.8 million for the “Instructional Technology Teacher Center” from the City Council and alumni.
The center is even equipped with Apple-style Genius Bar featuring techies like John Pititto, the center’s director.
“The convenience, you can’t beat it,” said Pititto. “In most schools, people have to travel to other locations to learn these things. Here you just walk downstairs and you have experts to train you. It’s a tremendous, tremendous resource.”
