You’re in a fast-paced history class. Your teacher puts notes up on the board and switches the page without waiting. As you struggle to copy down the information quickly, you find yourself squinting as you attempt to make out the faded words on the dimly lit Promethean board.

Promethean glitches like this probably happen in more than just your history class.

The increasing technical issues of Promethean Boards and their projectors continue to frustrate staff and students, prompting the administration to take action to sort out the issues and improve the quality of the boards—and class instruction.

“The boards and projectors are aging, and as with any technology we are seeing a degrade in the image quality from some of the older projectors,” said Melissa Morrow, a supervisor from the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO).

MCPS began installing Promethean boards in 2007, but Whitman received its first boards in 2010.

Business manager Elizabeth Hillard has heard more specific complaints from staff members about Promethean issues that have interfered with class instruction.

“Teachers have come to me with issues with lightbulbs, pens, and issues with freezing up,” Hillard said. “I know the lack of maintenance of Promethean boards has affected teachers in the classroom.”

English teacher Todd Michaels said that his board buzzes loudly, but it acts as more of an annoyance than a hindrance. Michaels contacted the IT office earlier in the year about the issue noted its lack of communication and response.

“Someone from the county once stopped by and listened to the board,” Michaels said. “He said it needed a part, and then left and didn’t really do much about it.”

Michaels understands the bigger picture with regard to Promethean board issues in context with the rest of the county, he said.

“I want to be clear: on the range of emergencies and crises, having a noisy Promethean Board is low on the order of importance.”

English teacher Prudence Crewdson has experienced a plethora of technical issues with her board; she’s especially frustrated by the screen’s dimness.

“At the end of the semester I was going to show my students Much Ado About Nothing, but the quality is not good at all so I had to go watch in another classroom,”

The difference in the poor quality of her board and the good quality next door was like night and day, she said.

Crewdson wonders if staff will become upset that boards in some classrooms are superior to others.

But teachers aren’t the only ones annoyed by the frequent glitches.

“Promethean boards are always uncalibrated, no one knows how to write on them and it’s so much easier just to pick up a dry erase marker,” junior Jessy Klein said.

In order to try to solve some of the Promethean issues, representatives from OCTO and other IT System Specialists (ITSS) are working closely with the school.

Representatives from OCTO came to the school to work with printers, as well as in the computer labs and foreign language classrooms. The school also now has an interim ITSS, Oriole Saah from Carderock Springs Elementary, who will come to Whitman for a week every month to troubleshoot technology issues.

The school is in the process of hiring a new permanent ITSS to replace Greg Thomas, who left at the end of December, Hillard said.

Hillard is attempting to improve communication on tech issues through the use of Unicenter Tickets, a system that creates a permanent record of all requests sent from a school to the central technology office. Thomas didn’t think this system fit the school’s need when he was the ITSS, but Hillard believes the system will be advantageous.

Michaels said that even with the boards’ glitches, this strong line of communication is what’s most important.

“What other teachers and I want is just knowledge that the problem is being worked on and it’s going through the appropriate change,” he said.

Many teachers, including Michaels, say that communication has been improving with Hilliard’s work at the school since October.

“I’m hoping the staff comes to me with issues and request helping organize,” Hillard said. “I think it’s going to get better once they clean up these problems.”