Glynis Board Published

MIT-Inspired Technology Enhanced Active Learning (TEAL) Lab Comes to High School in West Virginia

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Wheeling Catholic High School has decided to take a page from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and is renovating the school’s library into a Technology Enhanced Active Learning (TEAL) lab.

In lieu of shelves full of largely-ignored books, work stations to accommodate small and large groups and a lounge environment will be made complete with wireless tablets, touch-screens, computer projectors, and other kinds of technological tools.

Principal Rebecca Sancomb visited a similar lab in Florida and said the active learning environment is something she had to see happen for her students.

Sancomb said the lab is part of a new learning initiative throughout the school where they are trying to overhaul the way kids are educated. One-to-one devices, upgraded internet facilities, and improved communication classes and technology are all scheduled to be incorporated more thoroughly throughout the school.

“If you looked at [an office or any other thing in this world] fifty years ago,” Sancomb said, “it looks pretty drastically different now. If you look at a classroom, it looks the same. Why is that? And how are our students truly maximizing the tools and resources out there and available?”

Several grants and local donations made are making the transformation possible. Principal Sancomb expects the lab to be complete by the time classes begin in the fall of 2014.