Actus Community Fund, Soaring Heights donate to Holloman School

  • Published
  • By Meryl Large
  • SHC Marketing Manager
HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  Imagine a whiteboard technology that captures students' work, saves it to the computer's hard drive and weighs only three pounds, making it easy for teachers to move it from room to room.

This all became possible for students of Holloman Middle School last month, when the Actus Community Fund in partnership with Soaring Heights Communities donated $4,500 to the school for the purchase of 11 Lenovo Ideapad Netbooks and one Mimio Interactive system.

"We have two Mimios right now. Our students are technology savvy and it helps our students learn how to use technology in an educational setting," said Maria Showalter, Holloman schools principal. "It's phenomenal the kind of technology the students are using."

The school, which was set to shut down last year due to district budget issues, recently won the International Educational Technology Award for its focus on bringing new technologies into the classroom. Today, students have the opportunity to take classes in robotics, graphic design, rocket engineering, digital photography and videography, computer animation, flight simulation and electronics.

The Mimio Interactive system consists of small sensors that easily mount to the classroom's existing whiteboard. When the teacher connects their computer to a projector, they can use Mimio pens to open and close files and navigate through the internet. The teacher can also save students' work on the board to the computer for future reference.
Mrs. Showalter explained that students are allowed to "checkout" netbooks from the library. The students can then bring the easily portable netbooks home with them to work on various presentations and other multimedia activities.

Mrs. Showalter said she is excited about the relationship with Soaring Heights Communities and what it has done for her school and the local community.

"Going from the older homes to the beautiful new homes shows respect for our service members. They feel appreciated," she said. "Soaring Heights homes are at high demand because families get great schools, great homes and great neighborhoods. Everyone wants to be a part of that community."