If you, like so many others, have not stepped inside a school classroom in the last decade you might mistake today's modern classroom for a science fiction lab.

Gone are the days of a chalkboard; in fact gone are the days of a standard whiteboard with erasable markers. The presentation method of choice in Bermuda's primary, middle and senior schools today is the Interactive Smartboard or Promethean Whiteboard with DLP projector. DLP chip technology is the mastermind of Texas Instruments and is 10 percent digital. With its millions of microscopic, hair-thin mirrors, it reproduces precise, lifelike images. Projectors no longer need clear plastic film; with an "Elmo" a teacher can project a student's homework, a photo or even a 3-D object. Place a live flower on the projector and you will see the same flower in full colour on the screen, as though it were a closed-circuit TV, which is effectively what it is.

Children living in this technological age consider the things that once amused adults, a normal part of life. So lifting the red pen off the sensor pad of a whiteboard shelf, drawing on the board with only his finger and watching his imagination come to bear in red ink before his eyes, is normal for a P1 student in a Purvis Primary classroom. The same is true of him pointing to a part of a picture that is projected on the screen and watching it change to the next scene, or the next question. As with a laptop, all the images that have been drawn, can be saved as a document, printed or e-mailed.

It's not all about gadgets according to Department of Education IT Manager, Anthony Outerbridge. "This kind of technology can enhance the delivery of instructional content and encourage positive attitudes toward learning," he says.

A slew of technology solutions are at play in Bermuda's schools from P1 through to the final senior year. Simple but highly effective applications such as library automation in five primary schools will be extended to a further seven schools this year. All middle and senior schools already enjoy this library automation, a system that helps students locate books on the shelf and check their books out, directly to a computer database.

Another 70 interactive Smartboards and projectors will be installed in classrooms across primary, middle and senior schools.

The World Wide Web is an important part of the education reform process, explains Mr. Outerbridge: "To encourage parents to take an active role in student's learning. With a recent upgrade of the Ministry of Education's website (www.moed.bm) teachers are now creating their own website to enhance the communications between the classroom and home." As many as 60 teachers have already created websites, having given up a day of summer vacation for a D-I-Y course. Each school has its own website with RSS feeds, calendar, document and picture libraries, popular web links and an e-mail directory of teachers.

Another web-enabled enhancement includes Berkeley Institute's Microsoft Learning Gateway System. It allows teachers to create educational content, quizzes, tests and assignments which students will access and complete online. Berkeley Director of IT, Austin Okojie says: "It allows teachers to deliver the curriculum electronically.

"By uploading teaching plans online, it means students can work on an assignment from anywhere and parents can interact directly with teachers through e-mail or posting a comment online."

The program is the perfect complement to Berkeley's laptop program where every student is required to own a laptop, issued by the school. The Learning Gateway tracks student progress as they complete assignments and provides teachers and parents with online reports.

Technology is also being deployed in the back office, known as Smartfind Express. It's a Web-based system that allows a teacher to call in sick by recording a request to an automated system via phone and/or Internet. The system then begins a call-out procedure to select an appropriate substitute teacher to fill in for the day. Each teacher who is called has the option to accept or decline the substitute posting by pressing a button on the phone. Meanwhile, the necessary administrators receive alerts as the requests are made and filled, to keep them informed of the changes without ever lifting a hand for the phone.

Other technology that is now considered standard in Bermuda's schools is teacher laptops, middle school computer labs, education-specific software programs and complex school networks. Whitney's Online Curriculum, based on a Texas model, allows teachers to download their lesson for the day including power point presentations, print worksheets and all their necessary materials for the day's lessons. Technology is the foundation for today's education and according to the Mr. Outerbridge, "teachers are embracing it".