Hands shoot up when fifth-grade teacher Marilyn Schlobohm asks for someone to solve a problem on the board.

They are excited about the opportunity. When Everette Kauk was called on for the second time, he exclaimed, "Boo ya!" as he got out of his seat. For those of us over 40, that phrase is said when feeling elated.

So, what's all the excitement about? It's not so much the math lesson Schlobohm's teaching, as it is the way she's teaching it. She uses a Promethean ActivBoard in her classroom.

The screen looks like a traditional dry erase board, only it doesn't use markers. It uses a special pen to interact with the program running on her laptop nearby. The laptop is connected to the board and a projector in the ceiling.

"I remember when 'Sesame Street' came out … I thought, 'I can't compete,' " Schlobohm said. "Now I have a tool to compete."

She's competing for the students' attention, which educators fear is getting shorter because of television and the Internet. Now, they are finding ways to give them the information they need in a way that is accessible to their students.

"It's much easier than gathering around the computer or writing on the board," Alexis Neas, 10, said.

Alexis is one of the 25 students in Schlobohm's class. She's all about high tech and figures she knows how to use the computer better than her parents.

Many of Alexis's classmates also might have computers in the home. In the 2008 parent survey, 96 percent of respondents said they have access to a computer at home.

"Without a computer, I have no life," Joshua Husebye, 11, said.

For these tech savvy students, the ActivBoard lets Schlobohm use interactive lessons, connect to the Internet and utilize streaming video. Her student teacher, Rebecca Hafner, likens it to PowerPoint, but better.

"It's more interactive than PowerPoint," she said.

The technology is used across the curriculum. One of the ways Schlobohm uses the board in language arts is to have students correct their work. They get excited about doing it up on the board, she said.

She uses the board's other capabilities as well. For a recent science lesson on the parts of an atom, she used the board to view a Web site that deconstructed the parts of the atom visually. She also uses clips from streaming video to highlight a point and grab the students' interest.

"Right now we're studying volcanoes, and I can take a piece out of a 30-minute video on volcanoes," she said.

In the lesson, she shows a volcano erupting. The whole video would have gone more in-depth than needed, she said.

Streaming video and Internet access reduce the need for a trip to the computer lab or wheeling in a television and movie player or a projector.

Like all technology, though, it has its glitches. Sometimes, she'll work on a lesson and it stops recognizing what's input on the screen. When Everette Kauk tried writing the number five on the board, the system didn't recognize it.

Her students sometimes offer advice on how to fix a problem, but sometimes the system just needs to be restarted. During the math lesson Friday, Schlobohm moved to the left of the screen and continued the lesson on the dry erase board.

"When it's not working, we have to write on the board," Alexis said

The students are less interested in using the markers and board.

"It's more interesting to watch on the screen," Joshua said. "It makes learning more enjoyable."

The class cheered when the ActivBoard was ready to use again for the math lesson.

The board keeps the students' attention, according to the students and the teachers. To encourage participation from everyone, though, Schlobohm uses a low-tech method: drawing numbered sticks out of a can.

"The sticks work," Schlobohm said. "I've used them 27 years."

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@;bismarcktribune.com.)