A strange phenomenon is occurring in Megan Kissner’s first-grade classroom at Irving Elementary School.

On any given day, most of her students eagerly raise their hands when she asks for volunteers to complete a problem on the board in front of the whole class. The students cast aside shyness and worry for a chance to saunter up to the classroom’s new Smart board and write on its interactive screen.

Kissner’s classroom was one of 19 in South Berwyn School District 100 schools to be outfitted with the new technology two months ago, and educators are already noticing the huge impact the Smart boards are having on students, Irving Principal Daniel Lane said.

“There’s never a discipline problem,” Lane said. “They’re engaged. They’re focused. They’re excited, and they want to be a part of it.”

The technology replaces the outdated chalk boards and projectors with a touch-sensitive white board and projector connected to an Apple Powerbook and software. It is an Internet-connected computer, a workbook, a television screen — almost everything a teacher needs to engage students in a lesson.

“The possibilities are endless,” Kissner said.

In the few weeks with the Smart board, Kissner’s created movies for her students and scanned in workbook pages so students can interact with the material. A few keystrokes on the screen takes her class to Web pages on a lesson subject. When she learned some of her bilingual students had not heard of a palm tree before, she brought them up on the screen.

“You type it in and the next thing you know they’re writing stories about palm trees and coconuts and monkeys,” Kissner said.

Other teachers are working to connect the boards to Skype, an online telephone and video program, to allow students to meet penpals overseas.

Lane said the boards are a glimpse into the future of education, often seen only in wealthier school districts.

“We’re putting that here in Berwyn, in an infrastructure that people wouldn’t normally think would support this,” Lane said. “We’re raising the bar in achievement in District 100.”

The South Berwyn Education foundation approved the $80,000 expenditure in February and by April, 18 classrooms throughout all eight schools had the Smart boards installed. The district has paid to install a 19th board, according to Director of Technology Jim Kloss.

“Our initiative is to eventually put one in every home room in the district,” Kloss said.

Kloss would also like to add accessories to each board, including interactive devices that would allow each student to manipulate the board from his or her desk, and a wireless slate for the teacher to operate form anywhere in the classroom.

But the goal of installing 137 additional smart boards and accessories comes with a price — $770,000 to be exact. Lane said the district is already looking into gathering funding from the community, lobbying state legislators and applying for federal stimulus grants.

“We’re trying to let them see this is the future of education,” Lane said.