Blackboards and white boards are so 20th century. At Hollins University, they're installing some high-tech options thanks to a $22,500 grant from the Verizon Foundation.

Made by SMART Technologies of Calgary, Alberta, the Sympodium devices - they're called "interactive pen displays" - are a cross among a laptop, a white board and an overhead projector.

With them, instructors call up documents, images and even Web pages on a computer screen on their desk - a screen that's also projected to the class. Rather than turn away to scribble on a blackboard, the instructor can face the room and use an electronic pen to make notations on the screen the class can see.

"Let's suppose you're in an art history course, and the instructor brings up a picture of the Parthenon and wants to point out certain features," said Ellen Witt, director of instructional technology and development for Hollins. "Rather than standing up there with a pointer and touching the big screen, they just sit there at their desk, facing the class and draw right on the monitor."

Chemistry professor Dan Derringer teaches several classes, including one on the history and science of navigation. Being able to project maps, and then mark them up for the class, appealed to him.

"I like using the chalkboard, and I do use PowerPoint from time to time," he said. "I like how this lets me combine the two teaching tools."

Students, too, can benefit from the system. When the class is over, instructors can save marked-up images and distribute them on disk or by e-mail, post them on Web sites or include them in the school's electronic course management system.

That means, Witt said, that students can worry about the lesson, rather than the note-taking.

For example, "You can spend a lot of time putting a math equation on the board," she said. "And the students could be thinking of how you're developing this equation rather than copying it and hoping they don't make an error."

Hollins purchased seven of the Sympodium devices and plans to have them all installed in classrooms in time for the fall semester, Witt said. They'll be targeted toward science and art classes.

The funds come from the Verizon Foundation Classroom Technology Program, which awards grants of $22,500 every year to five of the 15 colleges that make up the Virginia Foundation of Independent Colleges, according to Steve Clementi, a Verizon spokesman.

"We recognized that there was a real need for technology in these schools," he said. "A lot of times the schools have technology, but it changes so quickly it's hard to keep up. This grant is an attempt to help the schools kind of keep up with the technology changes."