What Makes the WhiteBoard Interactive ?
What makes the Whiteboard Interactive?
Finding an answer to this question is very important to me. Since I first touched a SmartBoard at my friend Andrea H.’s (from EdTechWorkshop) school I knew that the possibility for teachers to use the board JUST as another dry erase board or big screen was huge. I need to find a way to demonstrate and clarify the difference to teachers. What makes a SmartBoard lesson different from the one delivered on a normal screen?
See my previous posts:
- SmartBoard Training
- SmartBoard- The WoW Factor
- There is a SmartBoard in the House
- Interactive Whiteboards- Which? How? What?
I feel that IWB are capable of amazing things, but so are MP3 recorders, digital cameras, document cameras,etc.
What makes the whiteboard interactive?
The more I am playing and experimenting with the SmartBoard and the software Notebook 10, the more I am convinced that the power is IN THE SOFTWARE. But not the software itself, but how it is used as a tool to present the lesson in a new way, for a different learning style, for access outside of the classroom. The software’s ability to :
- easily integrate
- pull in
- record
- create
- focus on
- highlight
- have students create their own lessons notebooks
- edit/add to the teacher’s notebooks
- GET THE STUDENTS INVOLVED beyond the classroom
can make the difference.
No doubt that the WOW factor, when one first sees techniques used with the IWB, will wear off and fade for teachers and students after the initial phase. What will keep the teachers going to create and search for new innovative ways to use their IWB? What will keep the students engaged and INTERACTIVE with a lesson?
On one of the slide (35) from a presentation by Jason de Nys below states:
In these classrooms, interactivity has come to stand for interacting with the board itself, not manipulating the concepts the teacher is teaching
A few slides later Schuck and Kerney are quoted saying:
the the only form of interactivity we saw was the tactile benefit for young students.
This brings me back to the initial fear of how not to use the IWB as a big screen and your fingers as a “cool” mouse. The same fear that creeps up when I see teachers plopping their students in front of a website, letting them read the content and then summarize it in a Word document, THEN calling it Technology Integration.
On slides 56 & 57 the question is asked if:
- Text + Diagram+ Hyperlink = Interactive?
- Choices+ Feedback + Challenges = Interactive?
We need to spend time in training and supporting teachers using IWB and helping them become aware and clarifying the concept of “interactivity”.
Slide 58 suggests to focus on existing interactive pedagogy such as:
- critical thinking
- graphical organizers
- problem solving
- expert jigsaw
- reflections
- think-pair-share
- well crafted software
to make the IWB truly interactive.
What do you think? If you train teachers to use IWB… how do you make the difference in how the board is used for learning apparent for them? What activities are truly interactive and contribute to learning in a new way while others are merely”fun” to use your fingers with?
I would liek to put together examples of traditional notebook slides, the ones that could have been delivered just as well on a normal screen and than contrast them to the same lesson, but with true interactivity. Any suggestions?
I think there needs to be a lot of thinking about the use of IWBs. I agree that they can generate excitement and renewed enthusiasm in teachers and students, but the real learning still comes with good pedagogy not the IWB. I am interested in how the term ‘interactive’ has become a word that means touching the board or manipulating the objects on the board. I, like you, believe it needs to be more about interacting in the learning process and with others.
You have made a major contribution to this concern about IWBs. Thank you for being so lucid. You’ve created a compelling piece.
I’ll be addressing this in a couple of weeks for our teachers.
Thank you.
-Skip
Great post, thank you!
The biggest danger is smartboards look like whiteboards. I cringe when the educator is still monopolizing the board stating that tech has been integrated.
I am having the notebook software loaded onto all gear at school because I think it is a place for the learner to reflect upon learning and to create some items for a portfolio.
These new tools offer us new representation systems by which we consolidate, connect, activate and demonstrate our learning journeys. They suggest a highly personalized way to demonstrate that learning has taken place.
Initially, we derive the way we use a tool by imitating an earlier tool. Hence, early TV looked like “filmed radio”. Only after we disconnect from or unlearn the old way do we apply the tool in a new manner.
[...] have written about the SmartBoard Software and it’s power to put the interactive in the IWB before. There is another cool feature of the Software that you might be able to use to customize [...]
[...] 18-11-2008 The Seven Wonders of the Whiteboard Challenge… Saved by markuzzz on Fri 14-11-2008 What Makes the WhiteBoard Interactive ? Saved by practum on Mon 10-11-2008 Curiosity and Reflection – Learning’s from travels Saved [...]