Sep 12 2007
Interactive Whiteboards
Interactive whiteboards are another tool that help provide increased access to learning for ALL students. Not only are these amazing tools demonstrating themselves to be of benefit for increased student motivation and engagement, they often serve as a impetus for teacher learning!
Whether your district has invested in Promethean, SMART, or some other interactive board - many of the possibilities for engagement are the same. My opinion is that the potential of the boards is more fully realized when students get up and engage with learning at the board.
I love in this webpage where the author comments in similar fashion to what we say in our UDL sessions, The tools that are “universally designed” to assist students with disabilities often provide benefits for everyone!
Here’s what I’m wondering about your work with interactive whiteboards:
Training and teacher learning:
- What do you do with the board? What previous and current methods do you personally employ for enhancing classroom activities with interactive whiteboards?
- How did you learn to use the board? What methods does your school or school district utilize to support teacher training and use of the boards?
- Simple new-to-interactive board activities. How did you get started using the board? Describe some of the first things you tried with your interactive whiteboard.
- BB: What do you do now that you didn’t do before having the board? How has using the interactive whiteboard inspired you to experiment with or to go further using technology?
- What types of supports did/do you receive? What did you or your school do to overcome some of the frustrating “technical” challenges of using the boards or to accelerate the learning curve?
Student Learning:
- What do the students do and gain? What types of activities (done at or with the board) seem to be the most beneficial for students? How so?
- I’m sure kids comment - let’s hear it!
What are your students saying about learning with an interactive whiteboard?
Feel free to answer one or some of the questions. Looking forward to hearing from you! Kate B.
Link to the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities: Interactive Whiteboards - loads of articles and research!
I hope I can answer this question for everyone out there. I have had an interactive whiteboard in my room for 4 years. I started out with an off-brand called Webster. It was in my room collecting dust because no one could tell me what to do with it. I spent several long hours after school and figured it out. I now have a Smart Board interactive whiteboard and I am the workshop facilitator and trainer for the Smart Boards in my district. So here goes…
1. What do I do with it? Maybe a better question is what don’t I do with it. I know one thing for sure. I never use dry erase markers on it. Despite what the company says DON’T EVER DO IT. It leaves nasty ghost marks all over. A short simple list of things I do: post calendar, OGT goals, lesson objectives, use interactive questioning, concept mapping, vocabulary matching, play games like Jeopardy and Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, graph, record lab results, notes, highlight and pause video and turn it into an interactive slide, and turn just about any document or image into an interactive page for students to work at the board on.
2. How did I learn? I am a bit of a computer nerd so I figure things out through experience. I read the user guide and started out with simple things like using text boxes, cut and paste, and just writing on it. There are still things I find accidentally in the advanced functions. You learn best by playing.
3. New-to-the-Board: Start by selecting a word document you use with students. Maybe type up 3 review questions. Select the question, copy, paste to Smart Notebook. Give a little space for a student to write their answer. The next thing I tried out was the gallery for educators. It has so many things in it that are useful for the classroom. Start browsing the selection in the topic menus to get a feel for what it contains. Use the search window and type in a word of something you are looking for like “graph paper” and you will see a list of items to try.
4. What can I do now? Often it is difficult for kids to visualize certain concepts. For example I was trying to teach my students how to make a pie chart by converting your sample group to percentages and multiplying by 360 degrees in a circle to find the size of the pie. They were having a terrible time mixing up the percentages with the degrees on the protractor. So the next day I pulled up a protractor from the gallery and a circle showing the degrees from 0 - 360. We did the calculations step by step (the gallery also has an interactive calculator) and used the tools to draw the individual pies on the circle. Only a very small number of students could not accurately measure the size of their pie after doing this lesson on the Smart Board.
I can do this for any lesson. There is nothing that I can’t bring over to the Smart Notebook software or use the tools to modify the lesson.
5. Technical Challenges? There were many and there still are to some extent. Most problems right now exist in the installation process and retrofitting classrooms for the best configuration. We abandoned the mobile unit idea and went with a projector mounted in the ceiling and the board mounted on the wall. Most teachers are struggling with getting the cords routed to their computers. Some computers are so old and outdated that they cannot handle the software without a hiccup every now and then. Since the installation is typically done by maintenance staff they are unaware for the most part that the projector needs to be properly oriented to the board (distance away, zoom, alignment). It has been helpful in my school to team up with the maintenance staff and work with them to properly install the units. How did I solve these problems? I took charge of it myself. Now everyone comes to me for help.
Student Learning:
The kids are fascinated by the Smart Board. They jump out of their seats to go up and use it. It emphasizes the word “interactive” because my students are much more engaged when they are involved at the Smart Board. I would say that it is one of the most important tools I use to help my students learn content efficiently and with greater understanding than just using a chalk board or plain whiteboard.
I also think that my students find it entertaining as they learn. The Smart Board is a tool and a piece of technology. How do we compete in their world of video games, iPods, cell phones, and U-tube? We bring it all to the classroom and integrate it into our lessons. This is their world. We have to be willing to speak their “language.”
I hope this helps others. I now run a workshop on a wide variety of technology topics including beginner and advanced Smart Board training. Contact me if you are interested. jyoxthimer@earthlink.net