Just thought I would post about a feature in this week’s TES magazine which I appear in about using interactive whiteboards. It is a really interesting piece by Jack Kenny – you can read it in full here:
I have the following tips on using them based on my own experience and what I have seen in schools:
1) Make sure you use it, they are often a underused resource in a school but can be extremely effective in enhancing the learning in a classroom. They are expensive paticularly when a school installs them in every classroom to tick the box of using ICT but they often don’t get used and you find them gathering dust. Under the new Ofsted framework from September 2009 there is an emphasis on the use of tools like this and inspectors will want to see the use of them in the lessons that they observe ‘Resources, including new technology, make a marked contribution to the quality of learning’
2) Do use them as an interactive whiteboard not just an overhead projector. They have fantastic potential but often teachers are scared of using them and looking silly in front of their students if they get things wrong. As a teacher why not practice using it on your own, better still get the school as part of the professional development programme to set up a way for teachers and students to share good practice on top tips and techniques.
3) Make sure if it is mounted on the wall at the front of the classroom that it has plenty of space on each side so the students and teacher can use it easily without standing in front of the bulb and it is at a correct height for all to use it. I have been in some classrooms that have piles of yellow pages underneath the whiteboard just so students can use it – (not a good idea!)
DON’TS
1) Don’t hog them! Let students use them – that is what interactive means, some teachers worry that students will break them, if you give them a chance you will find giving them responsibility to use it will increase engagement and also be good for the teachers professional development as students often give teachers tips on how to use it, from what they have learnt or been shown by other teachers. I have been in many lessons where I hear ‘Did you know you can do this Sir?’
2) Don’t just mount it on the wall – consider putting it somewhere else that will allow it to be more interactive such as on a table in the centre of your classroom this way more students can get round it to use it.
3) Don’t stand in front of the bulb as you are teaching all day long, there is a danger of damaging your eye sight or a students. These days more schools are installing more highly powered bulbs in HD projectors which are much more powerful and so there is an increased risk.
A good starting point for any schools or teachers is the research that Becta did in 2004 and it is free. Here is the link to the general and specific subject resources – http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/ictis/infrastructure/iwb/
What do you think of this post or the article?