66 replies to this topic

[Andrew Field]

What I'm getting at then is where is the justification for asking for interactive whiteboards for each department across a school.

That is an appalling amount of money - and despite the current government drive to give additional funding specfically for interactive whiteboards - we surely have to question the wisdom of spending ICT funding upon them. At my school I'm currently developing the ICT part of our Maths and Computing Specialist Status bid, and have hit discussions - do we really want interactive whiteboards for each department.

I thought - "Well, of course we do - they are fantastic." But then I though, "Are they really?"

As you have already said, much of the current uses of whiteboards are really just as a place where the projector shines onto. I realise there are uses - drag and drop, interaction with the screen, but are these enough to justify huge expenditure on them?

The broadband project I'm completing at the moment had funding built in so I can get an interactive whiteboard out of it. But now I'm questioning the worth of doing so.

[Roy Huggins]

You've raised two very important points Andy.

I personally don't think that you can justify putting an interactive whiteboard into every department if you are working on limited resources. You have to match the equipment with the skills and enthusiasm of individuals rather departments. You need people to promote and champion their use to encourage others to use them. Otherwise you end up with them being allocated to people who do not have the time to develop their teaching styles or resources and they become an expensive OHP screen gathering dust at the front of the classroom. You also have to be prepared to monitor their use and be prepared to reallocate them to other people where they can be most effective!

The other point that you raised related to wether or not you should have put in a bid for a whiteboard for yourself.

I wouldn't personally have a problem with it as you will soon find yourself developing your teaching styles around the whiteboard. You will enjoy the challenge of pioneering new resources and methods of teaching. However, as I've stated before, its a tool and you have to ask yourself the question wether its use will enhance your teaching and make the point powerfully enough to effect the learning as opposed to your normal methods. It also takes time and energy to make new resources and you have to prioritise your responsibilities.

On a similar note, as part of the programme of talks and seminars at Magna in Rotherham, I listen to a talk by the head of Becta who put forward the challenge that we have to move away from using ICT as a tool for simply presenting ideas to students. She argued very forcefully that we need to develop our teaching and learning styles so that they are more interactive.

In other words, the whiteboard is not just simply a teaching aid, but should also be used as a learning aid by students. They can use it to present their ideas and use its interactive features to do tasks such as drag and drop, or underlining key words, phases, facts, quotes or ideas in a body of text. Hence my over emphasis on students coming to the front and taking part kinaesthetically in the lesson. We have to appeal to auditory, visual and Kinasesthic learners! That in itself is a justification, if it is used properly.

Its not just a teaching aid, but a learning aid for the students in the class! We mustn't jealously guard our new toy at the front as a trophy to impress the kids!

Edited by rhuggins, 30 June 2004 - 06:24 PM.

[Roy Huggins]

PS. You can get a big discount if you buy your laptop, data projector and whiteboard together!

[Andrew Field]

She argued very forcefully that we need to develop our teaching and learning styles so that they are more interactive. 

In other words, the whiteboard is not just simply a teaching aid, but should also be used as a learning aid by students.

To be honest I cannot believe that anyone with a whiteboard would ever imagine an interactive whiteboard as anything other than that.

As Neil already pointed out the interactive nature is key.

However, even if we do adapt teaching styles in this way - which is surely a main aim of all history teachers anyway - active, hands on history lessons - this doesn't really justify an interactive whiteboard. You can do the same with a pen and a whiteboard.

I think where the real justification comes in are where you have prepared and proven resources that require the use of an interactive board. Can we specifically examine some of them? Obviously we don't just want 'death' by drag and drop -- so what activities can we do on a whiteboard that you just couldn't do without one?

You've mentioned above dragging and dropping and there are many different opportunities there. Even better has to be the source analysis - annotating / grafittiing sources as part of a presentation given by a student. That would work really well - a bit like a weather forecast - a source forecast. The source would be shown on the screen and students could give a presentation whilst annotating and drawing over the resource. I guess here the features of the board would allow you to compare other classes' work - and indeed your own version that you prepare before the lesson. So here again the ability to save and review past board work is another justification.

Any other really 'killer' activities? I honestly think it would be great for us to construct some sort of list that can be used by departments - highlighting and demonstrating practical uses to justify expenditure. The response I seem to get the most is "Oh them, they'll be good for Maths...."

[Roy Huggins]

I think that that would be a great idea Andy. I could upload some of my templates in either JPG or PP format to be imported or pasted into an interactive package on a whiteboard.

[Roy Huggins]

Another really great starter, plenary or just a simple brain rest, using an interactive whiteboard, is snowballing.

You write up the key words for the topic. You reveal them to the class for 30 seconds using the interactivity of the whiteboard and then cover them up.

The kids then have 1 minute on their own to write down as many of the key words that they can remember. When their time is up tey share their resukts with their neighbours to see if they can add to their lists.

After 1 minute of discussion, the teacher then reveals the answers so the students can then mark their work.

It is really effective. Dale and I demonstrated this idea at the SHP conference this weekend.

Edited by rhuggins, 04 July 2004 - 11:42 AM.

[Roy Huggins]

As a quick note. If your school or organisation has a smartboard installed then the software license allows you to install it on all the machines in your school.

This is great because you can then use the interactivity of smartnotes with your data projector.

You can also use smartnotes with any interactive whiteboard as a stand alone package.

However, you will want to delete the startup sequence for orientating the whiteboard. This is very easy to do.

Just go to your start menu. Click on programes. Go to startup and right click on the smartboard icon and delete it. Then restart and everything should be fine.

Any problems, then get in touch.

Regards

Roy

Edited by rhuggins, 04 July 2004 - 11:40 AM.

[Dan Lyndon]

I was at the embedding ICT in History conference at Sheffield and one of the sessions was about using interactive whiteboards. The session was fairly good, but focused on powerpoint and some drag and drop activities. The question that I raised was how do we get more interactivity than this? I have managed to get 3-4 pupils up to the board underlining / annotating / dragging and dropping but there surely must be more than this. Has anyone developed a lesson which involves a significant number of the students genuinely interacting with the board? Off the top of my head I would envisage a presentation style activity with pupils designing their presentations using the whiteboard software is a possibility, but that would involve alot of preparatory work and of course use of the ICT rooms rather than the history classroom.

[Roy Huggins]

Hi Dan,

There is lot more software on the market which is designed to get students involved in using the interactive whiteboard as a learning aid.

One piece of software that I would recommend is Game Show Presenter. You can also buy and download the content generartors that Andy uses to make Penalty Shootout games and soon all other various games and activities he produces. These will enable you to create your own interactive starters and plenaries. See http://www.contentgenerator.net/

Have you experiemented with editing film clips on your whiteboard and getting students to produce their own news broadcasts of key historical events? If you're interested then get in touch.

[MrsB]

I have just returned from the best inset course I have ever attended. Thank you Roy Huggins for an excellent session on using interactive whiteboards in history run by Lighthouse.

Well worth attending to see all the super ideas mentioned here actually being put into practice

[Roy Huggins]

I am happy to share resources and exchange ideas with anyone, so please feel free to get in touch via school history.

Kind Regards

Roy

[Neil DeMarco]

I have just returned from the best inset course I have ever attended. Thank you Roy Huggins for an excellent session on using interactive whiteboards in history run by Lighthouse.

Well worth attending to see all the super ideas mentioned here actually being put into practice

Allow me to endorse this post.

[duncantoms]

Does anyone know of any interactive whiteboard training events planned for north of the border in 2006? I've benefited greatly from presentations by Dragonfly as well as Tim Laver and this has whetted my appetite for further inspiration & expertise, especially in terms of interactivity.

[Chris Higgins]

I have been given an interactive whiteboard to use as part of a school development bursary. I have had some training in using Smart Software but am coming to the conclusion that Microsoft applications such as PowerPoint and Word are just as powerful and I can prepare resources at home without having to be plugged into my board. One of the things I do is cover over key words using white highighter or pen and then during feedback sessions students rub out the covering and reveal the 'magic answers'. Low level IT skills required, by high level engagement from students curious to know the answers. The same technique cane be used covering photos or parts of cartoons, and asking students to decide what visual piece of information is missing. It really trains students to look for clues in visual sources and read attributions very carefully.

I would love to see some of Roy's resources if possible.

[neil mcdonald]

Remember that you can have Smartnotes installed on your home PC with no cost. You can download it from their website or get the CD version from the school. I tend to make lessons using smartnotes and then save them to a memory stick and load them up.

I like the idea Chris of the missing words - might borrow that one.

I think one area that could be developed is the ability to share the IWB resources - the power of School History is that we can download a worksheet or PowerPoint but, what about SMARTNOTES etc?