I fully agree. Technology cannot make me a good teacher.Technology can, however enhance my teaching skills so that learning in my class could become more effective.

I want to agree with GAVIN ….. Technology cannot make me a good teacher……can however enhance…..

The keyword is…. enhance your teaching in general,i.e. styles, skills, presentation, interaction, work display, layout on EIAWB, lessons, and so on. Using the EIAWB various tools and “colourful” activities can bring “life” and “motion” and “interaction” to your lesson !!

To think that an EAIWB will improve math / numeracy or literacy results, NO….. it will enhance the “pratical lessons” with additional “features”, and maybe you can expect better and more focused “attention-span” by most of the learners…. then there might be some “improvement” re an outcome.

I would also like to support Kobus argument that ….to help teachers to develop professionally. The EIAWB can be used as a tool to improve the teaching skills of an “inferior” teacher who might copy the teaching techniques used by the “superior” teacher.

The successful use of the EIAWB depends on a skilled educator. Supporting, guiding and TRAINING educators to develop basic teaching skills on an EIAWB, should be the vision to reach a mission.

Albie with an EIAWB Vision to get an EIAWB Mission Established

A good teacher is one that teaches well, no matter the medium. However in order to communicate effectively, he/she must be able to do so in a medium that is familiar to those being taught. Today’s young people are fully conversant with, one might say immersed in, technology. It is therefore imperative that the advantages of technology be exploited in the teaching environment. At the moment this means EIWBs and professional development goes hand in hand with effort to use the latest effective teaching media.

A tool/gadget is designed to make things easier! The EIWB technology makes the preparation of an educator easier, eg. Sound, color, video, text that can be saved and re-used, bigger screen, interactive tool. If I think back at all the trouble I had during my teaching years to record sound, to find pictures in color without cutting up books or magazines, to get a TV with VCR to show a part of a video, the hours of writing on the chalkboard and to re-write it the next day, to get a big enough picture to show to the whole class at once and to have technology where you can be interactive moving around objects, building puzzles,ect. Wow, I am tired of mentioning it all, what a pleasure to have everything at the tip of your finger in one technology!

Charles states ‘A good teacher is one that teaches well, no matter the medium’. i agree!!!
Let’s make the following assumption: A school has 21 classrooms. It decides to provide every classroom with technology, and instead of purchasing IAWB’s it decides to supply each classroom with a PC and DVP. This saves the school R504,000 (based on the price of R24,000 per IAWB). The school then uses this R500,000 to train and upskill the teachers.
I have spoken to two principals at affluent and prominent schools who have decided to move away from the IAWB scenario and to provide each classroom with a PC and DVP.
Comments please?

Daar is baie goeie onderwysers wat nie noodwendig hou van al die tegnologiese onderrighulpmiddels nie, bloot omdat hulle nie daarvoor gereed is nie. Die probleem partykeer is dat hierdie onderwysers onder druk geplaas word om die tegnologie dadelik te gebruik omdat die skool waarde vir sy belegging soek. Die leerkragte word dikwels negatief en ‘n negatiewe leerkrag is nie meer ‘n “goeie” onderwyser nie, so die teenoorgestelde kan ook waar wees. Die kriteria moet wees of die onderwyser werklik ervaar dat daar waarde tot sy onderrig en vak bygevoeg word. Die suksesse van ander leerkragte is dikwels ‘n inspirasie en die vonk wat leerkragtige nodig het om in te koop. Dit moet eerder ‘n natuurlike proses wees en nie afgedwing word nie. Die suksesse van ander sal wel positief beinvloed.

I like on mobile phone company’s slogan – Connecting people. They provide mobile phones with so many features and research has shown that besides phoning and sending sms’s people who are not so tech savvy use three out of seven other features. Those who are tech savvy use four out of seven other features. Just a piece of useless information that maybe useful in our line of work.
I still believe a good teacher will use whatever technology is necessary to provide a stimulating lesson. This technology will range from writing with a finger in the sand to the IAWB. It is not always what we use, it is how we use what we use.
Although Mark Shuttleworth used a PDA in space, most other missions got by on pencil and paper. Does this make Mark Shuttleworth a better astronaut?