Can an interactive whiteboard in a classroom have a positive influence on learners?
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 | IWBs
The classroom of today was designed a few centuries ago – little has changed since. Learners sit at desks, mostly facing a blackboard, while a teacher chalks and talks. This might have been good enough until a few decades ago, but it no longer provides an environment conducive to learning for today’s learners.
Twenty-first century children are digitally connected. They have cell phones which they use, most of the time, sending digital messages to one another – text messages, but also images – and accessing other digital material. Sadly, some of the materials they process do little for helping them academically or building good characters. But the fact remains – they are a digital generation.
No wonder they are bored in a classroom devoid of technology!
An interactive whiteboard is an easy way to turn the situation around – it makes digital resources available to the whole class.
Learners who drag, drop and touch become involved in the learning process and are no longer passive spectators. When they learn to use the board – and they will do that much quicker than you, even without a course – they’ll be able to develop their own presentations. Not only will this develop their technical skills, but they will engage intimately with the learning material. They will develop presentation skills, which are essential in the modern workplace. And just think what it will do for building their confidence!
Learning is reinforced through use of images. Most children like TV- the interactive whiteboard appears to them to be a large TV screen – but they quickly learn that they can interact with it.
When learners are involved in an activity they enjoy, they are more inclined to be attentive. This in turn leads to better class discipline. An interactive whiteboard helps you to create an environment that is favorable for learning.
No question about it – an interactive whiteboard in your class will have a positive influence on the learners.
Click here for more information about interactive whiteboards.
2 Comments to Can an interactive whiteboard in a classroom have a positive influence on learners?
Kobus, you make such a strong and important point by saying that interactive whiteboards (just as any technology used for instruction) are meant for active hands-on learning, not passive delivery — but too many classrooms with IWBs end up recreating the traditional, inefficient teacher-at-the-front-of-the-room style of instruction. Students sit in rows, quietly watching the teacher play with the really cool IWB.
Yes, those students may seem engaged — but more than likely, they are merely entertained by watching the visual magic — they are not learning or using their minds to think critically about a topic. The real secret and the true power of IWBs is when, as you said, students are creating and delivering their own presentations, interacting with the board, and physically are involved with the material on the boards; for example, exploring websites through the IWB, marking text, and linking on ancillary resources to research more about a topic.
My complaint about IWBs is the tendency to under-use them to the point that they become nothing more than glorified chalk boards with clever graphic animated features. Teachers must change their mindsets so they refrain from acting as the proverbial experts (“sage on the stage”) and instead become the students’ coach and supporter as students explore topics on their own (“guide on the side”).
Whenever students are put in audience mode, they will cozy down and expect to be entertained. But let them have the spotlight, and they suddenly want to perform. IWBs can go either way, depending on how the teacher uses them.
AlbieWednesday, 10 February, 2010
I want to agree with Kobus and Sharon. I want to enhance their statements by adding the following:
The educator must do the basic EIAWB actions, the learners follow-up with the REST. Let them desing, interact, manipulate, explore, present, use their perceptual skills on the EIAWB. The EIAWB was the first electronic tool desinged for the educator, but to use it in such a way that the learners are “driving and steering” the EIAWB !!
Albie the ++ learner
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Wednesday, 10 February, 2010