Thursday, January 21, 2010

How not to see or use your IWB

We're in Week 2 now of the EVO sessions, in which I'm participating in the Smart Teaching with Interactive Whiteboards event and we're currently doing some background reading from some of the very interesting links provided.

Here's a fairly typical example of what an enthusiastic user of an IWBs says:

Our school has IWBs in every classroom. However, how it is used varies. Some use it as a glorified whiteboard. Others just use it as a projector. A IWB becomes truly useful when it is used a tool. It needs to be integrated into the curriculum. It helps me develop lesson plans and allows me to present my lessons seamlessly. I can have video, links and interactive work. It helps me eliminate props (I teach Spanish). The bells and whistles are nice but when I can have all my lesson plans and many of the materials all in one file to bring up and use on the board, it is priceless.


I'm a fairly enthusiastic user of IWBs myself but I think something fundamental is wrong with what is being said there. Analyse the subjects of the verbs. I make the count "School" (1); the IWB itself (9); the teacher/s (9); and the learners ZERO. What on earth are the learners doing, meanwhile?

If it's not the learners using the technology, perhaps the technology really shouldn't be being used at all...

Can what is described above possibly be good teaching, or good use of an IWB...???

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