IWBs in the Classroom

[MatthiasHeil]

Hopefully this will be of interest to some of you, as well. Equipping schools with interactive whiteboards is an increasingly popular trend in Germany, so it's high time that student teachers are trained to use them in a way that especially keeps away the danger of a tech-supported "one man/woman show" in the classroom. I would love to learn about how you use your IWB to your young learners' advantage.

A very good starting point is, of course, and as usual, one of Tom Barrett's highly useful collections: "42 Interesting Ways to use your IWB..."

Appreciate your contributions!

[Bill Lord]

Matthias,
I was involved in the initial centrally led rollout of IWBs in England about five years ago and there are some areas we came across of real significance during the introduction of IWBs in the classroom
- Teacher talk (almost inevitably) rises as the educator is armed with an engaging tool (in some research this was a significant barrier to learning
- transference from the educator introduction to independent work becomes incredibly important (putting the board software on all pupil facing computers and laptops was a real brakthrough in many schools)
- teacher training on the use of IWB was absolutely key and I have to say that I saw a real range in quality from the best being pedagogy based through to an hour run through of a hundred great tricks to play on the board.
- I saw great work done on sharing ways of using the IWB things like Tom Barrett's collection through to some schools having a 5 minute slot at the start of each staff meeting or CPD session talking through something which had worked really well on the board. This included in my own school a teacher who "didn't believe in ICT" wishing it to be known that she had used the screen capture tool in Art (this may not sound very significant but it was for her and therefore part of IWBs becoming a core part of our teaching)
- investment was key as well with not enough schools investing in the training and sustainability of the use of IWBS (technical support, replacing bulbs, pens or even boards) - where schools were strategic then inevitably the investment has paid off much more.

The great successes have been where it has been a whole school development with practice shared across the school resulting in discussions about pedagogy as much as IWB tips for teachers.