Week 2: Multimedia in the classroom 1 - Interactive Whiteboard Software

This week in ICT we learnt about Interactive Whiteboards (IWB) and considered how they can be used in classrooms in different ways by teachers to enable them to get the most out of their students. The IWB is also very misused in classrooms as some teachers are guilty of not using the resource to its full potential. However, the IWB is an extremely beneficial resource when using it with children and may people are agreed with this.

The article below shows that when it comes to IWBs teachers are encouraged to look beyond their initial attraction and tho try and use it in more purposeful ways to get the most out of the resource and also out of the children they are teaching.

"Teachers have to set learning in context and be guided by learning objectives in order to take advantage of the many capabilities of the IWB. They can be easily seduced or discouraged by its use while being concerned, at the same time, about providing equal opportunities and experience to all learners in the classroom."

(Maznah, 2006, p. 79)

The link below will take you to an article by Steven Brown as part of TechLearn that discusses more about the use of the IWB in primary schools. The article highlights many things: target audiences, benefits, what IWBs are, the disadvantages, how they work, where and how they are being used, the issues and alternatives and also how they might affect higher and further education in the UK. 

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/Interactivewhiteboards.pdf 

 Advantages to using IWBs: 

• Motivating
• Developing ICT skills
• Visual aid for EAL and SEN pupils
• Developing discussion skills
• Edutainment
• Engaging
• Tactile
• Developing thinking skills
• Auditory

 

Although there are many benefits to using there are also some things that you have to take into consideration when in a classroom:

• Access -  it has to be put somewhere in the classroom where it is accessible to all the children.
• Height - has to be at a level where children can reach it and so that they can fully interact with it.
• Positioning -   has to be positioned in the classroom where all the children can see in no matter where they are sitting.
• Light - Has to be placed where the light won't interact with its visibility. 
• Should be interactive -  if not used as an interactive whiteboard it is not being used to its full potential.
• Text visibility - the text should be visible to all student and should also have a clear layout and structure. 

In class we went on to look at all the different thing you can do using the IWB these included: destruction images, magic pen and spotlight, object animation, rub and reveal, still shot from videos and two images using transparency.

I took a particular focus to the use of the magic pen and spotlight, the video below demonstrates how you would use this in the classroom to help stimulate students and get the most out of a lesson.

 
  

Below is another video which is called 'The Magical Classroom' this shows how the IWB can transform a classroom and make it 'magical' the video shows how an IWB should be used in a classroom.