Welcome back to the Seniors Moment of the Century.
In my first year at Uni. I often heard the term "Interactive Whiteboard" mentioned, and being old (now I can label myself a Digital Immigrant thanks to Marc Prensky) I thought they meant a whiteboard that all students were allowed to come up to and work on. Only after getting up the courage to ask someone did I discover to my amazement that it was actually a tool of the new millennium. Yes a fantastic invention that allows teachers to connect their computer to a whiteboard and the children can interact with the learning experience. How engaging is that. This is wonderful and from the few I have been privileged to view since I can see that the students thoroughly enjoy the lessons they participate in when they get to use this tool. Just like many of the other tools that I have had to investigate over the last five weeks this was an interesting and exciting new experience for me. I could see how these could also be just as interesting and exciting to the students (maybe not the die-hard Digital Natives out there) who have never experienced the wonders that I.C.T's now provide. There are so many areas to explore and the list of wonderment just keeps on getting bigger, I do not feel I can do any of them justice in the few short weeks that we have before this assignment is due. But I will experiment with all on the list and hope I can remember to comment on them all appropriately.
Interactive whiteboards surely engage the digital natives of today and so help to alleviate the enragement aspect of learning experiences that are not designed to cater for all. As outlined in one of our first readings, the one on Dale's Cone of Learning Effectiveness/Learning Pyramid of Learning Retention, the more students participate and experiment with the tools and learning the more they will retain. They will feel they are teaching each other as well as learning from each other and this can often lead to a sense of achievement and accomplishment.
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives or digital immigrants. Retrieved July 31, 2009, from http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resources/view.php.
Dale's Cone of Learning Effectiveness retrieved July 25,2009, from
http://www.acu.edu/cte/activelearning/whyuseal2.htm
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Donna, I must admit that when I went to school there were very few white boards,plenty of blackboards though. I was a little confused when I first heard mention of these interactive white boards, however at the time I was working what was at the time classed a digital classroom. In this class the teacher used digital data projection onto a white board, he was able to draw diagrams on the board and add text in and around whatever program was being viewed.
ReplyDeleteThis is however the closest I have come to using an interactive whiteboard. Lookiing forward to producing some interesting and egaging lessons when I finally get the opportunity.
Keep on blogging.