IWB

Click here. Something slightly cheesy, but perhaps a worthwhile read on the benefits of the IWB.

From my own perspective, here is a short list of my initial thoughts on the benefits of IWBs.

For the teacher:

1. Resources are easily accessed -- once a resource has been created on Smartboard software is is easily to access and transport as it is all electronic.
2. Resources are easily adapted -- once a resource has been made it can be kept, tweaked and changed to use again.
3. Resources can be shared easily amongst colleagues -- teachers can share their ideas and presentations and they can be used again and again by whoever you wish to share them with.
4. Smartboard presentations can be easily changed within lessons -- giving you and your class freedom for interpretation and adaptation within your lesson. These adaptations can then be saved for reviewing or re-using.
   

For the pupil:

1. Interactivity - learning is two sided and it is two way -- it gives children an instant result or output to their work.
   
2. Interesting learning -- when the IWB is not overused.
   
3. It brings learning, teachers and the classroom into the 21st century. It is something technological that children can relate to and it brings the teacher who can use the IWB (successfully) to a place where he or she will be considered modern (to an extent, perhaps).
4. Children can put their own work onto the IWB thus giving them an easy way to share things they are proud.
   

This is a short reflection on my first thoughts of the IWB which I will return to...

15/12/2008

An Guardian article, dated 2005 explains the cautions that should be taken with the use if IWBs. I think it is interesting to compare what we now know.

The article describes how IWBs will be used for teaching ICT, as a 'glorified power point'. What I have seen in classrooms tell a different story. In core curriculum subjects alone, IWBs have been used to enhance children's learning. The learning is interactive, it is within their reach -- they can come up to the front of the classroom and touch it. The children are handed back some of the control.

It is quoted that 'integrating ICT into the curriculum should be a full-time responsibility for an expert member of staff.' If, in 2005 this was not the case, it certainly is now. The majority of teachers, I would suggest, are aware of the benefits that ICT can have in creative an effective learning environment, and they are trained to provide this sort of learning. I do think that three years on, a relatively long period of time in technology terms, some teachers are not reaping the benefits.

I cannot name a single classroom where I have not seen the IWB in full use, to the benefit of the learners. The are a great resource to teachers, and I think we have come a long way, as teachers and users of ICT since that 2005 article. It shows, the older generation are becoming integrated in a digital society, slowly, but nevertheless, surely.