:IWB) Interactive white board)-
There many ways and theories that exist in the
world of education. So as educators, it's our duty to find out what's the best
for our learners. Should we make them learn everything by cramming or should we
teach them the logical steps wise thinking beside the ways of accessing data, deducing
from references gathered and make observations?!!
Since we cannot learn
everything by rote and cramming, we need to find and device a course structure
that provides the required technology that helps in smooth processing of
collection of information. Moreover this structure needs to promote learning by
tending to a learner's natural curiosity. All you need is an IWB!!!
What is a Smart-board? And Can a board actually
be smart and interactive? We can define Smart-board as a new highly interactive
tool that is commonly found in schools,
universities and other educational institutions. Simply, it is touch screen that is composed of a
projector, a white board and a computer.
-Reflection P.1:
In TECH3008 course, we used "Active
inspire" which is an IWB software and even used it to design our own
lesson, which was about environments. It helped us to design a lesson that can be presented through
IWB with rich, powerful activities that
are able to grab learners' attention, while blending the use of practical
experience and presented data. It represents a ready to use activities and a
wide range of tools in order to create various activities that suite different
types of students. And it was wonderful to be able to use multiple media in
order to represent our lesson.
Trough search and what I've learned in classes,
I came to learn many things about IWB and its use as an educational tool. This magnificent
technology is used to enhance the class or presentation's quality with varies
types of pedagogical tools such as pictures, videos, audio and so on. That's
how it saves the teacher's and the student's precious time. Moreover, it helps
the students pick up the information easily and have it in their long term
memory for so long. If an information is presented in more than one way, then
the chances of its being connected with other data and being remembered are
higher. Also since it can include or be attached to many other technologies,
apps…ect, Students can access or contribute to the presentation or lesson
easily.
Another important usage is that students with
Asperger’s syndrome, autism, attention deficit disorder and other behavioral or
mental issues, can benefit from IWB since it provides a stimulating focal point
for lessons and can therefore be a tremendous asset. Ana since lots of those
students have a problem with expressive communication, IWB enable them to
manipulate data and answer questions new avenues for sharing
knowledge.
I think there is this use which is ''the immediate
access to online resources'' that is considered one of the most important uses
of IWB, at least from what I observed trough class. Using this technology
enables high teachers to enrich the lesson with a variety of instructional
modalities quickly and easily. A teacher can access a segment of an online
video or news in order to provide the student with farther information or to
support a specific point in a lesson. A virtual field trip becomes possible.
Higher level math teachers can use a IWB graphing calculator to not only solve
a problem, but also to demonstrate graphing the process.
On top of what I mentioned previously, Interactive
whiteboards provide an instant feed-back and make easy for the data gathered
during the class lesson to be stored and later on retrieved for review or to email to an absent student.
Everything that is done in a high school class, whether student or teacher
generated, can be saved. Portions of the data can be redacted, that's how
during review, students can test their understanding by replacing the missing
data. And through the use of this technology, Instruction becomes comprehensive
across classes, and material can be downloaded, printed and so on. Moreover, a Teacher
can share examples generated in his class with the next class. Ofcorse, IWBs
can be used in many other ways depending on the teacher and the students.
-IWB foe beginners:
Reflection P.2:
Through my journey to learn about IWB, there
were things I didn't like or concerned about regarding it. It costs a lot of
money and it can be a problem for school districts that are low on funds or for
smaller or rural school districts. Basic Smart Board models cost just under
£650 as of 2010, but many models cost more now. So I think not all students
will be able to have an
access to it.
Moreover, as a student myself I find it difficult
a bit to depend on IWBs completely hence as any other electronic device, it may
face a break down at any moment for some reasons. That will be problematic
since the lesson material will be online or stored there and even if the
teacher always makes a back-up teaching plane in cases of break-downs, it's a
waste of his/her time to double their efforts always. Another thing I'm
concerned about regarding the use of IWBs is that it requires a constant
maintenance which needs a professional and again that can be a problem to
schools with low funds. Moreover, to be able to use IWB, a teacher must be
trained which some teachers , especially the old fashioned ones, may find
difficult. And eventually they will abandon the use of it even after spending
lots of money on it. I liked active inspire software very much after practicing
it in class and personally I liked that I was able to be creative in presented
information instead of using cramming. But
I wish if it contains even a wider range of tools, pictures or maybe sample
videos related to different topics. But even with these concerns, I still think
a good use of this technology is essential and I've to admit that I come to
like IWB even more.
As a future teacher, I think I will be using
IWB and active inspire software to teach my class. An important point is that
IWB makes the teacher able to create customized learning objects and tasks from
a set of existing content and change it to suit the students' needs. Because
I'm majoring in English, I'll be able to make my own activities using the
provided tools to make the class more interesting especially if I want to teach
my students a new rule. Besides what I've mentioned previously about the use of
IWBs, I think there are other things that I personally want to try.
Nowadays as
there's plans to allow students with special needs and some types of disorders
to blend with other students in normal schools, I think I can use IWB to teach
them. For instance, I can adapt material for students with visual challenges
and use it in different and suitable ways.
They can adjust brightness or
contrast controls as they wish and resize text and graphics. Since the scale
and brightness is greater than that of a pen and paper or traditional chalkboard,
Students with limited vision can mostly write on the surface of the board . Moreover,
students can enlarge images or videos so that they can view details they
wouldn't be able to see on a smaller computer screen.
All this can help students
with visual challenges to not only view data that would be otherwise
inaccessible, but also to participate more fully in the lesson and to interact
with objects on-screen. I can use this technology in the future also with deaf
students. As a future teacher, I'll be able to keep my hands free of pen tools because
of finger-touch capabilities
provided by IWBs, which can interfere with
signing.
Also, I plan
to not use the spoon feeding or cramming way with my students, so
through IWB I'll be sending them some materials and sources to look at or
search about to prepare foe next class. Moreover, I'll use it to provide them
with their marks and give the feed-back regarding their performance. Another
thing is that I heard that IWB can be attached to clickers, so maybe I'll use
that to give them multiple choice questions or to get their opinions in a topic easily instead of wasting time. All
in all, The use of IWBs depends on how you use it. Yes, it's so helpful, but
nothing is perfect.
-References:
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