Paul is right .. I never had a problem 'interacting' with a blackboard or whiteboard. Similarly I have doubts about using it to just watch some students interact at the front of the class. <br><br>There are similar low tech tools that have a similar collaboration and aggregation function if used correctly. I seen splendid lessons conducted by student teachers using yellow
post-it- pads and butchers paper (and perhaps too many that just chalk
and talk). When somebody mentioned something about voting by touching an Interactive
White Board (IWB) so I tossed my departing senior class a traditional
set of white-board markers and asked them to scribble a 'vote' on the
board as they left the room. (typical XY plot that ranks boring
<----> interesting, vs learned heaps <----> nothing). I
then photographed the result to reflect and posted into Moodle and even got all my markers back.<br><br>I would suggest exploring the use of a couple of cheap bluetooth enabled keyboards / waicom drawing pads. Without any new software they should work natively with our iMacs and 2Touch IWB setup (even be adapted with a plain old projector setup) and mean that groups of students scattered around the classroom can share in the construction of a class mind map, contribute to a Moodle wiki or online discussion. It is an interesting experiment I would like to try out.<br>
<br>Any IWB initial positive gain that is
observed probably comes from the <a class="snap_shots" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect">Hawthorne effect</a>.
After spending all that money, is anybody going to be brave enough to claim only an
incremental benefit? <br><br>For now I see that it is just a cool tool that we can use to teach well some of the time but will is not guaranteed to automatically upgrade teachers to version 2.0<br><br>Regards Roland<br><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">2009/3/11 Dr Paul Chandler <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:paul.chandler@une.edu.au">paul.chandler@une.edu.au</a>></span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Folks,<br>
<br>
In contributing my 2c worth, I'll probably come away with a case of<br>
foot-in-mouth, but there's a couple of points which I think are worth<br>
picking up on. I'm writing from the perspective of a classroom teacher<br>
(which I was until the end of last year), not from my present position of<br>
being a researcher.<br>
<br>
. to me, IWBs are glorified data projectors. To accompany a<br>
data-projection, the operator (teacher or student) can do their<br>
song-and-dance act 'at' the point of projection rather than at the<br>
keyboard<br>
. in an effort to be 'converted' to the benefit of this, I have attend<br>
several conference presentations and workshops by teachers on IWBs. I<br>
have been disappointed.<br>
. nevertheless, there are a few functions of some of the IWB software (not<br>
the board itself) which do allow for greater interactivity which is<br>
otherwise hard to replicate; a _few_ that I remember being impressed with,<br>
but can't remember the detail now.<br>
. there is _serious_ research into IWBs in the classroom (not by any team<br>
that I am involved with), and I know that there are documented cases where<br>
the teacher's interactive teaching has improved because of the technology<br>
<br>
In all, I think its a mixed bag of outcomes; just unfortunate that it's an<br>
expensive mixed bag.<br>
<br>
What I have a passion for, though, is being able to genuinely increase the<br>
interactivity in a classroom which might otherwise consist of students<br>
operating 'in their own space with their own PC/laptop'. What I think is<br>
worth discussing is the software (and maybe hardware) and the<br>
teacher-tactics which can help vitalise teaching/learning from this<br>
perspective. If tablet PCs or IWBs are on the list, so be it. For<br>
myself, I would nominate:<br>
- vnc or other 'throw the student's screen onto the projector from where<br>
they are' technologies<br>
- moodle workshop<br>
- coword and copowerpoint (<a href="http://cooffice.ntu.edu.sg/coword/" target="_blank">http://cooffice.ntu.edu.sg/coword/</a>)<br>
- blogging (and related technologies)<br>
- creation of wikis<br>
<br>
Other suggested inclusions? Or comments?<br>
<br>
<br>
--<br>
Dr Paul Chandler<br>
Research Fellow<br>
'Multimedia grammatical design and authoring pedagogy' (Kahootz) project,<br>
School of Education, University of New England<br>
<br>
located at Australian Children's Television Foundation<br>
145 Smith Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne, 3065<br>
e-mail: <a href="mailto:paul.chandler@une.edu.au">paul.chandler@une.edu.au</a><br>
Ph: (03) 9419 8800<br>
Fax: (03) 9419 0660<br>
Skype: paul.d.chandler<br>
<br>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College<br><a href="http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au">http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au</a><br><br>"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead<br>