[Opensource] Re: [elearning] IWB's in secondary schools

[Roland Gesthuizen]

Somebody mentioned something about voting by touching an IWB board so
I tossed my departing senior class a traditional set of coloured
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 perhaps later discuss. They had fun and I got
all my markers back. I enjoy using low tech touches like this, blue
tooth devices, sticky pads and hand puppets.

Did make me think as they giggled over the new feedback option that
any IWB solution needs to get over the initial positive benefit that
comes from the Hawthorne effect. Measuring a 'real' improvement is
going to be hard after spending all that money, is anybody going to be
brave enough to claim only an incremental benefit?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect

Cameron has raised an important point about vendor lock-in with IWB
hardware, IWB software and the lessons that you might record (posted
to the Edulist OpenSource mailing list). Not only is this bad , in
some counties it can be quite illegal. This wiki page provides a good
summary of the practice with some more familiar examples.
     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendor_lock-in

Open, public standards and FLOSS are the best solution to this lock-in problem.

Regards Roland

On 12/03/2008, Karen Austen <kausten at star.melb.catholic.edu.au> wrote:
> hi everyone
>  I used to teach year 7 8 and 9 students how to create their bibliographies
>  using pens and paper.  If you have ever tried getting blood out of a stone
>  you may have an idea of how much fun those lessons were!  I now have an
>  "interactive jigsaw" created for use on the IWB and the students are
>  engaged, actively answering my questions and at the end of the lesson they
>  know how to correctly write their bibliographies.  Yes the electronic
>  whiteboards are expensive, but for some of the tasks I have set in the
>  past, they are worth their weight in gold.
>  --
>  Karen Austen
>
>  e-Learning Facilitator
>  Star of the Sea College
>  Martin Street Gardenvale Vic
>  tel 061 03 9596 6099
>
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-- 
Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au

"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