[Yr7-10it] Tools for Interactivity (Was: Missed the boat?)

[Fawcett - Le Rossignol, Jamie E]

This is something I hadn't considered, but it strikes me as an expensive
option to persuade teachers to use more IT in the classroom.
One thing I have found in my youtube traves is this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSDxc2kFjms which is an engineer
producing excellent tech options
 
Cheers,
Jamie

  _____  

From: yr7-10it-bounces at edulists.com.au
[mailto:yr7-10it-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of ken price
Sent: Wednesday, 11 March 2009 9:26 AM
To: Year 7 - 10 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Yr7-10it] Tools for Interactivity (Was: Missed the boat?)


Good points, 
 
One other benefit, which is seldom the main reason given for adopting
IWBs, is that teachers who are reluctant users of ICT in the classroom
see the IWB as a whiteboard (with which they are comfortable) and not a
computer (with which they are not) 
 
In many IWB installations everything is fixed in place so they have less
of the "what plugs in where" obstacles to ICT use. The environment is
very similar to a traditional classroom - this familiarity avoids what
some teachers see as a need to radically change in the way they work.
 
One particular example that springs to mind was the meeting room of a
group of educational administrators in Victoria, where the computer was
intentionally hidden so that the staff weren't aware that this was a
computer-based environment (I guess it must have been set running by
someone else). The staff there reported that this worked very well in
getting reluctant adopters to take on the technology. Eventually they
were using the general computer aspect of the board, yet past attempts
to use ICT had not been successful.
 
Another example was seeing a group of ICT-averse teachers use Google
Earth on an IWB. The physical size of the image and the ability to point
to places on it (as one does with a normal map) and have things happen
was enough motivation for some teachers to subsequently investigate the
use of Google Earth on classroom desktops. This was effective, whereas
all past attempts at professional learning with ICT had little impact on
that cohort. Frustrating, but a reality for a small number of teachers.
 
In the UK (and in some tertiary institutions here) the mimicing of
traditional environments with IWBs has been taken further with the use
of lecterns where the control functions are installed. So a teacher
transported through time from the 1950s might feel at home :-)
 
The effects here are not simply Hawthorne effects, though there will be
of course some component of that sort. The mechanism is one of providing
slow change by using tools that initially match the environment with
which users are comfortable, then helping them make better use of the
additional features.
 
So perhaps there is another function of IWBs -  "trainer wheels" for
reluctant users? Or in Roland's terms. a way to help them upgrade to
version 1.0 ... or maybe version 0.9 beta?  ;-)
 
Ken
TASITE Tasmania

Important - This email and any attachments may be confidential. If received in error, please contact us and delete all copies. Before opening or using attachments check them for viruses and defects. Regardless of any loss, damage or consequence, whether caused by the negligence of the sender or not, resulting directly or indirectly from the use of any attached files our liability is limited to resupplying any affected attachments. Any representations or opinions expressed are those of the individual sender, and not necessarily those of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.edulists.com.au/pipermail/yr7-10it/attachments/20090311/4de5ffc3/attachment.html