why iwbs

WhyInteractiveWhiteboards?

Why IWBs, as in...

“Why IWBs are the best option for your classroom”

“Why IWBs in preference to other possible classroom technologies?”

“Dear God, of all the things I could put in my classroom, why IWBs!?”

my story

“(IWBs are)...the teacher-centric paradigm preserved in

the guise of new tech!”http://blog.brettmoller.com/2007/09/01/interactive-whiteboard-debate/

“(IWBs are )just enforcing old teaching habits that we all agree need to be expelled from teaching”http://blog.brettmoller.com/2007/09/01/interactive-whiteboard-debate/

“One of the big criticisms about interactive whiteboards is that it looks too much like a traditional classroom tool”

http://gwegner.edublogs.org/2007/05/29/interactive-pedagogies/

“I've become reluctant to use

the whiteboard in my

classroom because it tends to

make my classes very teacher-

centric”http://www.commun-it.org/community/whiteboards/weblog/221.html

“Interactive Whiteboards love them or hate them they are slowly infiltrating our classrooms. Reviews of their effectiveness is mixed. In my opinion the jury is still out.”http://edhouse.wikispaces.com/Interactive+Whiteboards

“They reinforce the dominance of the front of the room and teacher supremacy”

Gary Stagerhttp://www.techlearning.com/Default.aspx?tabid=67&EntryId=681

Is technology inherently good, or inherently bad?

It depends...

The Arguments

IWBs are a silver bullet for making our classrooms better

more 21st Century places

Argument 1

Having an IWB in your classroom won't make you an effective teacher any more than sitting in a henhouse will make you a chicken

Technology tends to be an amplifier

Everything that can be done on an IWB can be done just as

effectively using other tools

Argument 2

Really?

http://bodybrowser.googlelabs.com/

www.google.com/sketchup

I can do all of that with just a projector

Argument 3

Yes, if all you really want to do is just project stuff

ConnectingConversing

PointingGesturingInteracting

Making eye contact

IWBs are too expensive and a waste of money

Argument 4

Cost of complete IWB installation:Less cost of projector, cabling, etc:

Cost of just the IWB:

IWB life expectancy:IWB cost per year:

Teaching days per year:Average students per class:

Cost per day, per student, per year:

$5500-$4000$1500

5 years$300

18025

6 cents

IWBs are completely unnecessary when every

student has a laptop

Argument 5

Used by a group

Shared learning

Ideal for stimulating group discussion

Good for introducing key concepts

Focus is on teaching

Used by an individual

Individual learning

Ideal for self-paced, self-directed work

Good for personal productivity and creativity

Focus is on learning

IWBs continue to promote 'teacher-centric' instruction

Argument 6

Students who are taught by expert teachers exhibit an understanding that is more integrated, more coherent, and at a higher level of abstraction.*

*Dr John HattieUniversity of AucklandTeachers Make a Difference: What is the Research Evidence?

Excellence in teaching is the

single most powerful influence on achievement

Kenneth Rowe Dr John Hattie

The effects of quality teaching on educational outcomes are greater than those that arise from students’ backgrounds

It could be argued that

effective schools are only

effective to the extent that they

have effective teachers.

The best strategy to enhance student achievement is to

ensure that all students receive

the best possible quality of teaching.

The quality of teacher education and teaching appears to be more strongly related to student achievement than class sizes, overall spending levels or

teacher salaries.

When all other sources of variation

are taken into account, including

gender, social backgrounds of

students and differences between

schools, the most important source

of variation in student achievement is

teacher quality.

Maybe a little bit of ‘teacher-centricity’ is not that bad after all?

Maybe it’s about finding the right balance?

Teaching is not rocket science. It is, in fact, far more complex and demanding work than rocket science.

Richard Elmore professor of educational leadership at Harvard Graduate School of Education

There's no proof that IWBs improve student learning

Argument 7

“IWBs clearly demonstrated a positive effect on teaching and learning.”

ERNIST ICT School Portraits, 2004

“In a UK study, teachers were extremely positive about the technology and were convinced that IWBS were responsible for improvements in teaching and learning.”

Higgins, et al, 2005

“When used wisely, IWBs can produce a significant improvement to student learning.”

Balanskat, Blamire & Kefala, 2006

85 classrooms

Lesson without IWBLesson with IWB

Same teacher, same lesson

Technology enabled lessons tested an average

17% better than non technology enabled lessons

Dr Robert Marzano

The "Sweet Spot" is when interactive technology is used by an experienced teacher, who has had training, at least 2 years of IWB use, and uses it 75% of the time in class.

That teacher shows a 29% gain in scores.

Two different studies* into the effects of IWBs found an overwhelming majority of teachers

(98%) felt more confident in using ICT in general as a direct result of using an IWB.

*Higgins (2005) and Underwood (2006)

And how did we envision ways to use this amazing new technology?

We drove it to work.

Old Thingsin Old Ways

Old Thingsin New Ways

New Thingsin New Ways

Old Thingsin Old Ways

• Notes are still handwritten on the board as the lesson is taught.

• Lesson content consists primarily of Word or PDF documents.

• Limited use is made of the IWB’s toolset. • Lessons are not usually prepared in advance. • Lessons do not take advantage of interactive features. • Lessons are not saved at the end of class. • The teacher works in isolation, not sharing resources with

others.

Old Thingsin New Ways

• Modification of existing paper-based worksheets and activities to work on the IWB.

• Greater use of lessons prepared in advance. • Greater use of dragable layered objects that can be moved

around the screen, revealing existing words and objects. • Greater reliance on resources found in the gallery or web. • Effective use of software that works well on an IWB. • All lessons saved for future use and reused. • Lessons shared with other teachers to reduce workloads. • Noticeably increased levels of student engagement and

interest.

New Thingsin New Ways

• The use of short snippets of video or animation.• The inclusion of high-resolution photo images.• Tapping into libraries of interactive learning objects and

embedding these in lessons so students are able to easily explore the ‘what if ’ possibilities.

• Greater use of software that enables students to manipulate ideas seeing what happens to the final outcome if a variable is changed here or there.

• The ability to perform impractical or dangerous experiments via simulation.

• The ability to engage with virtual worlds and simulated environments.

New Thingsin New Ways

• The use of real-time video communication software to facilitate class-to-class collaboration

• Skyping in guests and experts so that students can ask questions and interact with others outside their classroom.

• The use of classroom interactive learner response systems to gauge student understanding in real time.

• Increased levels of interactivity and student involvement often raising questions that were unexpected but with answers that offer greater insight into and deeper understanding of a topic.

Do you use your IWB like this...?

...or like this?

In summary...

"Evidence suggests that the presentational advantages of IWB use are considerable and that the consequent motivational gain is to be welcomed.

However, it is also clear that neither of these add to teaching effectiveness unless they are supported by teachers who understand the nature of interactivity as a teaching and learning process and who integrate the technology to ensure lessons that are both cohesive and conceptually stimulating".

Miller, Glover and Averis, 2005

To summarise the summary...

It’s not about what happens on the board.

It’s about what happens because of what happens on the board.

Chris Betcher, 2009

www.iwbrevolution.com

Chris Betcherchris@betcher.orgwww.chrisbetcher.com

Free eBook

10 IWB Features Every Teacher Should Know About

www.chrisbetcher.com/ebook