Interactive White Boards

Promoting interaction and collaboration

A very expensive classroom tool, which replaces the traditional whiteboard and offers many more features.  It can be used in the same way as a whiteboard, with different coloured pens and an eraser which works just like a board rubber.  However, if the IWB is used in this way, it is not being put to good effect.  The board is touch-sensitive and is designed to enable users to interact directly with the different elements that can be incorporated: text, graphics, sound, animation and video.

A promotional video from Smart (other IWBs are available!) shows how IWBs can be used in a classroom, and clearly explains the affordances of this tool:

collaboration    active participation     engagement

For me, the most important factor is that the IWB can meet the needs all preferred learning styles, especially visual and kinaesthetic.   The stimulating, visual aspect can be used not only to present information, but allows learners to manipulate and work with images in ways that require higher order thinking skills. The tool fosters student participation and engagement and this leads to enhanced learning, as students who are engaged are more motivated to learn and therefore will be more successful in their efforts.    In the language classroom, learners can collaborate on the IWB to solve problems, sort, label and match vocabulary (many of these can be produced through Triptico) and their work can be saved, printed or shared electronically.  

"People do dumb things with smartboards" (Heidi Hayes-Jacobs)

The efficacy of IWBs has been questioned, with claims that they can promote  teacher-centred learning.  This is clearly in situations where this complicated piece of kit is being used solely to present information and ideas and not to promote interaction.  Teacher training is vital to ensure that money invested in an expensive tool is not being wasted, and this in turn makes the equipment even more expensive.  A teacher needs to invest a considerable amount of time and dedication to produce appropriate materials and activities that will lead to active participation and interaction, however the effective language teacher has always had to do just that.  The cards and labels we cut out and laminate, the pictures we collect - all of these can now be stored electronically and put to use on the IWB.  However, within a large classroom, where there over 20 students, not all learners can engage with the IWB at the same time.  This means that some students will be sitting passively watching their peers interacting with the materials.  With low-tech materials, such as paper and post-it notes, all learners can be active and engaged at the same time, working collaboratively in pairs or groups.  In this respect I see the IWB as a tool which enables the teacher to apply effective teaching methods in a different, more up-to-date way.  The effective teacher does not need an IWB to produce an interactive lesson and promote student engagement, but it is a tool (albeit a very expensive one) which can enable this.