Friday, May 18, 2012

How can Interactive Boards Really be Interactive?


Armstrong (2005) discuss that some teachers perceive the interactive whiteboard (e.g. SMART Boards) as a presentation tool only.  How can we get teachers to embrace the interactivity of this tool and make more engaging experiences for their students?



Armstrong’s (2005) paper is based on a two-year research project on a digital approach in the context of teaching and learning. Since there is very minimal research on that important topic, the project sets up as a goal “to capture, analyze and communicate the complex interactions between students, teacher and technology that occur in the classroom” (455).  In his paper Armstrong also includes three cases, based on observations and conducted interviews with three teachers who have access and use IWB with a different degree.  It is well-known that IWBs are not necessarily used interactively and can actually reinforce teacher-centered styles of delivery (Levy, 2002; Kennewell, 2004; Knight et al., 2004). If this issue is not addressed, as Glover & Miller argue, there may be a tendency for IWBs to be utilized more as an “interest enhancer than as a new approach to learning” (2001, p. 269).

The theoretical frame of the research project, as Armstrong defines it, comes mostly from socio-cultural theories of learning (Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 1991). A significant characteristic of socio-cultural theory is the assumption that all human action is mediated by tools. (456)
Socio-cultural theory also focuses attention on the cultural aspects of human action. For instance, teacher and students work within a local classroom culture, which is affected by local, national, and global factors. (456)  In addition, educator and students “bring to the classroom a history of experiences”(456). All of that can affect the usage of the IWB in particular.
For example, a lot of teachers were expecting to make use of digital whiteboards as an addition of the non-digital whiteboard. Therefore, the IWB would potentially afford a real interaction in the classroom, only if the teacher perceives that it can be used in this way. This brings the issue of training the educators properly. There is another crucial issue; that is to use the appropriate software for the content being  taught. To do that, the teacher also needs training in this regard. On that point Armstrong argues that “the affordances of the IWB are inextricably linked to the software used [since, for instance,] a digital IWB is very different from a non-digital whiteboard there is no guarantee that this potential will be realized in the classroom”(457).

In the realization of the project, one video camera was used to capture the entire class and one camera was recording the contacts with IWB. The videos were presented in analysis sessions  in which participated both researchers and teacher practitioners.

Case 1:
Sarah Curran had every day access to IWB in her classroom and had obtained some kind of  proper preparation in the use of it. The sequence of lessons observed at Whitehall Primary was focused on science. The third lesson, for instance, was focused around the software Virtual fish tank. When the data was reviewed, it became known that the way in which Sarah and the pupils engaged with this “software in the lesson was at odds with Sarah’s intended lesson objectives.” (459)

What the students were doing was watching the software as ‘gaming’ software. First, they were presented with the fish tank activity.  “Researchers also  found that the resembling gaming software’s visual representation—— influenced in this case teacher’s use of language in presenting the task to the class.”

Consequently, the original lesson objectives had been undermined by the quality of the software and its understanding by the teacher and students. This experience, however, allowed Sarah to “examine the relationship between the software and the difficulties she had experienced in achieving her learning objectives” (461). Thus, she realized how important the choice of the software is in order to achieve the lesson objectives.

Case 2:
Simon Mills, a math teacher, was mostly self-taught and technology knowledgeable. In the course of the project, Simon became very interested in the work of Mercer (1995; 2000), mainly the idea that classroom chat could be seen as a “social mode of thinking” (462). According to Armstrong, for Mills “within this approach the IWB, and carefully selected software environments, had become a key tool in facilitating, scaffolding, supporting, and recording the outcomes of class conversations. These learning conversations were structured to develop mathematical ideas within the objectives of the National Numeracy Strategy using the IWB as a shared communication space.” (462)

By looking at his lessons in more detail Mills observed that “although lessons and activities were initiated and scaffolded through use of the software environments, the choice of software to match learning objectives and  outcomes enabled students and teacher to engage in multiple discourses around the subject matter.” (463) Thus, Mills’ case study shows the significance of teachers having long-term and constant engagement with new technologies. With his daily experience as a IWB-user this teacher was able to completely incorporate IWB into his classroom actions. (463)

Case 3:
Ian Thompson, an English teacher, an amateur user with no regular access to IWB, had a small chance to explore exact software packages for his topic.  For his lessons, “he chose to use the Smart Notebook, a feature of SMART Boards that allows the text to be moved around using the drag and drop facility” (464)  All through Thompson’s series of lessons, the teacher’s focus was on developing pupils’ understanding of Dual Narrative [telling a story in two different perspectives]. (465)   Thompson affirmed that this way of teaching was unlikely to come from his normal way of teaching.  He was a bit hesitant to ask students to come up to the board however with the IWB “it seemed like the natural thing to do and that helped to break down those barriers between pupils and normal teacher space” (465).

In my opinion, this article is an eye-opener, because it demonstrates through the research that “ because teachers are critical agents in mediating the software, training and ongoing support for them is required to appropriately use IWBs and to support their selection of appropriate software”(466).

Moreover, by participating in this research, teachers have really understood and improved their view on their altering teaching practices “of working with interactive whiteboard technology, which brings a much needed real-life perspective to understanding and unpacking the complexities of the classroom”(466).  My hope is that such type of research will lead to a properly designed training for different content teachers which as a result will enable them to reach the full potential of this digital tool in their classroom for the benefit of the interactively engaged learners.


For a beginner's guide on how to use a SMART board, please take a look here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwla8E6jz4g&feature=related

-Ekaterina

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Numero Uno


Hello bloggers,

       I would like to begin my first post by admitting that I have had a blog prior to this one. One of the things I have learned through blogging is that it is essential to update your blog with a new entry at least once a week, thus your blog will receive more views and hopefully followers if your content is liked.  When I had to create this blog I was a bit hesitant because my past activity in blogging was not  as much active as it should have been. I always tried to keep an interesting content but I was never able to update my blog every week, due to my busy school schedule. Hopefully it will be different with this new blog of mine.

       I also have learned that in order to acquire a decent amount of readers, you have to spend a lot of time networking and reading other blogs, commenting on them and copying your blog link under your comment, thus hopefully  generating traffic to your blog.  As a journalist, I am not so fond of receiving my information from bloggers but on the other hand there are trusted bloggers from media networks such as CNN, The New York Times, The News Record and The Enquirer, which I follow  and receive my news from. It is important to know that some bloggers try to act as reporters and may provide their readers with inaccurate, even false  information. This is when the readers should question whether the blogger is credible.

      Besides the credibility issue, I find blogging to be a creative outlet for writing and expressing yourself on current news or topics of your liking.   It is very empowering to be the person behind the blog because I get to chose what I would like to write about and hopefully create intellectual discussions  with other  bloggers regarding the topics I would be addressing.

     In order to take blogging to another level it would be a good idea to give it a try with my future students because it would serve as a great source of teaching and learning aids.  One of the advantages of the students’ blogging would be for them to improve their writing skills, since they will be more critical of what they are writing because they know it will be on the internet for everyone to see. Also, the students will be able to find bloggers who are interested in the same topic.  “According to social constructivism theory, knowledge is generated through social intercourse, and through this interaction, we gradually accumulate advances in our levels of knowing (Kanuka  & Anderson, 1998).   I believe that the students would like the interaction in the blogging world and would complete their homework assignments easily  if it were to post a new blog entry every other class.  I could also use  blogs by inviting other schools or  classes in the US or  foreign countries  to participate in the topic that is discussed.  For the quiet and shy students who do not like participating in class, blogging would be an outlet  where they can express their views free of the classroom restraints.

   It is  equaly  important that the security setting on the blog would be set to private, so only selected users  will  be have access to posting comments on the blogs. In order for the blogging assignment to work it must meet two essential goals: the teacher should monitor thoroughly the in-depth discussion and promote online opinion participation among the class through blogging.  "The educator should be in charge of navigating the blogging assignments and activities,  ensure that the in class discussion is connected to the online discussion, protect participants’ privacy and encourage participants to voice their views on the blog.”( Wang & Hsu 85)

   After each one of my students has  completed  his/her first blog entry, I  would  ask them the following questions: Do you like the blogging activities I am assigning, and if so please explain why or why not?
I will also ask them if they have any suggestions on how I can better this blogging adventure in order to make it more interactive for the  entire class?
Last but not least, I will ask them:  if  you as a student  could change one thing about blogging as a class activity what would it be?

 Finally, I would like to share an interesting  short CNN video clip I found  of how an English teacher who utilizes blogging in his  classroom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRyh4UeP-IY&feature=related

Thank you for reading.

Till next time,

Kate