Interactive Whiteboards

Interactive whiteboards are a recent helpful technological advance created for the classroom. The boards are similar to traditional whiteboards, but they also combine aspects of a projector and computers. There are different models and companies, but the main 3 that our reading covered were SMART, Promethean, and Mimio.

    There are a variety of uses of interactive whiteboards in the classroom. Some of these include: highlighting, coloring, and zooming, and use of multimedia content like pictures and videos. These practices can help keep the students' attention in ways traditional whiteboards or projectors can't.

    Some of the benefits research has shown include: active learning, classroom management, lesson organization, and flexibility in handling lesson materials. In general, this leads to increased interactivity, efficiency, enhanced interaction, and generally better instruction.

    Research has not revealed very consistent correlations between interactive whiteboards and student achievement. However, I think most notably, there have been positive correlations found between the use of student response systems and student achievement. These devices allow students to contribute and answer questions through other handheld devices like laptops, iPads, or clicker devices.

    Like most technology-related additions to the classroom, there are some challenges to overcome. Research has shown that some teachers are not utilizing the whiteboards in the ways they should. Even students with a lot of technology experience sometimes don't actually use the whiteboards in the way they're intended, but instead just use them as projectors. However, through effective and comprehensive training, a lot of these problems could be easily fixed. The training should be done initially, but should also be ongoing as more updates and developments become available.

    I think interactive whiteboards are great additions to the classroom. Almost all of teachers used them in high school, and I know it is becoming even more prominent in all classrooms nowadays. I do think there are some limitations when teachers don't know what they're doing. I think the boards have the potential to engage students if the students are allowed to use them, but in my experience, teachers rarely let the students use the board. With the proper training and instruction, I think interactive whiteboards are a great classroom tool.

Midterm

John H. Chung’s Technology in the Classroom

Historical Background

Thomas Edison said in 1913 that, “Books will soon be obsolete in the schools. . .  It is possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with the motion picture.” And although this hasn’t shown to be true quite yet, it is interesting that this thought has been around since such an early time. Some of the earlier uses of technology included radio, and then use of television and film in the 1950s. In recent years it is clear that computers have become the most prevalent, new source of technology within the classrooms. However, it is historically true that technological innovations become obsolete, so it is unclear what the future of technology in the classroom will look like. 

Motivation

Chung cites three sectors as the driving forces to adapt technology in the classroom: 1- nonprofit organization: Nonprofit and government organizations have proposed guidelines for using technology. Some examples of this include the ISTE standards. This helps keep classrooms on track and regulated with others.

2- commerce: Businesses profit from being informed and educated about various modes of technology. 3-education: Almost all educators agree that education should be used in the classroom. This is broken into 2 main ideas. The first is that technology should be used to improve the traditional lecture based teaching and learning. The other is that we should reform the traditional approach into a constructivist approach. These educators want to change learning and teaching by using technology in student centered learning, project-based learning, real life problem-based learning, collaborative learning, active learning, and alternative assessments. A more in depth look at this is found on the Wikipedia page for Integrating Technology. 

Classroom Technology Examples

Chung provides some examples of forms of technology found in the classroom. Some examples of these include:

• ·      Interactive Whiteboards: These are essentially a combination of classic whiteboards and projectors. They are often called SMART boards, because this is the most common commercial product. Helpful because the drawings on the board can be saved and posted later.
• ·      Wikis: These are collaborative webpages, similar to Wikipedia. These are similar to weblogs, but there are some differences.
• ·      Multimedia publishing: podcasting and screencasting are examples of this. Podcasting broadcasts audio through different outlets and can be similar to a radio show.

Concerns about Integrating Technology in Classroom

Technology’s use in the classroom has been debated, as there are some obvious concerns that should be addressed. Some of these include:

• ·     Unwilling teachers: There are a variety of reasons for teacher unwillingness in regards to technology, but the reluctance to change, time and energy, and evidence of success are some reasons that Chung cited.
•  Technology Dependency and Lack of Fundamental Skill: Some think that technology won’t help students grow into deep thinkers and will have a dependency on technology.
•      Copyright Issues: Although this is a place of concern, if teachers educate their students on copyright rules and violations, computer network defense, and awareness and supervision can help.
•      Training and Hiring Teachers: There can be problems with hiring teachers who are not educated in technology-based classrooms. This could be helped with comprehensive training programs.

Recommendations

Chung gave quite a few recommendations about the use of technology in the classroom, but I’m focusing on three:

• 1.     Be informed of technological changes in education and actively make necessary adjustments in your teaching practices. I think this is especially important for teachers. Because we are the ones providing instruction and direction for our students, we should make an effort to stay as informed as possible. It does our students a disservice if we are teaching them outdate and irrelevant technology practices.
  2.     Be patient and plan ample time when integrating technology into classroom. The lesson preparation with technology may take more time than you plan for. This class in particular has really highlighted the fact that we all learn at different speeds and in different ways. I may assume that the way I teach will work for all of my students, but some things take more time. In the future if I’m planning to introduce a new technological concept, I will make sure to set aside an extra day for practice, just to make sure that everyone is on the same page.
  3.     Educate the technology users on copyright laws and fair use guidelines. This is really important for students, not only in my classroom but also in general. If I am lenient or incompetent in teaching my students, they might go on to continue practices that don’t line up with copyright rules and violations. 

   All of this information was taken from John H. Chung's article "Integrating Technology into the Classroom"