can someone explain to me why interactive white boards are so essential?

[vvvodka]

because i truly think they are a waste of resources.

I've only taught for 5 years but have used chalk and black board, white board with pens and now interactive whiteboard.

Interactive whiteboard is best. SImply because all the things you can do with chalk and board can still be done on it and then more.

May I just put one in from the samll population of disabled teachers and say that sometimes its about helping the teacher get material across as well as allowing for the interactivity bits.

Personally I find them tricky, they were pushed on to us {new building and no other whiteboards at all in room)and we've had little training and pactise. How ever it is AMAZING. I teach music in FE and have always found it very hard to combine playing class music, showing them scores [you cannot point out a chord when you and the class have handouts or small computer screens], show vidoes of performances (had to wheel the vcr in....). Can now show a piece of music and analyse it with different colours and then save these annotations till next lessons. Also, as the name suggests they are more interactive. Text can be pushed round rather than studetns having to write o the board etc.

ALso, and the most simple thing I've loved about the IWB is that you can write loads of stuff up, get the kids to put loads of stuff on then, when a new class comes in, just save it rather than wiping it or turning it round.

ANd I HATED that chalk all over your front thing. ANd the dust. and the noise of it.

Just to clarify above: I wouldn;t be deemed able to teach if I had to use whiteboard or chalk.

Slight hijack here, but can any tekkie whiteboard fanatic tell me what to do about my board, which needs re-aligning every 5 minutes? It's becoming impossible to use with the pens, or by touching the icons, as I keep missing. I then take a minute or so out of my "flow" to press my dots, and then within a few minutes, it all jumps sideways again.

TIA.

Thank you vvvodka for a very interesting question. It's one I have been wondering about since we went to look round our local primary with DS1 the other day.

I can see that they are great tools in the right environment and application, but I my impression of seeing some of the Nursery / Foundation stage children counting teletubbies on theirs was using technology for technology's sake and that actually the children would have been far better off counting and playing with plastic teletubbies and looking at the numbers / words in a light and airy room rather than sitting still on a floor in a darkened room.

I have one in my classroom, but to be honest 95% of what I do with it could be done equally with a projector and screen - I don't use the "interactive" bit often.

Mine needs realigning every five minutes too, or the batteries in the pen have gone, or the actual pen has gone....hence mostly using it as a projector.

I show video clips, show websites, but my favourite thing is to hitch it to a microscope and camera then the whole class can see the slide without having to take it in turns to peer down the lens.

Couldn't believe it when the bulb in the projector went and it was cheaper to buy a new projector than a new bulb!

Because....because
they're just the most fantastic things to use! You can :
*enlarge pictures
*shrink words and images
*spotlight (cool thing to do)
typewrite freehand
*make rainbow and star marks over things (!)
highlighthide and reveal
*take screenshots
*link to other files on your computer or to the internet for use in a lesson
*attach sound to shared writing
*insert pictures easily
*use them in staff and governors' meetings
....and lots and lots more.
And on top of that, you can save all the work you've done for another time!
I love mine!

I absolutely love my IWB and couldn't be without it. Admittedly, I probably do not use it to its full potential, but I do find it great for...
Showing videos,
Radio clips,
You tube clips and so on,
Making weekly multiple choice tests and other tests,
PowerPoint presentations,
Typing up student debates as they have them, so students can track the debate - and emailing them off to all students immediately.
Hiding and revealing information as it is needed,
Recording and keeping student brainstorms that I might use again 2/3 weeks later (I often get initial thoughts on a topic, and then refer back to them in the evaluation at the end of the topic)
Structuring arguments - the arguments are up, and students move the premises around to make an argument work.
Display images to use as a 'spark' for discussions / recall activities.

I guess probably a lot of this could be done with just a projector... so I guess that is a valid debate, but I wouldn't be without something of that ilk - it makes up the vast bulk of my teaching!

I use mine all day, every day.

In a typical lesson I'll be using some of these:

A Powerpoint running as they come in - images from WWI trenches with a recording of 'Dulce et decorum est' for a lesson on war poetry.

Or a piece of music with a 'countdown' clock & a 'tickertape' reading 'when the music stops, books should be out on desks, bags on floor & gobs shut, especially YOU, Liam' for a difficult class.

A seating plan (kids' names typed on to IWB photo of my blank plan done in Publisher, so if I want to move someone I can draaaag them across the screen ) - very handy for setting up group work.

Learning Objectives - on IWB flipchart for the lesson from when I prepared it, be that the night before or the year before, no-one's pratting about whilst I write them on a squeaky board with a dried up pen.

Most of our resources are created electronically, & stored on the network - so I can show them on the board & 'write' on the worksheet or whatever to show less able students how to get started. Because I've embedded them in the flipchart, I click, up pops the homework I'm handing out.

Videos. No more booking the TV & VCR & wheeling them down the corridor on a trolley, thereby de-tuning them going over the bumps...

Interactive quizzes - kids come out to the front & select answers, using pen thingy. OK, that one's a bit gimmicky, but it's engaging & can work really well.

A Venn diagram - we're comparing two poems, which themes/techniques go with one or both of them? More text dragging.

Annotating text - scan of the extract of 'Lord of the Flies' or whatever, for me to scribble on & them to copy on their own texts.

Exploring an image - if it's a GCSE task looking at presentational devices, we can all see that the writing looks like flames - why?

Using visualiser to display work - 'OK, we said that we were focusing on paragraphing today. Where could Jay have put a paragraph break in on this page?'

For GCSE, the spreadsheet of their coursework grades - 'Harry's given me his Romeo & Juliet essay this morning, so let's just input his marks - ooh look! 3 less marks he needs in the exam to get a C! Who's closest to their target this week? Sarah, it says here I still don't have yours...tomorrow, yes?'

RM Tutor if we're in an ICT room. I can control or block internet access, display any screen in the room to the whole class, IM specific students or everyone...

Flicking instantly back to anything used in that or a previous lesson - 'Right, so today we were looking at religious symbolism in the account of Fagin's death...here's the notes we made yesterday'

Room changes - no problem, I can access my lesson & all my resources on the network.

I love my IWB.

You are definitely selling it for Secondary education! But what about Primary? Are there any Primary, particularly early years who use them as much?

For those who dislike IWB, my guess it that it is probably due to them not knowing how to use them properly and know the extent of what they can do.

I would be totally lost without mine, and I know one particular week when it broke the children really missed it.

Mine was primary - and I didn't mention the INTERACTIVENESS of it makes it so much fun for the children to move things around.

Imagine a historical timeline - you display big pictures on your IWB. You get the children to sort pictures in groups... then you shrink all pics on the board to fit on a timeline, as you discuss their answers.

Imagine writing a story of Red Riding Hood. You go to the woods and listen to the sounds. You share the writing of the wood scene on the IWB, adding recorded sounds and pictures to go with it, to recreate the atmosphere in the woods....

Imagine you are learning about the Egyptians. You play BBC video clips of people building a pyramid, you show powerpoint presentations of finding the tomb of Tutankhamun, you take the children on a virtual tour of a pyramid.

You play interactive maths and phonics games.

In a dyslexic friendly school, all backgrounds can be set to beige rather than bright white, so contrast is reduced.

Finally, a really massive advantage is it enables you to share lesson resources very eaily with colleagues. I can send my partner a ppt or Smartboard resource for him to use without any faffing around making two sets of resources. The children can also share what they have discussed or learnt with the parallel class.

EVERY lesson I do involves the IWB in some way. It is the most versatile tool ever to enter a classroom.

SilleySalley - worrying if your teaching is cpmpromised because the Whileboard is out of action . There is a real risk here of teachers becoming reliant on a gadget and not being able to operate effectively without it, and teachers becoming de-skilled in lesson planning without them. Do we face a generation of teachers who will have a hissy fit and refuse to work unless a school provides them?

trickerg - I wholeheartedly agree with you. They are fantastic. I was graded an "outstanding" teacher without one and an "outstanding" teacher with one (I teach primary). But I would say I think my teaching is better when I use my IWB. I wonder if the people who are worried about them have ever seen a teacher use one in action?
The IWB does not teach a lesson - the teacher does. How can you be de-skilled when it is another tool for teaching? It can be used in exactly the same way as a regualr whiteboard but encourages the children to interact.
I definitely would not throw a hissy fit without one. They really do enhance the teaching if used in the right way.

Am puzzled by the numerous posts suggesting IWBs have to be used in a darkened room - the only time I have had to do this was in the very early days, when I had no idea the bulb was going .

Agree with most teachers here - a good/outstanding teacher will be one with/without any resource you care to mention, but the IWB is an extremely valuable and innovative teaching tool which I wouldn't want to be without.

I think they are good tools- the danger as always lies in making them the be all and end all. There are people who would judge a school entirely on its IT provision (as in the shiny newness of its IT suite) and fail to see that an IT suite is only as good as the work that gets done in there.

As an academic, I sometimes feel I would be happier if I never had to sit through another powerpoint presentation. I have certainly found that a good way to impress an audience at conferences is to dispense with technology and tell a story well. But having said that, I have a colleague who does superb powerpoint presentations: in her hands they really are a work of art.

Sadly, I see many people in higher education who seem to think that having the right technology is a dispensation from the need to be interesting in the first place. But then, they probably never were interesting in the first place...

Of course teachers can manage without them CatherineofMumbles and they are not reliant!

If I arrive at a school and I can't get onto it I am a bit disappointed but I can still cope.

I can manage in my kitchen without a food processor, I can manage with an old fashioned treadle sewing machine rather than my 'all singing all dancing' electric one, a hospital can manage without the latest scanner-it doesn't mean that we shouldn't have these things.

Trickerg has explained some of the uses that make lessons exciting. If I want a graph on the board I can laboriously draw lines but I much prefer to click on the maths page and drag down a page of graph paper. If I want to show 75% of something I can do it instantly-it is rather a waste of time for DCs to wait while I quickly scribble in some boxes.

It is merely a tool for teaching-but an excellent one.

I must say that they do sound fun and a very useful tool. I shall look forward to DS1 starting school and seeing how they are used as he progresses through the years.

I do still have reservations about how I saw the one used the other day as I do feel that Early Years education should be hands on. This isn't to say that there's no place for IWBs but I still feel that counting teletubbies on it is limiting! (And this did feel as though it was a regular event not one which was a one-off to introduce the children to how it all works).

We'll see anyway.

I think that IWBs are fantastic but PigeonPie makes a very good point, there is a danger the 'hands on' element of infant education will become diluted. I have seen colleagues who previously would have found some seashells and passed them around the class, just find a picture on the internet and show the class that on the IWB. Not the same at all. As with all resources there has to be fitness for purpose.

I haven't read the whole thread but I am a university lecturer and we have started to install them in some of our teaching rooms. I think like any technology the danger is that rubbish teachers can hide behind the gizmos (not unlike a rubbish film over relying on special effects rather than a good story line). It should be a supportive aid and compliment the teaching rather than being the focus of it. What I like about it is you can save notes and upload them to the VLE, you can also be more spontaneous and link into various case studies etc.

The downside is if the technology fails, hence not over-relying on it and coming armed with flipcharts in case of emergencies.

I think that in the right hands they are a fabulous tool in the classroom.

Are they better use of money than employing more teachers? I suspect that you could fir out a whole school with whiteboards for much less then the cost of 1 extra teacher - but does anyone know how much these things cost?

About 1k I think

but they can be 2k or so.

Agree with skidoodle

We have interactive whiteboards where I work in all the conference rooms (aerospace design and manufacturers). We are all scared of them and prefer to use flipchart paper to write on, or when feeling positive plug our laptops in to an overhead projector. Plus all the magic pen thingies have got lost/stolen.

And these are highly skilled engineers who design aeroplane wings. So not exactly technnophobes.

It is not hard at all, although I was very proud when my year 11s told me that I was a whizz on mine compared to many of their other teachers.

There are lots of training videos on teachers TV. If it is a promethean board there are traning sessions on there that do not take long. I just added one new skill every week and th refined them to a few that I use regularly.

I am loving my spotlight at the moment.