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POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS OF INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARDS As teachers or trainees you will be interested in ideas for using interactive whiteboards in class. This page suggests some applications for this technology and points you in the direction of websites that will suggest more ideas. Becta's publication entitled What the research says about interactive whiteboards lists several potential applications:
Most whiteboards are linked to a computer with an internet connection. This means that the teacher has access to a wealth of multimedia material that can be shown on the large screen rather than on a small screen which is totally inadequate for whole-class teaching. Much of that material is of the interactive variety involving Java or Flash movies. Teachers can now take advantage of all this. See the Resources section of this website to see what is out there in cyberspace. Video clips to help explain a variety of concept in numerous subjects and topics can be shown on the large screen. No more trooping off to the hall to watch the TV. Often there is a video player or DVD player (or both) attached to the interactive whiteboard. This is a great boon to teachers. However, these days computers will play CD-ROMs and DVDs with video stored on them and be played at the touch of a button or click of a mouse. The internet also gives you access to video clips which will run very well over a broadband connection. Demonstrating software to children can be quite a chore, especially where it has to be explained several times to a number of small groups. By demonstrating to the whole class the process is made far less painful and time-consuming. If you need to recap later then that too is made easier. This applies whether you are using a whiteboard in the computer suite or in your own classroom with perhaps one or two computers available. Children love to share their work with the rest of the class. In the past this has perhaps been done with the aid of ICT in the form of an overhead projector. Whiteboards make this so much easier if the work has been produced in a digital format. Any computer work could be retrieved and displayed quite easily from a floppy disk, CDR, USB flash drive or, ideally, the school network. Plenary sessions could really be brought to life! The software that comes with the whiteboard will have the ability to create digital flipcharts. These can be composed of one page or several rather like a slideshow. These can be added to, edited, annotated and saved. The floating toolbar of ACTIVstudio, for example, allows teachers to create high quality flipcharts for any subject they wish. The resources part of the program allows other content to be brought on to the flipchart page (e.g. clipart, photographs, backgrounds etc.) and content can also be imported from other programs or the Web. The interactive whiteboard is excellent for manipulating text when whole-class teaching. This is particularly useful in literacy lessons. A piece of text can be put on screen and can be edited and redrafted by the class. Perhaps the punctuation needs attention or the grammar needs improvement. Perhaps some interesting adjectives need adding to bring the text to life. Whatever aspect of writing is being focussed on the whiteboard can be an excellent teaching tool. Young children who need to practise letter formation and develop their handwriting skills can do so on a large scale by using the whiteboard. This is one instance where a computer really can help with handwriting development. Notes written onto the whiteboard can be saved for future use. These notes can be added to flipcharts and resaved. If important points come up during the delivery of a lesson these can be jotted down so that next time the flipchart is used they will be included automatically. If revision is necessary this is quickly and easily retrieved from the school network or hard disk. At the click of a mouse button work can be reloaded from earlier lessons, perhaps from previous terms or years. Alternatively, revision can be accessed on the internet, for example, at the BBC Revision Guide.
IDEAS FOR USING WHITEBOARDS IN THE CLASSROOM
MORE IDEAS The scope for using interactive whiteboards in class is only limited by your imagination. However, if you want more ideas download How to use an interactive whiteboard, view a Becta article called Interactive whiteboards and enhancing teacher efficiency and visit Leadership: Teachers use of interactive whiteboards (an area of the National Whiteboard Network). Many ideas will come to you from the resources available. Some websites will have original ideas. Look at the Resources and Web Links sections for inspiration. If you want to see teachers using interactive whiteboards in a variety of subjects, with various ages of primary school children (and you don't already have these materials on CD-ROM), then visit the Learning and Teaching using ICT website for numerous video clips. Using the 'Year 1 to 6 Examples search' brings up no less than 69 examples of interactive whiteboard usage. View some of these, related to your subject and/or age range, and you should find them very enlightening and, hopefully, inspiring. For further inspiration visit the Teachers' TV site in particular the page about Interactive Whiteboard Top Tips. Here you will find Simon Botten's advice for using whiteboards as well as a growing list of fifteen minute programmes showing teachers using interactive whiteboards in their lessons. There are downloadable associated resources available too.
Teachers' TV: Whiteboard Programmes Click on the links below to view some excellent programmes showing just what can be done with these devices in various subjects. Primary ICT: Whiteboard Top Tips Primary ICT: Creating a Whiteboard Lesson Primary ICT: Advanced Whiteboard Techniques Primary ICT - Whiteboard Science: Electricity and Planets Primary ICT - Whiteboard Science: Investigation Primary ICT: Whiteboard Literacy - Story Starts Primary ICT: Whiteboard Literacy - Using Story Starts Primary ICT: Whiteboard Literacy - Nine More Story Starts Primary ICT: Whiteboard Maths - Eight Lesson Starts Primary ICT: Whiteboard Numeracy - Decimals & Rotational Symmetry Primary ICT: Whiteboard Numeracy - Ratio & Proportion
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* The Facts * Information * Research * Applications * Resources * Web Links *
