Interactive Whiteboards

I work as a teaching assistant in 7th and 8th grade.  Throughout the 4 years I have done this, I have seen classrooms that effectively use the interactive whiteboard as a tool, and others that do not.  Examples of ineffective use include only using it to display a powerpoint presentation and lecture.....boring.  Another example was just using it to play movies.  Although the sound quality was amazing and it was more of a movie theatre experience with the big screen, that is not the purpose of the interactive whiteboard either.  In "Teaching with Interactive Whiteboards", Robert J. Marzano shows just how effective they can be if used for their intended purposes.  He highlights a study done on classrooms where the whiteboards are used as compared to classrooms that didn't use them and found a significant increase in student acheivement levels in a majority of the interactive classrooms.  A 16 percentile increase in student acheivement is huge and shows just how effective this medium is at engaging students for learning.  This brings us back to the fact that having an interactive whiteboard in our classroom is not enough, but we need to know how to use it effectively. Utilizing interactive games that get the students involved in the learning process is key.  One math class that I assist in does this very well.  Not only does the teacher use interactive lessons to reinforce new concepts, but she uses gameshow type reviews to prepare for tests.  These are 7th and 8th graders, and they are jumping out of their seats and enthusiastically raising their hands to get a chance to use the whiteboard during these times.  Also important is to make sure that there is not too much information crammed into one whiteboard lesson and that the lesson doesn't move too fast.  The math teacher that I mentioned above makes sure to space out what is on each page of her lesson, and allows time for reflection and understanding before moving on  to the next part.  I also think that organization and a common theme or objective is also important to incorporate into the lesson.  If it is just a bunch of random games and information that is not cohesive and moving toward an intended objective, it will be less effective.

Am I a Digital Immigrant?

When I was in high school, we learned to type on typewriters with correction tape, we watched movies from an A/V cart that had a TV and VCR on it. Besides the telephone, the most current way to contact others was by paging them.  My video games consisted of an Atari that played PacMan and QBert and arcade games like Centepede and Galactica(?).  Technology was just starting to become a regular part of our personal lives, and just barely was being integrated into our educational lives. As technology has developed and evolved into something we use every day, we have had to adjust our normal way of doing things and learn how to do things in a whole different way.  We are digital immigrants who still have an attachment to the old ways of doing things, and who struggle to keep up with all of the new technology and its applications to our worlds.

My kids, who range in age from 18 to 2, access technology on a regular basis, multiple times per day. Whether it's my 2 year-old playing games on sprout.com, or my 18 year-old downloading new music to his IPod before the radio has even started playing it, technology is a major part of their lives.  They are digital natives, because technology has always been prominent in their lives on a regular basis, and has changed how they do things and how they think.

So how do we, as future educators, integrate this abundantly available technology into our classrooms, being mindful of how much a part of thinking it is for our students?  The key IS being mindful of where our students are coming from and how much more experience they have with this technology.  Why not put the key in their hands and give them the opportunity to show us how to use technology to teach a concept.  It is okay to admit that we need help in this area, and it would promote confidence and innovation in our students. We provide the available tools and the learning objectives and let them guide us to the best way to use technology to make the lesson come to life.

21st Century Skills: How do we keep up?

Kids today are always connected to technology in one way or another.  If they're not texting on their cell phones, they are listening to music on their MP3 players, playing video games, or chatting on Facebook.  Although it can be scary as an adult to see such a reliance on technology by the younger generation, it is a sign of the innevitable flow of progress and we need to figure out how to keep up.  Kids today are facing jobs in their future that don't even exist yet due to the rapid pace of development.  In order to avoid becoming obsolete in a job market that will be constantly evolving,  they need to develop the 21st Century skills to problem solve, express themselves creatively, and think innovatively. Using technology to learn helps them by engaging them and providing experiences that they will be able to use to express themselves in such a future. Parents and teachers should recognize that children today need technology to be a part of their learning and developmental experiences for a successful future and capitalize on its availability.  At the same time, I think that there is something to be said about responsible use.  We need to ask ourselves how much is too much?  Do we want our children to be too reliant on artificial experiences that are controlled through technology at the sacrafice of true experience with all of its flaws and limitations?  What strategies can we use to measure what is a good balance between technological and traditional methods of learning and development? Even though I don't have concrete answers to these questions, I do know that technology can't replace caring and emotional attachment.  Whatever balance we try to strike, the key is  to develop caring relationships with the next generation to remind them that technology is not the only way to be connected.