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.