Let’s take trip back to a classroom in the past. Twenty-five years ago when I started teaching, we were using chalk and chalkboards in the classroom, mimeograph machines to make copies, and filmstrip, slide and overhead projectors as multimedia for students. Remember the chalk dust and the aroma of the mimeograph copies? That has all changed.

Now let’s return to the present. Today our students and teachers use new technology called “interactive whiteboards.”  It’s a new and emerging tool, a large, touch-sensitive display connected to a computer and projector. It acts as a large computer screen that students and teachers simply touch to operate. Using a finger or a pen as a mouse, teachers and students can access and control any computer application, file or media platform, including the Internet, CD-ROMs and DVDs. They can also write over applications in digital ink and then save their work. This technology engages students with different learning styles by providing a wide range of digital materials and common focus for the whole class. Brand names for these interactive whiteboards include Smartboards and Promethean Boards.

The teacher can manipulate text and objects and capture an image from the Internet and incorporate it into the lesson. Or do an interactive frog dissection. Or record an interactive lesson as a media file and post it on the Web for students to see and download. The teacher can write right on a digital video, or capture a portion of a video and incorporate it into a presentation. Students can create presentations using text, video, and slide shows and present them to the class.

Interactive whiteboards are powerful tools in the classroom. Researchers at Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom analyzed data from a 2003-04 project and found that students in grades three to six made additional gains of two-and-a-half to five months over the two-year period. Between 2002 and 2005, Southern Mississippi University equipped 40 classrooms with interactive whiteboards. They found grades improved an average of five points, while reporting more than 95 percent of the participants in the survey were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their experiences in those classrooms.

Interactive whiteboards also make life at school better for both teachers and students. They allow teachers to plan and organize comprehensive lessons more effectively. Teachers believe that student engagement and participation increases with the use of this technology.

In our district, teachers are taking their classes to libraries or rooms that have interactive whiteboards just to teach one lesson. We have several teachers writing grants to get this technology into their classrooms. Our PTCs have purchased a number of them for us. Teachers are sharing lessons with other teachers in their building and across the district. The demand has been so great that the technology department has created an online forum for staff to share lessons and ideas.

This is a powerful tool, and schools in our district are committing funds to purchase interactive whiteboards and training teachers to use them. Teaching methods will continue to change as more and more of these interactive boards become available to our staff and students.

Preston Johnson is the principal at East Elementary School, in the Fairfield School District. He can be reached at johnson_p@fairfieldcityschools.com
           

Published in the Fairfield Echo, Feb. 28, 2008