Interacting with IWB

A friend and I were chatting at a party about studies and his journey of becoming a teacher. One particular part which stood out was his time at an underprivileged school, which he had just began to teach at. The school was donated four interactive white boards a year prior to his arrival, as well as projectors and laptops which sat in the store room the entire time. When media training was offered on how to use this new technology, he was the only teacher willing to take the course. What is most surprising in this scenario is that the school would not been able to afford to purchase these white boards by themselves, yet only one teacher took the initiative to learn. A lot of technology centers around learning – how to use it, how to facilitate learning in students and about teachers learning how to connect to students who are so ‘digital’.

How would I use this new technology to encourage learning in my classroom? I think life sciences is one of the most versatile subjects to do this in. IWB facilitate group work and group discussion, and can be used quite effectively to save notes and answers students may have for reference later on. Teachers can drop and drag and also allow students to do it when labelling or matching words or columns. The IWB can also be combined with tablets, where students can interact with it from their desks. An interesting topic using these features could be cell physiology. Students would be able to match functions and organelles, label from a picture or compare differences between different cell types. Short quizzes could also be set up on the white board to test student knowledge, where answers are given using the audience response system (if available). There are many different models and features so it’s all about making the best of what is available.

It is obvious that these resources are not available at every school, but absence of technology does not mean that learning cannot take place. It is important to become creative as a teacher – the simplest everyday items can be used to teach a much more complicated topic in an interesting way. That being said, we should also not be afraid of using new technology or resources to enhance the teaching and learning experience.