Summary 1: Interactive Whiteboards for an Interactive Classroom

Interactive whiteboards are a information communication technology device which many Australian states have invested heavily in for use in school classrooms (White, 2009). It is not limited to Australia, with discussion on their classroom usage coming out of the United Kingdom and the United States of America. What are interactive whiteboards and how are they interactive in the classroom?

A report by the ACT Department of Education and Trainings (DET) (2005, p. 50) describes an interactive whiteboard as being a “whiteboard surface that displays digital files from a PC via a data projector”, stating that it can be used as an ordinary whiteboard with hand written content digitalised to and recorded by the attached personal computer. The report gives the interactive whiteboard the role of “facilitating the delivery of digital resources to the classroom, while providing for the maintenance of traditional board-centred classroom practice” (DET, 2005, p. 50).

The physical description given by the report is misleading, as until recently interactive whiteboards were categorised as either electromagnetic or resistive and often could not be written on with an standard whiteboard marker (“Interactive Whiteboard”, n.d.). Resistive interactive whiteboards use a pressure sensitive surface placed above a conductive backplate. When touched the surface comes into contact with the backplate and the location of the contact can be determined electronically. Electromagnetic interactive whiteboards contain a two dimensional grid of conductive wires underneath the surface of the board. To 'write' on the board, a special pen containing a coiled wire is brought close to the board, altering the current flowing through the grid of wires. This disturbance can then be detected and located electronically.

Both types of board have their advantages and disadvantages. With a resistive board any object which can cause a depression can be used as a pointing device or writing tool, however only one location can be determined at a time. Whereas electromagnetic boards can detect multiple signals at a time, however input is limited to the provided pens. The SMARTBoards from SMART Technologies (http://smarttech.com/) are an example of resistive interactive whiteboards while the interactive whiteboards from Numonics (http://www.interactivewhiteboards.com/www/) are electromagnetic boards.

New developments in interactive whiteboard technology include infrared lasers, infrared detectors, ultrasonic detectors (using ultrasonic emitting markers), or combinations of technologies (“Interactive Whiteboard”, n.d., mimio, n.d.). Some of these sensing technologies can be used to convert an existing whiteboard into an interactive whiteboard (mimio, n.d.). An interesting system uses the Wiimote, the controller for a Nintendo Wii console, as an infrared detector and tracker (Lee, n.d.). The Wiimote is directed towards the whiteboard and an infrared emitting pen is used as the marker. Using free hardware drivers the Wiimote can be connected to a PC via Bluetooth and several software packages can convert the output of the Wiimote to a location on the display (Bauer, 2009). This creates an simple interactive whiteboard if the components are available.

The interactive whiteboard is operational only when the digital projector and attached computer are running (Ryder, 2009). Within the computer's operating system the whiteboard acts as a display and the board marker can be used as an alternative to the computer mouse. The computer software provided with the interactive whiteboard is capable of displaying a range of content that can be moved about the board (Eaton, n.d.). Alternatively, the software can display a blank page which can be written on with the marker pen and recorded, with some systems providing handwriting recognition (Resources Materials and Technology Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (RMTCDHH), 2009; Ryder, 2009).

There are many suggested uses of interactive whiteboards in the classroom, with some of the suggestions from one source (RMTCDHH, 2009) as:

Use the built in maps to teach continents, oceans, countries, or states and capitals.
Brainstorming
Teaching students how to navigate the Internet
Teach editing skills using editing marks
Present presentations created by student or teacher
Save lessons to present to students who were absent

Of the suggestions given, only the last takes advantage of the unique features of an interactive whiteboard. Each of the other suggestions are ones which can be achieved by either a whiteboard or computer-digital projector combination on their own. In several articles and commentaries (Anderson, S.W., 2010; Eaton, n.d.), teachers state they initially use the interactive whiteboard the same way they taught with ordinary whiteboards and projectors. Ryder states that she first used an interactive whiteboard in her classroom as “an over-glorified whiteboard” (Ryder, 2009, para. 1). Eaton (n.d.) had similar experiences with getting students to move objects or to reveal the next display, feeling her students were not “actively learning and interacting, any more than they had done with the old style whiteboard” (Eaton, n.d., para. 4). One student interacting with the interactive whiteboard results in “an interactive kid but not an interactive classroom” (Anderson, S.W., 2010, para. 6).

Even with this style of one-on-one interaction, teachers were observing that students were interested and more motivated in the classroom (Eaton, n.d.). In the United Kingdom, the motivational increase provided by use of interactive whiteboards is one of reasons given for their widespread adoption. It is now suggested that the motivational boost only occurs while the technology is new and interesting for the students (Thornbury, 2009). Progressing from 'new' phase to one which results in an interactive classroom is imperative. Anderson (Anderson, S., 2010) suggests that teachers go through three phases when adopting the use of interactive whiteboards, being presentation style, limited interaction and classroom wide student-centred interaction. It is this third stage that is the most important, creating a classroom environment where students are engaged and interacting with each other, using the interactive whiteboard as a tool to investigate and express their ideas (Anderson, S.W., 2010; Thornbury, 2009).

Eaton (n.d.) reported she found that allowing her primary school students to work through prepared content on the interactive whiteboard as a group, rather than presenting it to them herself, has improved the collaboration between students and their understanding and retention of concepts and knowledge. Used in this manner, interactive whiteboards are facilitative tool for students social interaction, manipulation and creation of knowledge (Thornbury, 2009).

Interactive whiteboards provide a new way to display, create and interact with information in a classroom. However the technology can easily be used to continue the same pedagogical methods and will only be interactive if a classroom wide approach to using the technology is taken.


References

Anderson, S. (2010, January 8) Interactive Whiteboards-Sage On The Stage? [web log comment] Retrieved from: http://web20classroom.blogspot.com/2010/01/interactive-whiteboards-sage- on-stage.html

Anderson, S.W. (2010, January 6) Interactive Whiteboards-Sage On The Stage? [web log post] Retrieved from: http://web20classroom.blogspot.com/2010/01/interactive-whiteboards-sage- on-stage.html

Australian Capital Territory. Dept. of Education and Training. (2005) Emerging technologies [electronic resource] : a framework for thinking ACT Department of Education and Training : final report Dept. of Education and Training, Canberra. Retrieved from: http://www.det.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/74485/ACT_EmTech_Report_v1_2.pdf

Bauer, R. (2009, November 3) Affordable Wii Presentation [web log post] Retrieved from: http://flossed.org/node/92?q=node/92

Eaton (n.d.) The Changing Role of the Teacher in using the IWB. Retrieved from: http://www.durhamlea.org.uk/resources/index.html?_Action=viewrecord&_Id=1112

Interactive Whiteboard (n.d.) In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 11, 2010, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_whiteboard

Lee, J.C. (n.d.) Johnny Chung Lee > Projects > Wii. Retrieved from: http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/

mimio. (n.d.) mimio Interactive Xi Bar and Stylus Overview Retrieved from: http://www.mimio.com/global/au/products/mimio_interactive/index.asp

Resources Materials and Technology Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.(2009) Interactive Whiteboards. Retrieved from: http://www.fsdb.k12.fl.us/rmc/tutorials/whiteboards.html

Ryder, P. (2009) An interactive whiteboard ... What next? Retrieved from: http://www.eqa.edu.au/site/aninteractivewhiteboardwhatnext.html

Thornbury, S. (2009, June 7) On interactive whiteboards (again!) [web log post] Retrieved from: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/scott-thornbury/interactive-whiteboards-again

White, G. (2009) The Interactive Whiteboard Revolution, Professional Educator, 8(4), p 48