Leading Learning Conference :: Forum

• How do you share the technology in the school? Since the complete SmartBoard setup is quite expensive – do you share it among departments; rotate students into a room with the technology; move the board around the school; have several boards in the school so that sharing is not much of an issue.
• What type of software pieces do use with the SmartBoard?
• Is the SmartBoard a teacher tool in your building? Or have been students been encouraged to use this as they develop their presentations and show their comprehension of various concepts?

More of a statement than an answer to your questions.  I was re-reading some discussions around implementation strategies between Tim Hawes and Konrad Glogowski here - http://www.commun-it.org/community/whiteboards/forum/221  So that has got my interest reinvigorated around instructional strategies on trying not to use the Smartboard as a blackboard, but keep it interactive.  I hope to pick up a few more strategies at your session.

• How do you share the technology in the school? Since the complete SmartBoard setup is quite expensive – do you share it among departments; rotate students into a room with the technology; move the board around the school; have several boards in the school so that sharing is not much of an issue.

• Is the SmartBoard a teacher tool in your building? Or have been students been encouraged to use this as they develop their presentations and show their comprehension of various concepts?

It began that way, but I quickly realized that it wasn't very effective that way - I was standing in front of student, presenting, but interacting with the Board so I kept turning my backs to them. I quickly moved to ban myself, as much as possible, from using it. If I has something to show, I would usually have a student "drive". I'd sit with the rest of the class and provide instruction from there. The students would use the board to present after each module in my course. We had a very good discussion one day about why I don't use the board, and I was please to see groups gradually start to use a "driver" model when presenting in future models, so that the main speaker wasn't also trying to run the board.

Looking forward to your presentation.

./tim 

SMART Boards or interactive whiteboards evoke different responses among educators. Most classroom teachers that I've encountered are quite excited about them but curriculum consultants (the non-ICT type) are very wary about their use.

They see SMART Boards as a tool that will cause teachers to work in a teacher-centred environment rather than a student one. They also claim that most of the SMART Board activities that they have seen are no more than glorified worksheets.

They point out that research on the value of SMART Boards in education is quite mixed if you pay attention to most of the UK studies.

 Does anyone have any ideas about how we can reconcile these differences?

 Ron

P.S. Harry, I hope you have been enjoying yourself at the conference. I've been stuck in the office for the last few days.

I had an interesting discussion with Alison about helping teachers make the "leap" to using a smartboard to its full potential. I like one idea that came up which was to setup teachers with these tools in stages:

-dedicated computer in the classroom (Year 1)
-dedicated projector in the classroom  (Year 2)
-smartboard (Year 3)

Doesn't go directly to your question but I do see this as a balanced approach to tread carefully and not over-invest in a flashy technology that may not have a huge impact on learning.

 (my apologies, Alison if I have mis-quoted anything :-)

Hi Ron,

That being said - and keeping the other discussion in mind - I think it really comes down to how the teacher is using the technology.  If it enhances traditional teaching by adding media, images and interactive content then so be it.  If a teacher can move beyond the sage on the stage that is even better.  Instead of criticizing the tools those consultants might try to figure out how they might better utilize them in a student centered classroom.

I'm complaining now - but "they" should stop blaming the tools and start looking at the teaching.

I'd like to add my two cents to the discussion about SMARTboards / iWbs. 

• How do you share the technology in the school? Since the complete SmartBoard setup is quite expensive – do you share it among departments; rotate students into a room with the technology; move the board around the school; have several boards in the school so that sharing is not much of an issue.
• I truly feel that the greatest student learning gain comes from having a SMARTBoard in a classroom.  If it is in the 'instructional & learning' path of the student and teachers it gets used significantly more then if it is on a cart.  When SMARTBoards go on carts, they become 'special event' items instead of being used within the context of a classroom with appropriate student centered learning approaches.  It becomes a gizmo and gadget instead of a tool.  What is better to have a SMARTBoard portable avialable to many but being used as a gadget or to have a SMARTBoard in one classroom used as a tool by the students and teacher in daily lessons?
• Is the SmartBoard a teacher tool in your building? Or have been students been encouraged to use this as they develop their presentations and show their comprehension of various concepts?
• A key question, but it also references back to the previous responce.  Who gets the initial SMARTBoard determines how it is used.  Does it go to a teacher who is applying appropriate learning strategies that engage students and all their learning styles but maynot be a techno-guru?  Or does the first SMARTBoard go to the techno-guru who may use appropriate instructional approaches?  When placed in a classroom with the correct teacher, it automatically becomes a student tool in addition to a teaching tool.  As Quentin shared 'stop blaming the tools and start looking at the teaching." A powerful tool such as a SMARTBoard in the hand of an expert teacher is truly an amazing thing to see.
• Another key item is that saving files in a SMARTBoard format allows for an authentic sharing opportunity.  So often to share we fire up photocopiers (especially the expert teachers who many not be comfortable with all the latest technology but have amazing strategies) and then usually interact with people in a close geographic region (i.e. the classroom across the hall).  I've been working on a podcast that allows teachers to share SMARTBoard lessons then discuss them in an online radio interview format at pdtogo.com/smart.  The power of the community has been the dozens of lessons teachers have shared and discussed.

The use of SMART Boards is currently in a "horseless carriage" mode where most of the applications are based on what we did with older technologies in the same way that word processors were used as electronic typwriters initially.

In our Board, we're proceeding cautiously with this new technology.

The Cart before the horse...

I believe that in order to learn how to use this technology to its fullest potential, you need to learn how to present with technology in the first place.  By implementing the smart board with having no prior experience in using technology in teaching would be a disservice to the technology.  For example (this is similar to Tim's posting), I recommend to schools to, instead of buying one smart board, start out by buying a number of media projectors, get the teachers used to working with the technology that they now have, allow them to experience what teaching with technology can be like.  Then, you can enter a smart board into the equation, but not before.  By going this route, schools will get better "bang for their buck" in the short term (about 4 or 5 projectors for the price of a smart board complete install) resulting in more teachers, and hence more students utilizing technology for learning in their school.  And also better in the long term, for when these teachers start realizing they would like to use the screen in a more interactive way, then the school can invest in the smart board technology.  In the long term, you would have more teachers involved with teaching with technology and more teachers willing to utilize the smart board, and more importantly, with a pedagogical focus.

I believe that when projectors get more prevalent in classes (not just one or two classes in the school), that is when it will be effective to implement smart boart type technologie.

Where's the PD?  

The professional development piece is what's missing in this conversation.  Ultimately, regardless of the route that is taken in incorporating technology, the teacher will require some professional development on both using the SMART Board and its curricular-based utilization.  This PD should be ongoing and job-embedded with follow-up to ensure that the teacher is actually using the board.  How do you feel about removing the blackboard from any classroom with a permanent, mounted SMART Board as a way to encourage both its use and to create a normalizing effect?