Why Interactive White Boards are Used Ineffectively in Classrooms
Posted by David Wetzel
Interactive White Board
An interactive White Board (IWB) or SMART Board has the potential to deliver content better than traditional methods of teaching. Why? Because it provides multi-media functional interaction across audio, video, and computer media. It is also ideal for visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners.
These qualities of an IWB also promote the dynamic delivery of content (if used to its full potential) in an engaging manner, which allows students to interact with science or math content their self. Examples include:
- data manipulation
- responding to data
- even creating data
So with all these attributes –
“How are interactive white boards unsuccessfully used in science and math classrooms?” For the most part – not effectively!
Ineffective Uses of IWBs
The following are examples of how interactive white boards are not used effectively in many science and math classrooms.
- Teacher Centered Instruction – common for teachers whose primary method of delivery is through lecture. Also, this is often a result of inadequate professional development.
- Videos and Images – an IWB is used as a replacement for a pull down projector screen to show videos.
- Web Connectivity – failure to use the connectivity of an IWB with the Internet to its fullest potential or not linking to the web at all.
- Canned Lessons – using canned lessons and activities provided by IWB producers and other sources which have simply converted traditional rote memorization lessons into IWB lessons.
Effective Uses of IWBs
The primary purpose of interactive white boards is – Interactivity between teachers and students with content!
The following are the six most common manipulations used for securing interactivity:
- Drag and Drop – where an on-screen item is moved for purposes of classification, processing, comparing items, ordering terms, testing hypotheses etc. These actions often cause other actions or expect further action or comments from students.
- Hide and Reveal – hiding and then opening a response once a student has understood an idea. This allows the scaffolding of ideas so conceptual understanding takes place.
- Movement or Animation – used to demonstrate principles and illustrate concept explanations using digital videos or images.
- Color, Shading and Highlighting – used for emphasizing similarities and differences, enhancing explanations, and allowing reinforcement through greater emphasis.
- Matching Items – examples include equivalent fractions, a straight line with its graph, an equation with its solution, chemical properties, physical properties, life cycles, and many more.
- Immediate Feedback – for teacher or student as consequence of one of the other five manipulations or assessment using Clickers.
More Professional Development: Solution to the Problem
Most teachers lack adequate professional development on how to create and find quality interactive lessons, along with how to integrate the technology effectively into classroom instruction. This is the huge contributing factor as to why IWBs or SMART Boards are used ineffectively in many classrooms.
Simply installing interactive white boards and saying use them is not the answer. Adequate professional development must be included with the installation. This is the primary reason why so many teachers become frustrated with the technology and are using them ineffectively in classrooms.
A self-assessment of IWB skills can provide teachers, professional development trainers, and administrators with the targeted goals for improving the interactivity of interactive white boards in the classrooms.
